America's most-watched television news programme, 60 Minutes, described it as "the most famous university that you have never heard about". And there's still more that Americans may not be aware of. A few thousand of its alumni are in esteemed positions—on the board of Fortune 500 companies or heading some of them, and teaching at Ivy League schools. Two of them are key aides to the two richest people in the world, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The search tool that millions around the world use every day—Google—has an indirect connection with it. Google's founders were graduate students of a professor who in turn was an alumnus. The 'most famous university' is a recognised brandname in technical, political and economic circles. And it won't be long before Main Street usa hears about it—the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Last week, Silicon Valley-based IIT alumni played hosts to a celebration—of 50 years of the founding of the IIT—in what was termed a "pan-IIT celebration". Praises flowed freely from the who's who list of invitees including Gates, ambassador Robert Blackwill, Prof John Hennesey of Stanford University and Chancellor Berdahl of the University of California. John Chambers of Cisco Systems gave IIT a world-class institute label, while Jeff Bezos of Amazon called it a "world treasure". Ambassador Blackwill said that India, a rising great power, owes it to the contributions of IITians.
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