According to Mr Narayan Murthy, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology and ex chairman of Infosys, students qualifying from IIT today are of poor quality incapable of independent analysis and creative thinking. He blames it on coaching classes that students go through to get through the IIT Joint Entrance Exam. This is a competitive examination where success is determined by percentile level rather than actual marks earned. In other words you qualify as long as you are better than your competitors no matter how good you are so if the competition is poor you get a place. Initially there were just 5 IITs which were recognised internationally as centers of excellence. A few years ago the Congress party suddenly added another 7 institutions under the IIT label without adequate infrastructure or faculty, their excuse being that you can never have too much of a good thing. Reservation for OBC category went up by 54% while staff to student ratio declined. At present there is a need for another 2500 teachers. It does not take a nuclear scientist to realise that if the quality of students is diluted and staff numbers are inadequate standards are bound to fall. Since half the seats are reserved for various groups of undeserving candidates good students from the " general list " have to fight hard to get a place. Coaching classes teach students how to succeed in the exam. It is not as if they have access to questions. Surely any teaching must be good so why the hysteria. It is probably based on the old socialist stupidity. Only middle classes can afford coaching classes so they are bad. Why not stop students going to Harvard? Imbeciles.