Thursday August 27, 09 : Brand IIT is globally acclaimed today. But how good is the work and pay of those who built the brand - the faculty - compared to their counterparts abroad?

Professors at the Indian Institutes of Technology have been demanding a pay hike. In an unprecedented move, they went on a one-day token strike in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai last week.

A faculty member at IIT gets around Rs 50,000 a month at an average. In comparison, professors at Harvard or Massachusetts Institute of Technology take home Rs 5 to 6 lakh a month.

The IIT professors have demanded a scholastic allowance of Rs 15,000. They point out that abroad, each time a researcher publishes a paper, he is paid for it separately.

And this incentive, say the professors, will be seen in future research work in the country. Already, the attrition rate in various IIT departments is worrying.

Dr Sandeep Sen studied at IIT Kharagpur, went to Duke University in the US for his doctorate, but despite many lucrative offers, chose to come back to his alma-mater to teach two decades ago.

Now, as the faculty demands a pay hike, Sen says for him it was never about the money. What has upset him is people questioning the credibility of the faculty.

"They say there is no great research at IIT. I agree we could have done better, but at least acknowledge the good work. It is not about a few thousand rupees, it is about the recognition that comes, a kind of medal given for good work," says Dr Sen, who is heads electronic engineering at IIT Delhi.

Dr Sourav Bansal, Sen's student and with a Phd from Stanford, could have his pick of jobs abroad. But like his mentor, he too came back to contribute to excellence in teaching.

Dr Bansal, who is an assistant professor of electronics at IIT says: "when I came for the interview I was told money would be very less, but I remembered the environment and wanted to come back. Be a leader in our technical revolution. And when we see that professors have to ask for this, it's not fair."