TeaThat spark for this column is the news that the National Testing Agency, which conducts the prestigious JEE and NEET exams, is in talks with our ambassadors and high commissioners in 63 countries to increase the number of test centres. It is not only for the benefit of Indian students abroad but also for foreign students who want to study engineering and medicine in India.
These exams enable admission to premier institutes such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and other government-sponsored engineering and architecture institutions, as well as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and other government medical colleges.
London to Delhi
Interestingly, this conversation is taking place 100 years after the colonial government accepted the long-standing demand of Indian nationalists for simultaneous examination of the Indian Civil Service (ICS). The campaign was led by Surendranath Banerjee and resolved successive sessions of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 1890 onwards. Since it was extremely difficult for Indian students to go to London to take the exam, Jamsetji Nasrwanji Tata set up a fund to offer loan scholarships to Indians who went to study in the UK on the condition that they take the ICS exam. Before 1922, one-third of Indians who qualified for the ICS exam, which were held only in London in those days, took advantage of this fund.
In March 1922, the Law Center of the University of Allahabad in London became the site of the first ICS examination with the same set of question papers. KPS Menon, who moved into the diplomatic corps and became India’s first foreign secretary, topped it. Earlier, in 1918, CD Deshmukh, who became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1943 and later the Finance Minister of India from 1952 to 1956, had topped the exam in London.
Forest Service Exam was also conducted in India for the first time in the same year. Subsequently, it was decided that 40 percent of the selection for both the ICS and the Forest Service would be from among those taking the test in India. Incidentally, London remained the center of the IAS exam until its abolition was recommended by the Kothari Commission in 1976. This was also remembered by Vijaya Raje Scindia on her visit to the Academy in 1997 when she was the Department of Personnel and Training. (DoPT) Minister. She mentioned with a laugh how she interacted with her father to stay in London to take the exam. Well, apparently, fate had other (better) things in store for him!
Read also: Modi govt takes IAS promotion to next level – Additional, Joint Secretaries now come closer
Rapid growth of Indian colleges
For the record, in 1922, there were only eight engineering and so many medical colleges in India. first engineering college, thomson college of civil engineering was established in Roorkee In the year 1847 for the training of civil engineers in irrigation and civil infrastructure of the British Raj. College name changed University of Roorkee in 1947 and after Indian Institute of Technology in 2001.
In July 1854, the forerunners of Pune College of Engineering, Poona Engineering Classes and Mechanical School were opened to train intermediate officers in the Public Works Department. Calcutta Civil Engineering College was opened in November 1856 in the Writers’ Building and was affiliated with Calcutta University When it was established in 1857. A year later, the College of Engineering was established in the Madras Presidency.
in 1914, Calcutta University established its own science and technology campus which came to be known as Rajabazar Science College, MM Malviya took the initiative to set up the first ‘Indian’ engineering college: Banaras Engineering College Varanasi in 1919. The college has now been given the status of an IIT. Two years later, the governments of the then United Provinces and Punjab established the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute in Kanpur in 1921 for chemical science and the MacLagan Engineering College in Lahore for mechanical engineering.
With regard to medical education, the French are credited with establishing a medical college called the cole de Medicine de Pondicherry in 1823. After independence, it was renamed as Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER). The East India Company followed the French 12 years later by establishing medical colleges in Calcutta and Madras in 1835. Bombay Medical College, named after the then Governor Sir Robert Grant, began functioning in 1845 along with the Thompson Hospital. It is known today as Sarojini Naidu Medical College and Hospital. In Punjab, Lahore Medical School was established in 1868 under the patronage of University of Dublin Before being affiliated to Panjab University a decade later. The King Edward Medical School, Indore, was established in 1878, and the prestigious King George Medical College and Hospital in Lucknow was opened in 1911. The second medical college in Madras, the Stanley Medical School, was started in 1917.
Today, in the nectar of our independence, India has 542 medical colleges, 64 stand-alone post-graduate colleges and 300 dental colleges besides 273 Ayurvedic, 82 Homeopathic and 52 Unani colleges that offer undergraduate degrees. The number of engineering colleges is even greater – 2,500 and growing. This includes 23 IITs, 25 IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) and 31 NITs (National Institutes of Technology).
What a century
Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently he was the Director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweeted @ChopraSanjeev. Thoughts are personal.
This article is part ofstate of state‘ series that analyzes policy, civil services and governance in India.
(Edited by Likes)