The Maharashtra Chief Minister shall soon write to the PM and the Union Education Ministry to officially rename IIT-Bombay as IIT-Mumbai. This follows criticism from the MNS over Union Minister Jitendra Singh's remarks suggesting the institute should retain its original name. The state government considers the renaming demand legitimate.What is to be gained by these foolish name changes involving waste of taxpayers' money which the BJP has honed into a fine art. This renaming spree borders on the theatre of the absurd. Why don't these addled brained mantris address the elephant in the room... the faculty crunch across all institutes of higher learning. There is a significant faculty shortage across IITs, with a parliamentary report from January 2025 showing that @ 29% of total sanctioned teaching posts remain vacant across various institutions including IITs, NITs, IIMs, and IISERs. The shortage is particularly acute at the professor level, with @ 56% of positions vacant. This gap affects faculty-student ratios, dilutes teaching quality, and slows down research. There could be a political angle too as most the IITs were envisioned by Nehru, a renamed IIT could be presented as a cog in Viksit Bharat.
