Change the way students are picked for IITs: Global awardee

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, April 29

Sonam Wangchuk, winner of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, said there was need to change the way students were picked up for top institutes like IITs. He was here to participate in the two-day event, Himalaya Startup Track (HST), organised by the IIT-Mandi Catalyst to motivate startup entrepreneurs.

The IIT Mandi Catalyst inaugurated its annual flagship event yesterday at Kamand. The major focus of this year’s event is to enabling the face-to-face contact between startups and investors and even those who are still idealising their startup plans with the right mentors.

Wangchuk gave the example of Ladakh where till 1990 only 5 per cent of students could clear the high school exams. Due to his efforts over the past 20 years, the proportion of students clearing the exam had increased to 75 per cent in 2016.

He gave several examples of solar-powered building innovations in Ladakh where these mud-buildings were able to maintain +15 degree temperature without heating when the outside temperature was -15 degree. He also spoke about the “ice-stupa” and how it could help alleviate the problem of water scarcity.

Wangchuk came in the spotlight in 2009 when his story inspired Aamir Khan’s character Phunsukh Wangdu or Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (Rancho) in the Rajkumar Hirani directed film ‘3 Idiots’.

Director of IIT-Mandi Timothy A Gonsalves also compared IIT Mandi to a startup and said how the institute had been converted to a world-class one with the IIT tag, where thousands of students were getting employed in companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Flipkart. He stressed that the research that was being done in IIT-Mandi was comparable to research anywhere in the world.

“HST 2018 has received Gold sponsorship from Google India and the Himachal Pradesh Centre for Entrepreneurship Development. However, the event provides an open opportunity for other sponsors to join hands and become a part of this initiative” he remarked.

He helped students clear exams in Ladakh

• Wangchuk gave the example of Ladakh where till 1990 only 5 per cent of students could clear the high school exams. Due to his efforts over the past 20 years, the proportion of students clearing the exam had increased to 75 per cent in 2016.
• He gave several examples of solar-powered building innovations in Ladakh where these mud-buildings were able to maintain +15 degree temperature without heating when the outside temperature was -15 degree. He also spoke about the “ice-stupa” and how it could help alleviate the problem of water scarcity.