E.C. Subbarao was born in Narsapur, Andhra Pradesh, in 1928. He was educated in a school located in a remote village without electricity. An excellent student, he went on to do his BSc Tech degree from Banaras Hindu University, a Master's degree from the University of Washington and a PhD from Pennsylvania State University. He worked as a research engineer in Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1956 to 1963, establishing his research credentials. When Subbarao decided to return to India for the second phase of his career, he joined the newly started Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1963 in his first teaching position. He was a professor at IITK till 1981. He was the first department head of metallurgical engineering, the first dean of faculties, and established the Interdisciplinary Centre for Materials Science. A key player in the transformation of IIT Kanpur into a world-class institution, Subbarao contributed to the intellectual, administrative and international aspects of this process. Subbarao's research and academic achievements in materials science, as embodied in his several books and papers in high-impact journals, are recognized by fellowships of the three academies of science and engineering in India. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, IIT Kanpur conferred its first Honorary Fellowship on Subbarao in 2006. In 1981, Subbarao became the founder-director of Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune, a division of Tata Consultancy Services, set up to apply science and technology for the benefit of Indian industry and people. The 'Spirit of IITK' helped him in building this first institution of its kind.
An Eye for Excellence is an inspiring chronicle of how a newly established institution - the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur - achieved pre-eminence in a short period of time, and how today, as it completes fifty years, it is poised for a quantum leap in its journey of excellence. Blessed with the support of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and lucky to have a visionary founder-director, Dr P. K. Kelkar, IIT Kanpur was able to draw on the rich experience of nine famous US universities, backed by US government funds. Breaking loose from established educational patterns both in India and abroad, IIT Kanpur went in for an innovative broad-based curriculum with sciences and humanities and social sciences forming an essential component. It also introduced in India the concepts of the semester system, a continuous evaluation of students and letter grades. An open, participatory ambience transformed the students, representing the cream of India, into firebrands with a Midas touch. They went on to make a name for themselves, their alma mater and their country across a wide spectrum, even beyond their fields of specialization. From an important discovery about prime numbers(by Maninder Agarwal), to rising to be the head of the Reserve Bank of India (Duvvuri Subbarao), to selfless public service (Satyendra Dubey), to becoming icons of environment (Anil Agarwal) and entrepreneurship(N.R. Narayana Murthy in India and Umang Gupta in Silicon Valley), the students of IIT Kanpur have shown extraordinary versatility. What gave the faculty, the students and staff a deep sense of 'ownership' of the institute was the fact that they pioneered a large number of exceptional activities, whether in computers or materials science education or a student-operated television studio. How the institute overcame the hurdles in its path is a heart-warming saga in itself. Today, as IIT Kanpur continues on its dynamic path, it is exhilarating to know that such 'Nalandas' can indeed be built and sustained in modern India.
