The Hon’ble President of India in one of his press release stated “the structure of a good educational system rests on four pillars—values, teachers, students and infrastructure”possibly with a vision that India has potential talents to make its stand internationally in education and research. The Government of India has decided to set-up the IISERs with the ambition of integrating UG, PG science education and research in India up to global standard as like IITs. IISER Bhopal is the 4th in the series of IISERs by MHRD with initial grant of Rs. 500 cr for international standard infrastructure. The expectation was to attract the best talent within the country as well as successful Indian scientists from abroad and to provide high-quality scientific manpower to government organizations like DAE, CSIR, ISRO, DRDO, and teaching professional to other universities of the society at large. Information was obtained from all five IISERs, i.e., IISER Kolkata, IISER Pune, IISER Mohali, IISER Bhopal and IISER Thiruvanathapuram under RTI Act 2005 on details of faculties including total resigned, research projects, publications and MS/PhD graduated since establishment of respective IISERs, i.e., 2006, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2008 respectively till July 2015.This was aimed to get an overview on science education and research standards among the five. IISER Bhopal seems to have least faculty, least publication, no project records, highest resignation, not a single professor in last 8 years.

Departments-There was equal no. of departments, i.e., 6, at IISERM, IISERP and IISERB, while IISERTVM and IISERK had 4 and 5 departments, respectively by mid-2015.(dept)

Faculties- Highest number of faculties works at IISERP and the least at IISERTVM, but averaging out with respect to number of departments IISERB the least (Tot Fac). Similar is the scenario for number of professors and honorary professors, both being nil at IISER Bhopal (Prof&Hon Prof), while adjunct and visiting faculties being the highest (visiting fac). Least number of regular faculties at IISERB and the most at IISERP (regular fac). The least faculties resigned from IISERM (1), while that from IISERB is the most (resignation)(24 or 38?, obtained through two separate RTI).

BS-MS pass outs- IISERK, the oldest, has the maximum (330) while IISERP, IISERM, IISERTVM and IISERB has 316, 224, 114 and 146, respectively. IISERB has the least BS-MS pass outs when averaged with respect to no. of departments. (BS-MS)

PhD pass outs- IISERK has the maximum (62) followed by IISERP (33), IISERB (20), IISERM (15) and IISERTVM (7). Although IISERB awarded little more doctorates compared to IISERM and IISERTVM (6 and 4 departments, respectively, however quality of doctoral research is likely poor in IISERB as can be guessed from publication records. (PhD)

Project- IISERP had the maximum no. of projects (167) followed by IISERK (157), IISERM (89) and IISERTVM (23). Unfortunately IISERB do not have any information about number of projects as per a RTI reply. The institute directed to obtain information from IISERB home page where no project records available in R&D section as of April 2016. Possibly IISERB is least interested in any research activities. (project)

Publications- IISERK shows the maximum publication record (975) followed by IISERP(862), IISERM (472), IISERTVM (309) and IISERB (232) the least since establishment of respective institutes and joining of each faculty. The publication record list of first four IISERs was obtained in print, while that for IISERB obtained from institute web as of April 2016 as directed through a RTI reply by IISERB.

Salient points with IISERB compared to other 4 IISERs-

• Neither a single professor nor honorary professor             

• Highest visiting faculty             

• Least total as well as regular faculty             

• Highest resignation             

• Least publication record             

• Least Masters passout with respect to total department             

• No project record with institute