More than 1,500 science and engineering faculty members at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) held a one-day hunger strike on 24 September.
The All-India IIT Faculty Federation is seeking withdrawal of two government rules: one barring IITs from recruiting professors with fewer than four years of teaching experience and assistant professors with fewer than three, and one capping the proportion of professors who can be promoted to a senior grade at 40%.
Federation president Muthuveerappan Thenmozhi says the rules undermine the autonomy of IITs and hamper recruitment. The federation also wants entry-level faculty salaries higher than the proposed 30,000 renminbi (US$625) per month.
