The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting at UCLA earned a degree from the Indian Institutes of Technology, or IIT, a storied university system that has trained some of the finest engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs in India.

Mainak Sarkar earned an aerospace engineering degree in 2000 from the IIT at Kharagpur, in eastern India, the first of the five original campuses established soon after India gained independence in 1947.

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India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, envisioned a world-class educational system along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that would train “scientists and technologists of the highest caliber” who would propel the young nation “toward self-reliance in her technological needs.”


In a twist of history, Sarkar shares his last name with Sir Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, a British Raj-era industrialist who chaired the committee that recommended the establishment of the multi-campus system in 1945.

Over the years, IIT has become synonymous with educational excellence in India and in Silicon Valley, where many of its alumni have also made a mark. Among its graduates are Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, India’s central bank governor Raghuram Rajan and top executives at Citigroup, Cisco Systems and Bell Laboratories.

× UCLA students describe being on campus during the lockdown after Wednesday morning’s school shooting.

To gain admission, students have to sit through a two-part exam that has become among the most competitive in the world. In 2014, 1.36 million students took the entrance test for 9,784 available IIT seats – an acceptance rate of 0.7%. Harvard’s acceptance rate that year was nearly 7%.


IITs, which grant bachelor’s as well as graduate and postgraduate degrees, are autonomous bodies but receive substantial funding from the Indian government. There are now 19 IIT campuses, with four more slated to open this year.

1 / 42 A memorial left at “The Bruin” on the UCLA campus Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 42 UCLA students write and post notes on the bear on UCLA’s Bruin Walk on Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 42 UCLA student Mai Que Vo, left, comforts India McFarlane, who was crying as students wrote notes to be placed on the Bruin Walk bear Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting of an engineering professor on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 42 Flowers were left at the door of the Engineering IV Building on Thursday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 42 Smashed doors can be seen on the fourth floor of the UCLA engineering building where Wednesday’s murder-suicide took place. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 42 The word “clear” written on a wall near smashed doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 42 UCLA students walk past the Engineering Building Thursday morning where engineering professor William Klug was killed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 42 Charles Kawczynski, a doctoral mechanical engineering student, talks on June 2 about the shooting at UCLA as he stands in front of damaged doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where the slaying of a professor occurred. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 42 A UCLA police officer works June 2 on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where a professor and former doctoral student were killed in a murder-suicide. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 42 Police escort people at UCLA after a lockdown was lifted following a shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 42 Students return to campus Wednesday after a shooting at UCLA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 42 UCLA Gabriela Romero calls her mother telling her not to worry after a shooting on campus Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 42 Police respond to the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 42 Hundreds of UCLA students leave the UCLA campus after the lockdown was called off after two people were shot on campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 42 UCLA students evacuate the campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 42 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 42 A police officer searches the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 42 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 42 SWAT officers Eddie Roca, right, and P.J. Rudolf rest after responding to a shooting at UCLA. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 42 People gather in a campus building after a shooting at UCLA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 42 UCLA students evacuate the campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 42 Police officers check and evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 42 Police officers check evacuees after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 42 Police officers evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 42 UCLA students are evacuated from the Mathmatics building after a shooting on campus. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 42 Police officers check students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 42 People evacuate the UCLA campus. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 42 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 42 People are frisked at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 42 Police officers questions a students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 42 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 42 Police rush to the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 42 The scene at UCLA on Wednesday morning, where a shooting was reported. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 42 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 42 People evacuate the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 42 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 42 A ladder hangs out a window after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 42 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 42 Police officers deploy at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 42 Students barricade the door of their classroom at UCLA after a shooting on campus. (@whydaphnewhy / Twitter) 41 / 42 Police vehicles at the scene of a shooting at UCLA Wednesday morning. (KTLA) 42 / 42 Police officers deploy at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (KTLA)

In recent years, the system’s reputation has taken a hit, with critics saying the added campuses have diluted the quality of education. Others blame the IITs for encouraging the best Indian minds to go abroad, although as India’s economy has improved over the last two decades, more graduates are staying in the country.

The intense pressure for success has resulted in a growing mental health crisis at top Indian educational institutions, including IIT. At the massive test-prep centers that train students for the IIT exam in the northern Indian city of Kota, 57 aspirants have reportedly committed suicide over the last five years.


Last year, two students at the campus in the southern city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras) committed suicide within a month, sparking an outcry over learning conditions at the IITs.

Arya Prakash, a master’s student at the Chennai campus, wrote in The Hindu newspaper of deep caste-based discrimination and a phenomenon in which students tried to improve their chances of receiving better grades by sabotaging others’ studies.

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“It comes as a shock to the ones outside this campus,” Prakash wrote, “but inside the campus it is a widely accepted fact that a majority of students are depressed.”


MORE ON THE UCLA SHOOTING

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For UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, sudden rage after years of intense academic studies

LAPD chief: Gunman in UCLA shooting went to campus to kill two professors but could only find one


shashank.bengali@latimes.com

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