Central Government to set up eight more IITs

{image-Indian Institutes of Technolog_17072008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Jul 17: Eight new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) will be set up in the country at a total cost of Rs 6,080 crore. They will be located in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and at Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday July 17, cleared the proposal for the setting up of the new IITs and gave approval for forming of Societies for creating legal entities for them. Finance Minister P Chidambaram told mediapersons that the government was making efforts to begin the academic session in the new IITs this year.

The Cabinet also sanctioned one post each of Director and Registrar for all the eight IITs as well as 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years. He said each Institute would get Rs 6,080 crore for a six-year period.

The Cabinet also gave, in principle, approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an IIT and integrating it with the IIT system in the country.

Mr Chidambaram said the setting up of the new IITs would benefit in increasing the output of high quality Engineering and Science Graduates, Post Graduates and PhDs, eache for engineering and science subjects at college and unviersity level and R and D and Intellectual Property generation in engineering and science.

He also said the new IITs would be able to provide high quality education to more bright students as now hardly two per cent of about 300,000 students, who appear in Joint Entrance Test of IITs could get admissions in IITs.

The Minister added the decision would also address state and region specific technology-related problems of states and UTs situated in the IITs' "Zones."

UNI