FUNDING FOR IITs TO
BE LINKED TO RESEARCH – DR. JOSHI
The funding being
given by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs) will in the future be provided
only if 50% of the money asked for is to be spent on research
projects. Innovation is the key to the development of the country.
And, innovation is only possible if we ourselves invent technologies,
improving upon something borrowed from abroad will not serve the
same end. This was stated by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister
for Human Resource Development while laying the foundation stone
for the headquarters of the All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE), here today.
Dr. Joshi emphasised
that AICTE must encourage development of low energy and low capital
technology for the benefit of ordinary people in the country.
Of course high energy and high capital technology is also needed
in the areas of space etc. Fundamentally, any technology must
aim at the good of the common man and must necessarily have a
human face, besides being preferably green and clean. Profit must
not be the only motive for developing technology.
The Minister stated
that the AICTE must embark upon creating a new model so that every
Indian and every needy person in the world too is the beneficiary
of technology. It also must be seen to that more people benefit
from technical institutes. In today’s competitive world we have
to speed up our technical progress. Perusal of any statistics
shows how a country’s prosperity is inherently linked with the
level of technological development in the country. Now, here two
aspects must be kept in mind. Firstly, technically, our country
must keep up with the West but more important, secondly, the technology
developed in the country must be useful to the local context and
not aped blindly from the West, he added.
Speaking on the occasion,
Shri S.K. Tripathi, Secretary, Department of Secondary and Higher
Education pointed out that technical education had shown impressive
growth under the aegis of AICTE. There were at present 5108 technical
institutions with a sanctioned intake of 7,44,072 students in
the country. He said that the AICTE must now focus on emerging
areas such as bio-technology and nano-technology. While the AICTE
is now largely perceived as a regulatory body, it must attempt
to transform itself into a promotional agency contributing to
the establishment of excellence and quality in technical education
in the country.
The All India Council
for Technical Education ensures the planned quantitative growth
and the promotion of the qualitative improvement of the country’s
technical education system. The powers and functions of the Council
include: technical manpower assessment; coordinated development
of technical education in the country at all levels; allocation
and disbursement of grants to technical institutions; overall
improvement of educational processes and promotion of R&D
and innovation; formulation of schemes for promoting technical
education for women, handicapped and the weaker sections of the
society; promotion of an effective link between the technical
education system and other relevant systems; evolution of suitable
Performance Appraisal Systems for technical institutions; formulation
of schemes for the initial and in-service training of Teachers;
laying down of Norms and Standards; fixing of norms and guidelines
for tuition and other fees; grant of approval for starting new
technical institutions, and for introduction of new course of
programmes, in consultation with the agencies concerned; advice
to the central government in respect of grant of charter to professional
bodies; laying down of norms for granting autonomy to technical
institutions; steps to prevent commercialization of technical
education; guidelines for admission of students to technical institutions;
inspection of technical institutions, steps to ensure compliance
of the directions of the Council; advice to UGC for declaring
technical institutions as a Deemed University; and establishing
National Board of Accreditation.
