The country will soon have 17 National Institutes
of Technology to impart quality engineering education on the lines
of the IITs. Twelve NITs* have already been established and five
are in the pipeline.
For creating NITs, the existing regional engineering
colleges are being upgraded and given Deemed-to-be-University
status. Unlike RECs which have dual control – that of the Centre
and the State concerned – and financial problems, the NITs will
have a professional management, adequate funding, and linkage
with IITs, IIMs and the industry. In the next step, linkages will
be established between these institutes of excellence and industry
with the university system, to make education and research relevant
to the current needs.
Giving this information to the Parliamentary
Consultative Committee today, the Human Resource Development Minister,
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, said that with professional management
and autonomy, NITs would be able to effectively adopt to the rapidly
changing scene of technical education.
The Minister emphasised that conscious decision
has been taken to keep the management of IITs, IIMs and NITs strictly
a political and professional, so as the high standards expected
of them are maintained.
The management of the NITs will be in the hands
of a Board of Governors at the institute level, and a Council
of NITs at the national level. Fifty percent of the seats in the
NITs would be reserved for the State concerned.
Dr Joshi informed that establishment of NITs
is much more cost effective than opening of new IITs. Whereas
the expenditure on establishing a new IIT comes to over Rs. 500
crore and it costs about Rs. 100 crore a year to run IITs, establishment
and running of NITs is possible in a fraction of this sum. Now
on, the NITs would cater to the requirement of top-quality engineering
education at the under-graduate level [besides the existing IIT
intake at the UG level], and the IITs will expand their post-graduate
studies only.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State,
Smt Rita Verma; Smt V. Rajeshwaramma, Dr. (Smt.) Beadrix D’ Souza,
Begum Noor Bano, Dr (Smt.)Kumkum Rai; S/Shri G.S. Vasvaraj, Chowdhury
Talib Hussain, SP Goutam, R S Surya, Faguni Ram, HS Mahale, Dr.
V. Matreyan, (Members of Parliament); and senior officers of the
Ministry.
*: at Allahabad, Bhopal, Calicut, Hamirpur, Jaipur,
Nagpur, Kurukshetra, Rourkela, Silchar, Surat, Surathkal and Warangal.
