Today, Rajya Sabha passed, Indian Institute of Information Technology (Amendment) bill. As per it, 5 newly established IIITs, Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala, and Raichur, shall be awarded Institute of National Importance. The bill was proposed on March 20, 2020. However, the same has been reintroduced on September 21, 2020, by MHRD Ramesh Pokhriyal.
There are 25 IIITs in all in the nation of which 5 are under the central government and rest 15 are under public-private partnership (PPP). The 5 new IIITs that have been declared as the Institute of National Importance are under the PPP mode of ownership.
Under the Institute of Infomation Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, these 5 IIITs will now have the legal right to issue diploma, degree, Ph.D,. etc. Currently, the IIITs, now except these 5 new IIITs, are registered as societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and do not have the permission to grant degrees and diploma.
Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has quoted “We have brought the proposal before this House to bring 5 new operational institutes which are located and have started operations in Surat (Gujarat), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Agartala (Tripura), and Raichur (Karnataka) to bring under this act.”
The minister has further tweeted:
The oldest of all the IIITs, is the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior. It was established in the year 1997 under MHRD,
Some concerns that were raised against the bill were over the fee structure. K Ravindra Kumar of TDP said all new IIITs are under PPP model and students have to bear all expenses. He questioned how the meritorious but poor students would afford it. Additionally, he raised the concern of provision for quality assessment of the IIITs.
So far, no statement has been issued regarding MHRD on these queries.
Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) are a group of institutes of higher education in India, focused on information technology. The UG engineering admission in the IIITs is based on JEE Main exam held at the national level and the PG level engineering admissions are based on GATE scores.
