IITs and IIMs to be set up in Every State: President

During a recent address the joint session of both houses of parliament, President Pranab Mukherjee said that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will be set up in every state of India in order to strengthen and spread quality higher education across the nation.

A national education policy will be designed for it, which will also be focused on promoting research and innovation in Indian educational institutions, said the President, adding a national e-library will also be launched in order to empower school teachers and students.

"It (government) will formulate a National Education Policy aimed at meeting the challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in our educational institutions," said the President.

Currently, there are 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), one each in Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), Delhi, Indore, Kharagpur, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Madras, Gandhinagar, Patna, Roorkee, Ropar (Punjab), Varanasi (Banaras Hindu University), Hyderabad, and Guwahati.

And, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) are 13 in total, located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode (Kerala), Shillong, Rohtak (Haryana), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Ranchi, Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Kashipur (Uttarakhand) and Udaipur.

Among other educational reforms to be brought in India, as said by the President, is setting up of Massive Open Online Courses and virtual classrooms.