Union Nod for Setting up Twenty IIITs

The Indian Union Cabinet on 7 December 2010 approved the setting up of 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) with a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The estimated expenditure for setting up the 20 IIITs is Rs 2808.71 crore (Rs 2558.71 crore for non recurring, Rs 200 crore for recurring expenditure and Rs 50.00 crore for faculty development expenditure). The proposal as accepted by the Cabinet includes:

•    The capital cost of each IIIT is estimated to be Rs 128.00 crore to be contributed in the ratio of 50: 35: 15 by the Central Govt, the State Govt, and the industry respectively (57.5 : 35: 7.5 in case of North-Eastern region).
•    Rs 50.00 crore will come from the Central government coffers for faculty development programme for the faculty of new IIITs as well as existing IIlTs and IISERs.
•    Each IIIT is expected tomeet its operating expenditure on its own within 5 years of commencement out of students fees.
•    The concerned State Government will provide 50-100 acres of land, free of cost and the the IIITs may, initially, be registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
•    To put in place a tripartite MoU document spelling out the role and responsibilities of private partners vis-a-vis that of the Government.

One of the important criteria for setting up IIIT in a State will be availability of 50-100 acres of contiguous land or a minimum of 50 acres of land as well as an additional land at another site in the State free of cost for the establishment of the Institute. The cost of establishing the institute will be jointly contributed. IIITs will be the hub for the development of professional expertise and skilled manpower in IT and its applications to certain domain areas.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education.  IITs have been declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India. The first IIT was set up in Kharagpur (1950, as IIT 1951). IIT Kharagpur was followed by setting up of other IITs in Mumbai (1958), Chennai (1959), Kanpur (1959), Delhi (1961; as IIT 1963), Guwahati (1994), Roorkee (1847; as IIT 2001), Ropar (2008), Bhubaneswar (2008), Gandhinagar (2008), Hyderabad (2008), Patna (2008), Jodhpur (2008), Mandi (2009) and Indore (2009).