Rajya Sabha Passes Bill to declare 4 National Institutes of Design (NIDs) as Institutes of National Importance

Rajya Sabha has passed a Bill yesterday, clearing the decks to declare  4 National Institutes of Design as Institutes of National Importance, as per media reports. The upper house of the Parliament passed a bill which seeks to declare 4 NIDs i.e. NID Amaravati, NID Bhopal, NID Kurkshetra, NID Jorhat, as institutions of national importance. After the passage of the bill in the Parliament, these four institutes will be able to grant degrees and diplomas to the students who are enrolled in various programmes offered by them.

As of now, these 4 NIDs based in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Haryana are registered as Societies and operate under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Therefore, they do not have the power or authority to grant degrees or diplomas the students. The National Institute of Design (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which seeks to declare these 4 NIDs as Institutes of National Importance, was introduced I the Rajya Sabha by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on 30th July 2019. The Bill was passed in the upper house by voice vote.

During his address regarding the Bill, Mr Goyal addressed the doubts regarding autonomous status of these institutes. In his reply, he assured all the members of Rajya Sabha that the autonomy of these 4 NIDs will not be affected after the passage of the Bill. He further added that the role of the government in the administration of the institutes was limited to appointment of governing council. He further added that complete autonomy will be maintained for these institutes.

During the debate, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that government should also look at faculty development programmes for institutes of national importance, as they were facing severe shortage of trained and qualified faculty members. He also added that in addition to granting the status of national importance to such institutes, the government should also try and build industry-academia partnerships to bring out consumer friendly products.

AIDMK leader N Gokulakrishnan also joined the debate and asked the government to setup NIDs at Chennai and Puducherry. He added that there has been significant advancements in the field of science and technology and that we have to match pace with it to be remain competitive. Kahkashan Perween of JDU also asked the government to setup an NID in Bihar. Similarly, CPIM leader K Somprasad demanded status of institute of national importance for Kerala Institute of Design.