Cabinet approves 9 new NITs; Arunachal Pradesh left out
September 17th, 2009
Following is from the PIB release at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=52692.
The Union Cabinet today approved setting up of new National Institutes of Technology (NITs). These new NITs will be established in Manipur; Meghalaya; Mizoram; Nagaland; Goa (which will also cater to UTs of Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshdweep); Pudducherry (which will also cater to Andaman & Nicobar Islands); Sikkim; Delhi (which will also cater to Chandigarh) and Uttrakhand.
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The new approved NITs are categprized under two Schemes, as follows:
(a) Scheme “A” consisting of proposed NITs at Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa, which will also cater to UTs of Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep, Pudducherry, which will cater to Andaman & Nicobar Islands also and Sikkim; and
(b) Scheme “B” consisting of approved NITs at Delhi (which will also cater to Chandigarh) and Uttrakahand.
Each of the NIT under scheme A will be established at a cost of Rs.250 crore while each of the NIT in scheme B will be set up at a cost of Rs.300 crore. Total project cost is Rs.2600 crore. During 11th Plan the expenditure will be of the order of Rs.540 crore and for the year 2009-2010 expenditure will be of the order of Rs.50 crore.
Main beneficiaries will be the students from the States/UTs which at present do not have NITs as seats will be earmarked for such students in these NITs along with seats earmarked to be filled on all India merit basis.
Presently there are 20 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), located at Agartala, Allahabad, Bhopal, Calicut, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jamshedpur, Kurukshetra, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Rourkela, Silchar, Srinagar, Surat, Surathkal, Tiruchirapalli and Warangal.
Comparing with an earlier PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=41316&kwd=, it seems Arunachal Pradesh has been left out. One excuse may be that Arunachal Pradesh has NERIST, a nationally funded institute. I guess if people of Arunachal Pradesh complain, NERIST may get upgraded to an NIT.
Although initially it was mentioned that 10 new NITs will be established, the reason only 9 are now approved, is that the 10th slot perhaps went to the ABA Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute. This is mentioned in http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081217/jsp/nation/story_10263837.jsp.
Entry Filed under: Eng. colleges - SLIET CIT etc,NITs, IIITs
1 Writeup
1. R.K. Ghosh | September 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Another disastrous step towards killing engineering discipline. It gives an impression that govt is concerned about balanced growth, but in reality these policies represent hydra-headed approach. An institution takes about 10-15 years to build. The crucial components are faculty and infrastructure. I am not talking about students, because there is no problem as far as this component is concerned. Taking discipline of computer science as an example, let us analyse the ground situation in faculty recruitment. First of all the annual salary of an entry level faculty is only 30000 INR ($600) pm. If a person opts of a position in Intel, IBM, even TCS or Infosys the entry level salary could be any where between 50000 to 100000 ($1000-2000). India produces about 40-50 CS PhDs per year. Out of these, I guess, about 10 or so would be from good institutions. Assuming 5 of these fresh Ph. Ds may, if at all, be interested for seeking teaching positions the differential salary at entry level will gravitate them to choose industry as the attractive option. MHRD has been apprised the position. Unfortunately the Minister is unable to think beyond what Babus (IAS) would feed him in technicalities of allowing teachers to earn more. Basic premise “what you sow, so shall you reap” is never understood by the successive ministers of MHRD. The situation in NITs is even more pathetic. This means, only people of low calibre will ever opt for teaching positions in NITs. The return of investments from such NITs will therefore be not only abysmal but also detrimental to growth of the country. It will create unenviable situation of having large number of computer engineers who don’t even know how to write a program for swapping two integers in C! I am appalled to read this news. Every minister seems to over do what the previous minister has done. What the minister must understand is that education can be mandated politics or bureaucratic decisions.