Kejriwal government plans boost in research for IIIT,Delhi

The Delhi government on Wednesday launched a scheme for Indraprashtha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D) to help fund its research programmes and also to encourage the autonomous, self-sustaining institute to raise funds for itself from outside sponsors.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia launched an annual 'matching fund' scheme for IIIT-D, according to which the state government will allocate as much amount of research fund to the institute as the latter manages to raise from outside sponsors.

The largesse thus promised to the institue by the state government will also incentivise the corporate sponsors to invest in the institute, the government said.

IIIT-D has already raised over Rs 15 crore for research in computer science, electronics and communication and information technology which will be matched by the Delhi government.

The corporate sponsors which have invested in the institute are IBM, Google, Infoys, TCS, Adobe, VMWare, among others, with Infosys being the most generous of them all with a grant of Rs 8 crore.

"For supporting research, the government has approved the Director of IIIT Delhi, Professor Pankaj Jalote's proposal that it (the government) will provide a matching grant each year to the Institute for the funds it raises from funding agencies and corporations," said a Delhi government statement.

"This led to several renowned corporations and technology companies as well as Indian research institutions to invest in IIIT Delhi's research since they knew that their contribution would be matched by the government," it said.

Upon success in this model, Sisodia, who also holds the finance and education portfolios, promised to apply same method for other state universities, with different terms for grant-in aid and non-grant-in aid institutions both, for their financial structure varies.

The move has been designed to strengthen the research structure in the state as it is imperative for any institute to have a robust research eco-system to exist in it, even for the world education rankings to consider them.

"This approach will not only cover the cost of doing research, but will motivate the State universities to seek funding from agencies and corporations, making them more competitive nationally and globally," the statement added.