Govt ready to give more autonomy to IIMs, IITs

The government is willing to give greater autonomy to premier professional educational institutes such as IIMs and IITs, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeswari said today.

"We completely believe in autonomy. Because, that autonomy will bring in greater flexibility within the system and encourage them [the institutes] to do much better than what they are doing now," she said here.

Purandeswari was talking reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on 'Human Values in Higher Education' organised by International Institute of Information Technology.

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is holding talks with all premier institutes on the autonomy issue, she said.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha earlier, Purandeswari had said the HRD Ministry in principle agreed that older IIMs like Ahmadabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, which do not take non-plan grants, should have powers to create posts within approved norms and open centres in India and abroad.

Addressing the conference, the minister said time has come to reintroduce moral education classes in schools.