Govt to have minority stake in IIITs

In what could be a first of its kind model, the proposed 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) coming up on public-private partnership (PPP) basis will have autonomous status and the government’s investment will be less than the private players.

According to the detailed project report submitted to the Union HRD ministry by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), each new IIIT will come up in partnership with a group of private companies.

Each IIIT will have a capital base in which the government’s contribution will be less than that of the partnering companies.

“The partnering company will give Rs 15.1 crore while the government will have to provide Rs 14.9 crore. The government’s share will be less than 50 per cent of the equity,” said Nasscom vice president Rajdeep Sahrawat.

In addition to this, each institute will get Rs 90 crore in loans from the government. The institutes will also raise funds from different funding agencies.

“The finance minister has already announced that the educational institutes under the PPP mode will be provided loan which would be three times the promoter’s capital,” Sahrawat said.

Nasscom, which was entrusted the job of preparing the DPR for IIITs, said each institute would be an autonomous body and would have full authority to deal with administration, syllabus, salary, admissions and fee.

“Each institute will have autonomous status like any university. The states where the IIITs would be set up, will pass a legislation stipulating the rights and functioning of the institutes,” Sahrawat said.

Nasscom has suggested that there should be a separate board for the IIITs to oversee the functioning of the institutes and monitor quality.

“These institutes will not come under the purview of the UGC or AICTE. The DPR says about creating a separate board for them,” Sahrawat said.

The institutes, for which land would be provided by the states, would be spread over 50 acres, with completely integrated campus having science and technology parks, he said.

Each institute will specialise in specific area of IT. “Each IIIT will be a centre of excellence in that domain,” Sahrawat said.

Nasscom has suggested that the institutes should be set up in cities having modern amenities.

“Faculty is a major factor. To get good faculty, the location of the institute is important. Hence, we suggested that the institutes should be set up in cities where quality of life is good,” he said.

The IIITs will offer under-graduate, Masters and Ph D programmes. “Each institute will have an intake capacity of about 1,000 students within a period of six to seven years of its opening,” Sahrawat said.

To ensure transparency, each institute will go for a public audit in three years, Nasscom has said in the DPR. “We have submitted the report to the government which is considering the recommendations,” he said.