Odisha seeks final approval for ICT academy in city

The state government has sought final nod from the Centre for setting up of electronics and ICT academy proposed in the Capital city in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar, under the 'Scheme of Financial Assistance for setting up of Electronics and ICT Academies'.

A detailed proposal prepared by IIT Bhubaneswar for establishment of the academy has been approved by the government and forwarded to the Centre, official sources said.

I would request you to kindly consider the proposal for setting up of one electronics and ICT academy at Bhubaneswar in collaboration with IIT (Bhubaneswar) and place the matter before the empowered committee for final approval. The state government will extend all cooperation required for smooth functioning of this electronics and ICT academy", PK Jena , state IT secretary wrote to Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).

The scheme aims at establishing seven electronics and ICT academies as units of IITs, IIITs (the Indian Institutes of Information Technology), NITs (National Institutes of Technology) to provide specialised training to the faculties of the engineering, arts, commerce and science colleges, polytechnics by developing state-of-the-art facilities and enhancing the skills of the students.

The new scheme targets for training 16,000 faculties at one centre over a period of four years. The total expenditure estimated to be spent on implementation of the scheme is around Rs 147 crores, said an IT department official.

Under the scheme, the Centre targets to train 80,000 faculties in five states and 12,800 faculties in two Union Territories in four years. While the institutions, where the academy would be set up, will be identified by the states and Union Territories, the National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) will act as the programme management unit under the scheme.