Union HRD Minister chairs IIIT Council Meeting Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar has called for updating of the IIITs curriculum to meet the evolving Information Technology scenario. Union Minister was chairing the second meeting of council of IIIT in his capacity as Chairman of the council, yesterday. Addressing the meeting, the Minister said the IIITs, which were introduced during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have played an important role in India becoming a software giant. He, however, pointed out that though India is known as a software giant, it has not come out with popular IT tools like Google, WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. We must become real power in software by innovating such new possible utilities," he said adding that each IIITs should strive to become centre of excellence in the next 3-5 years. Noting that there are two streams of IIITs some government funded and some under Public-Private Partnership, the Minister said all the IIITs should work together and share among themselves best experiments and practices. Some of the key decisions taken in the meeting are ? To groom PhD scholars as future faculty ? To provide enough flexibility in Statutes to retain talent as faculty and researchers ? To prepare a road map for building brand IIIT ? To allow MOOCs along with a system of discussion, assessment and evaluation as credit / audit courses ? Enhance intake of foreign students up to 15% as per the existing regulations ? Establishment of IIIT Secretariat at IIIT, Gwalior ? As an interim measure, IIITs under PPP model to apply for the status of Deemed University ? Separate Bill to be prepared to govern the affairs of IIITs (PPP)
