Select Indian institutions to become 'Institutes of Eminence'

The government has approved a scheme to enable select institutions become 'Institutes of Eminence' to catapult them to the global top 100 ranking slot, an HRD Ministry official said here on Friday.

"The government has approved a scheme where existing institutions will be enabled to become institutes of eminence globally... 10 in private sector and 10 public sector," K.K. Sharma, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Secretary (Higher Education), said here during his address at IIT Kharagpur's 67the Foundation Day.

Under the 'Institute of Eminence' scheme, grants upto Rs 1,000 crore have been approved over the next five years which will be given to the selected institutions to attain rank of Institute of Eminence.

"Each institution will be called upon to submit a plan for next 10-15 years which will be placed before a committee," he said.

Sharma said the draft for the Prime Minister's Fellowship Scheme is ready. The scheme aims to further higher education in India and retain talent within the country.

He said under the scheme, those graduating from IITs, NITs, IIITs, if they do their Ph.Ds in IITs or IISc Bengaluru, they would be given a very "handsome fellowship" of Rs 70,000 per month for five years.

"We are going for about 2,000 such fellowships across the IIT system and IISc. Draft scheme is ready.

It has gone past the Finance Ministry. The Cabinet approval should come soon. We hope to make it possible in the next couple of months, so it can be feasible to implement in the next session," he said.

"We need to provide you attractive offers so you stay within the country," he said.

To give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions, the HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency) has started functioning, he said.

--IANS

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