IoEs to invite nobel laureates to campus, develop model villages as part of Unnat Bharat scheme

The Institutions of Eminence (IoEs) will invite nobel laureates to their campuses and develop model villages as part of the Unnat Bharat scheme for sustainable development in rural India, HRD Ministry officials said.

The decision was taken in a review meeting of the progress of the public and private institutions which were considered to be given the status of Institutions of Eminence on the advice of UGC and the Empowered Expert Committee.

"The institutions recognised under IoE Scheme are the foundation stones in making a new and better India and they have to lead the new generation towards excellence. The focus of our government is to provide quality education to the students of the country, especially in the areas of research and innovation," said HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', who chaired the meeting.

"The institutions have to work hard to improve their position in global rankings and to make these institutions, the centres of excellence at global level," he added.

According to HRD Ministry officials, it was decided that institutions will invite nobel laureates, academicians, professors and foreign faculty to visit their campuses to enlarge and deepen the interface of India's institutions of higher learning and globally recognised institutions of academic eminence.

"It was decided that all the balance amount for the year 2019-2020 and new amount/funds to be paid to these institutions may be paid in the current financial year. Entire architecture for giving access to research journals will be reviewed and open access may be provided to the institutions under IoE," the HRD Ministry said in a statement.

"One Project Monitoring Unit to be established to monitor the progress of these institutions and activities undertaken by them. These institutions may adopt and develop model villages as part of the Unnat Bharat scheme for sustainable development in rural India," it added.

Ten public IoEs will get Rs 1,000 crore each from the HRD Ministry to achieve world-class status but there will be no financial assistance to private IoEs.

The Institutions of Eminence scheme was launched in 2016 in order to empower the higher educational institutions and to put them on the world education map.

The private institutes, which have got the recognition are Shiv Nadar University (Uttar Pradesh), O P Jindal Global University (Haryana), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Tamil Nadu), VIT Vellore (Tami Nadu), Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Bhubaneswar), and Bharti of the Satya Bharti Foundation in Delhi.

IT-Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, Delhi University, University of Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University, IT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IISC Bangalore were among the public institutions granted the IoE tag.

Reliance group's Jio Institute and Satya Bharti Foundation's Bharti University's were granted the status under the greenfield institution (yet-to-be established) category.