TEQIP-III to function as mentor for North East states

The Centre's Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) will work as a mentor for North Eastern states.
Director of Technical Education in West Bengal Dr A Basu today told PTI that based on the experience of TEQIP-II, the third version of TEQIP-III would help the North East states to have an industry-technical institution interface.
The project would help in soft skill development of students and to form a state-private sector advisory group as per need of industry, Basu said.
TEQIP is a Government of India programme which aims at supporting ongoing efforts to improve quality of technical education and enhance existing capacities of institutions to become dynamic, demand-driven, quality conscious, efficient and forward looking.

The programme was conceived and designed as a long term project to be implemented in 10-12 years in three phases to support excellence in technical education in the country.
West Bengal was among the 13 states where the programme was launched in 2002, Basu said while speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on TEQIP-II at the Calcutta University Nanotechnology Centre.

While TEQIP-II was started in 2012, TEQIP-III is slated to be launched on April 1, he said.
The programme (TEQIP-II) received Rs 179 crore as allocated fund and teams from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh had visited West Bengal to share their experience.

The state government has been extending full support to the project, which was initiated in two centres of excellence and 14 engineering institutes of West Bengal, Basu said.
Bankura Unnayani Institute of Engineering head S Dutta said the project was aimed at enhancing employability of Tech students in both administrative and technical sectors.