AICTE joins hands with DCRUST to advance technical education in Haryana; CM Manohar Lal Khattar welcomed AICTE to Haryana

New Delhi, 18 June 2021. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), on Friday, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science & Technology (DCRUST), Murthal, Sonepat, Haryana. Under the new partnership, AICTE and DCRUST will work together to elevate the standards of technical education in India. DCRUST will provide land measuring an area of two acres to AICTE and in this property, the latter will construct a building for AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy. AICTE will also establish an IDEA Lab at the ATAL Academy at Murthal, as Model IDEA lab.

AICTE has taken various quality initiatives to promote technical education in the country which also includes enhanced impetus on the development of the faculty teaching in the colleges across the country. The AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy is one of its initiatives that has been conducting various Faculty Development Programme for imparting/ upgrading faculty knowledge in thrust and emerging areas. ATAL Academy, AICTE takes its inspiration from our beloved Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the previous year, the name of ATAL Academy was enshrined in the book “World Book of Record, London”. ATAL Academy took it as a challenge and successfully conducted 948 online FDPs in which more than 1.65 lakh participants ranging from faculty members, CBSE teachers to Industry Persons, Research scholars and PG students were benefitted. Through ATAL Academy approx 2000 experts from reputed institutes (IITs, IIMs, IIITs, NITs, IISc, ISI, JNU, BARC, DRDO etc) and from private companies as well as research institutions serve the country. These experts are from National (representation from even remote areas of 28 states and 4 union territories) and international organizations. As online teaching and learning has become a new normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ATAL Academy set to conduct FDPs in online mode. AICTE has planned over 1345 online FDPs on thrust areas and emerging areas that aims to train 2 lakhs participants. It’ll facilitate faculty members to achieve latest subject information as needed in 21st Century.

After the successful completion of construction, an Idea Lab shall also be set up having state of the art equipment and facilities to innovate. The DCRUST will run and make the IDEA lab functional with its own resources later in a self-sustainable model. AICTE-IDEA (Idea Development, Evaluation & Application) Labs are being established across the country for encouraging students for application of science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) fundamentals towards enhanced hands-on experience, learning by doing and even product visualization. The DCRUST University will also deploy required staff for functioning will allot necessary funds to run all the facilities. Under the new partnership, AICTE ATAL Academy will provide suitable funding for teachers’ training and learning programs. Moreover, AICTE will also provide maintenance charges for the initial five years.

“Haryana is quite happy about the fact that AICTE, the apex regulatory body of the Central Government in respect of the Technical Higher Education in India is partnering with DCRUST. I strongly hope that this partnership will elevate the quality of technical education in the state, and in the future, these initiatives could revolutionize the entire education sector in the state. He congratulated AICTE & DCRUST for the MoU. I warmly welcome AICTE to the land of Haryana,” said Haryana Chief Minister Shri Manohar Lal Khattar.

“It is a matter of pride and immense pleasure that destiny has given me the opportunity to start this new initiative of IDEA lab and ATAL Academy for the Technical Education of Haryana State for faculty members & students for self-empowerment. It is important that technical human resource from state is fully geared up for industry 4.0. ” saidProf. (Dr.) RajendrakumarAnayath, Vice Chancellor, DCRUST.

“AICTE’s partnership with DCRUST is for the young minds in Haryana. I am sure that this partnership will catalyse the technical education in the state, and we could create young talents who can match the quality of a student who studied in international universities. The IDEA lab will stimulate the young minds to experiment on ideas for solving societal problems” said AICTE Chairman Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe.

AICTE Vice-Chairman Dr. M P Poonia said, “AICTE is glad to collaborate with DCRUST. I hope the IDEA lab will offer students to tune their skills, and thus young brains in the state could revolutionize the entire technology sector with innovation.The facilities being created in Haryana will also help development activities in Northern region India.”

AICTE Member Secretary, Prof Rajive Kumar noted that AICTE’s partnership with DCRUST could bring revolutionary changes in the state’s education sector. According to Rajive Kumar, the history of AICTE in shaping up the quality of technical institutes is glorious, and the same magic can be repeated again with DCRUST.He further said that IDEA lab will act as centre of excellence in collaboration with industry.

“Haryana is quite happy about the fact that AICTE is partnering with DCRUST and it is milestone for the faculty members & students of Haryana. I warmly welcome AICTE to the land of Haryana.,” said Shri. Mohan Lal Badoli MLA, Rai.

Vote of Thanks is given by Dr.RavindraSoni, Director, AICTE.