HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ chairs the 2nd meeting of IIIT Coordination Forum

New Delhi: Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ chaired the 2nd meeting of the IIIT Coordination Forum in New Delhi today.Indian Institute of information Technology (IIITs) Coordination Forum is the apex body for deciding policy and directions for 20 IIITs established under PPP mode. These IIITs are partially supported by Government.They are required to become self sufficient in a short span of time.

The HRD Minister who is also the Chairman of the IIIT Councilhighlighted the important developments at the national level. He particularly focused on economic transformation to US$ 5 Trillion economy by 2024. He empathized the role of IIITs in achieving economic transformation and incorporating social development.

He advised the Directors of IIITs to create a Vision and Mission and lead the institutions towards achieving them by suitably involving industry and other stakeholders. In order to develop required qualities for managing change, Directors of IIITs will undergo Leadership Development Programme in India and aboard. Such training shall include strategic planning, financial management, creating and managing teams and other relevant topics.

Further, he desired IIITs to focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship which could be the basis for transformation. IIITs are advised to take up formal programme through subjects of study through minor specialization in Entrepreneurship Development, conduct workshops on ideation/innovation and to set up incubation facilities. He advised institutes to seek support through schemes such as Atal Innovation Mission, TIDE 2 etc.

The Chairman assured all possible support to these IIITs through policies and funding with the approval of the cabinet. He encouraged partnership among these IIITs at the faculty and students level through various curricular and co-curricular activities.

It was also desired that each IIIT should focus on a thrust area which are directly linked to disruptive applications in various domains such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare etc. through Industry 4.0 technologies.

The major decisions taken during the meeting include entrepreneurship development and syncing with new trends in technology in the course curriculum so that these Institutions become global Institutes. Each IIIT needs to identify their unique thrust area so that they take up development of the Institute in that direction. The Forum desired that faculty being the most important resource, must be evaluated regularity to ensure that the students get good education and compete with the best in the world. The Forum decided to grant notional HAG scale to the Directors recruited for Centrally funded Institutes. However, the State Governments will also be requested to provide the same to their faculty while being appointed as Directors of IIITs. It was also decided to speed up the proposal for training of Directors of IIITs, and interaction with industry.

The Coordination Forum authorised Hon’ble HRM as Chairperson of the Forum to make short term arrangement of Director in a IIIT in case of vacancy, on temporary basis.

The Forum emphasised the need of effective collaboration among IIITs (CFTIs & PPP) and IITs to share and learn about best practices. He also emphasised about enhanced interaction and involvement of industry. The Chairman advised the IIITs to organise meet of Director of IIITs and industry in coordination with NASSCOM for this purpose.

Another major consideration of the Forum was to enhance the budgetary support to each IIIT by Rs. 50 Cr. Towards capital and Rs. 10 Cr. toward revenue to enable them to meet the increase in cost of material and manpower over the decade. The Forum decided that the proposal may be examined by the Ministry.

In a major move to support weaker students who are admitted to IIITs, the Forum advised the IIITs to provide options to such students to opt for BSc degree in the respective disciplines, so that they get the basic degree and look for appropriate employment opportunities.