The concept of IIITs was a part of initiatives undertaken by NASSCOM for educational
and workforce enhancement which will produce highly specialized professionals with
skill sets in the emerging technologies.
With a view to cash in on the boom in the IT sector, the
Centre is contemplating setting up of 20 Indian Institutes of Information and Technology
in private public partnership in the country. As per the scheme, the
central and state governments along with the industry will be stakeholders in the
scheme.
Though the proposal was mooted about a year back, the Maharashtra government failed
to capitalize on the opportunity. It was only recently that officials invited expressions
of interest (EoI) from the private industries for setting up centre-sponsored IIIT.
Officials from the state department of technical education (DTE), which has invited
EoIs, said that Maharashtra was always shortchanged in the case of getting centre-sponsored
educational institutions, despite being one of the most progressive states. It neither
has the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management nor the National Law School.
Apart from IIT Powai, only Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University (MGIHU)
in Wardha and Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in Amravati are centrally-sponsored
institutions in the state. However, MGIHU hardly appealed to the masses in the predominantly
Marathi speaking state. Even President Pratibha Pail had recommended to establish
either a central university or IIT exclusively for women in Amravati. But nothing
materialized. Technical education director Subhash Mahajan told TOI that all the
details regarding IIITs were with the Mantralaya and DTE had only invited EoIs.
Currently, Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Kancheepuram are having centre-sponsored
IIIT while three others in Hyderabad, Kerela and Bangalore are sponsored by the
respective states on PPP models.
DTE officials, however, stated that the decision to set up IIIT was taken during
the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12). Initially, Pune was selected as the location
for the institution. It was supposed to offer research programmes in various emerging
fields such as cyber security and image processing, networks and mobile computing,
banking and insurance, energy and transportation, analytics, remote sensing, agriculture,
energy, transportation, environment, natural sciences, nanotechnology, health care
and image processing. However, the government then put the project on the back burner.
The concept of IIITs was a part of initiatives undertaken by NASSCOM for educational
and workforce enhancement. It will produce highly specialized professionals with
skill sets in the emerging technologies. As per the scheme, the state will provide
free land while the centre will grant 
50 crore for faculty development programme
and also meet the recurring expenditure up to 10 crore during the first four
years of setting up of each IIIT.
VED demands IIIT in Vidabrha:
The Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) has demanded setting up of IIITs
in the region for the benefit of the students in the region. VED chief Devendra
Parekh said that they had sent a letter to the Maharashtra government to constitute
an experts' panel to study establishment of IIIT either at Nagpur, Amravati or Gondia.
Blaming government for neglecting the Vidarbha region, Parekh informed that it continues
to wait for the HRD ministry's nod to its proposal seeking an IIIT status for two
premier institutes, including the Pune-based International Institute of Information
Technology (I2IT) and one from Aurangabad.
Courtesy: Times of India
