Government to set up six new IITs, says Irani

New Delhi: The Central Government has decided to set up six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Palakkad (Kerala), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Khanpur Nagrota (Jammu and Kashmir), Goa, and Dharwad (Karnataka), said Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question on Monday. The Cabinet had on December 2, 2015 approved operationalisation of these six new IITs as Registered Societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 in order to give legal status to these IITs. Each new IIT will have an initial intake of 180 students in its first year, which would subsequently increase to 450 in the second year and to 928 in the third year. The total cost for running these IITs is Rs. 1,411.80 crore to be incurred between 2015-16 and 2018-19. Academic Sessions in IIT Tirupati and IIT Palakkad have commenced in 2015. The setting up of new IITs is aimed at expanding the access of premier education to students of the country, and is based on various factors such as the existing regional distribution of Central Education Institutions in the country. Most of the IITs set up in 2008-09 have fared well in the rankings released under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) on April 4, which were based on various parameters, namely, teaching learning and resources, research professional practice & collaborative performance, graduation outcome, outreach & inclusivity and perception.