The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry and the Prime Minister's Office are said to have developed differences of opinion over the degree of autonomy to be given to the 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) set up through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Currently, the HRD ministry is in the process of taking the IIIT (PPP) Bill, 2016, to the Union Cabinet for approval. The legislation is to ensure IIITs have the power to award degrees.
While the HRD ministry holds the view that through the office of the Visitor (President of India) it must retain the role in appointment of the chairperson and director of the institutes to ensure accountability, the PMO is learnt to have pitched for complete autonomy for the institutes with minimal or no government role in the appointments.
Although the ministry has agreed to dilute the powers and the role of the IIIT Council to make it an advisory body, unlike the IIT Council whose decisions are binding on all IITs, it is concerned about the PMO's suggestion to drop all role in the key appointments.
According to the draft IIIT Bill, the Visitor is the apex authority to all IIITs. The IIITs are set up on a PPP basis with funding shared between the HRD ministry, the state government and one or more industry partners with 50% cost of capital grants borne by the Centre.
The autonomy issue of IIITs has emerged in the background of the situation that cropped up some time ago between the ministry and IIIT Dharwad when its chairperson Sudha Murthy (also chairperson Infosys Foundation - the CSR arm of IT major Infosys) mooted that Infosys replace the industry partner for the IIIT. The HRD ministry took the issue to the law ministry owing to the conflict of interest and the latter advised against such a move stalling the proposal.
Incidentally, the PMO had raised similar issues with the HRD ministry over the much-debated IIM Bill. While there was considerable friction between the PMO and the ministry under then HRD minister Smriti Irani on the issues, the bill was reworked after her exit to ultimately drop the clause on the role of Visitor's office altogether.
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PMO, HRD differ on autonomy to IIITs
By IndianMandarins - 2017-01-20 10:39:59
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry and the Prime Minister's Office are said to have developed differences of opinion over the degree of autonomy to be given to the 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) set up through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Currently, the HRD ministry is in the process of taking the IIIT (PPP) Bill, 2016, to the Union Cabinet for approval. The legislation is to ensure IIITs have the power to award degrees.
While the HRD ministry holds the view that through the office of the Visitor (President of India) it must retain the role in appointment of the chairperson and director of the institutes to ensure accountability, the PMO is learnt to have pitched for complete autonomy for the institutes with minimal or no government role in the appointments.
Although the ministry has agreed to dilute the powers and the role of the IIIT Council to make it an advisory body, unlike the IIT Council whose decisions are binding on all IITs, it is concerned about the PMO's suggestion to drop all role in the key appointments.
According to the draft IIIT Bill, the Visitor is the apex authority to all IIITs. The IIITs are set up on a PPP basis with funding shared between the HRD ministry, the state government and one or more industry partners with 50% cost of capital grants borne by the Centre.
The autonomy issue of IIITs has emerged in the background of the situation that cropped up some time ago between the ministry and IIIT Dharwad when its chairperson Sudha Murthy (also chairperson Infosys Foundation - the CSR arm of IT major Infosys) mooted that Infosys replace the industry partner for the IIIT. The HRD ministry took the issue to the law ministry owing to the conflict of interest and the latter advised against such a move stalling the proposal.
Incidentally, the PMO had raised similar issues with the HRD ministry over the much-debated IIM Bill. While there was considerable friction between the PMO and the ministry under then HRD minister Smriti Irani on the issues, the bill was reworked after her exit to ultimately drop the clause on the role of Visitor's office altogether.
