technical education

Unable to cope with the growing demand for technical education, the government may give the private sector a bigger role to play. The Planning Commission has suggested that private companies be allowed to build and run Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the commission, has proposed a policy enabling private companies to obtain land from state governments to set up IITs. These institutions, to be operated with a liberal fee structure, would be part of the Brand IIT. Currently, there are seven government-run IITs in the country.Since this would give more students access to the IIT standard of education, Ahluwalia hopes the number of high-quality engineers in India will increase substantially at no cost to the government. The HRD ministry has already expressed its inability to establish new IITs due to financial constraints