new institutions

The government aims to bring two per cent students under the scholarship fold and double the number of junior research fellowships. This is aimed at improving research quality. It is also working on information communication technology for all 367 universities and on connecting 18,000 colleges through the National Knowledge Network, as recommended by the National Knowledge Commission, the commission said.The commission also said it had given in-principle approval to the setting up of three new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 National Institutes of Technology, five Indian Institutes of Science Education Research, 20 IIITs, two Schools of Planning and Architecture.The commission also proposed that some faculty be recruited on salaries higher than government pay scales, on contract basis for five years with no assurance of automatic renewal. The contract system would be mostly for NRIs with special research funding support.