New IITs announced

on March 28, 2008 human resource development (HRD) minister, Arjun Singh announced that the government planned to establish more Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Central Universities across the country. The plan included setting up a total of eight IITs (including four already announced) and converting Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU) into an IIT.The new IITs are being set up under the 11th five-year plan (March 2007-February 2012).Each new IIT will have 3,000 students on the campus, as per plan. This will include 2,000 undergraduates, 500 postgraduates, 400 doctorates and 100 post-doctorates. Each new IIT will admit 500 students for BTech programme, 250 for MTech, 100 for PhD and about 10 for post-doctorate fellowship programme each year, making a total of 860 students each year.The new IITs shall receive capital funding of Rs 2,500 crores to Rs 4,000 crores (Rs 25-40 billion or US $625 million to $1 billion) per IIT, spread over a period of five-six years. This generous funding will help new IITs in becoming world-class as the existing ones. The funding need is based on the amount spent on the last brand-new IIT at Guwahati, in the state of Assam, which was set up in 1994 (under Assam Accord) at a total cost of Rs 1,500 crores (Rs 15 billion).Each new IIT will be mentored by an existing IIT (patron) nearby. The respective state governments are also planning to get foreign collaborations for the new IITs, similar to what was done to the existing IITs before. Among the possibilities is collaboration with Japan for the IIT in Andhra Pradesh and with South Korea for IIT in Orissa.HRD ministry has also announced a plan for the conversion of IT BHU, Varanasi into an IIT. The decision was based on long-standing ties of the institute with IIT-JEE (since 1972) and the academic standard comparable to IITs. The institute shall be known as IIT-BHU, Varanasi after conversion.