NEW DELHI: The government Wednesday approved a bill to amend the National Institutes of Design (NID) Act, 2014, to include four new such centres within the ambit of the law and declare them as institutions of national importance, sources said.
The decision regarding this was taken a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said granting the status of institutions of national importance to new NIDs will ensure that design education becomes socially inclusive and address the needs of design in various sectors including agriculture, health care, and transportation.
The four new NIDs which would be included are in Amaravati, Bhopal, Jorhat, and Kurukshetra.
These institutes would also be able to grant a degree, diploma, and other academic distinctions.
Establishing new NIDs as institutions of national importance in different regions will help produce skilled manpower.
An Institute of National Importance in India is defined as one which serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country or state.
Only a chosen few institutes make it to this coveted list and are usually supported by the government or even any other international institutes to develop centres of excellence in research, academics, and other such elite schools of education.