NEW DELHI: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulator for technical education, will assess the proposed investment of Rs 21,870 crore by seven older IITs to develop their institutions to world-class standards and to break into the top 100 club of global university rankings by 2018 and top 50 by 2020.
Based on the recommendations of AICTE, the Union HRD Ministry will take a call on funding the seven premier technical institutions.
An official said that the projected investment is too big for the government to agree on it and AICTE will look into it to ensure that reasonable budget is required for the purpose.
The Union HRD Ministry had mooted Project Vishwajeet, which is aimed at pushing the IITs to the top league of global academic rankings. The government had asked the seven IITs to submit their proposal.
The project has earmarked separate grants to be provided over four years till 2020 to develop world-class infrastructure. A corpus fund of Rs 500 crore is to be built by 2018 and is to be raised to Rs 1,000 crore by 2021 through CSR, alumni contributions and corporate donations.
The directors of Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Mumbai, Madras, Roorkee and Guwahati IITs met HRD ministry officials in October 2016 and sought Rs 21,870 crore as an investment. While IIT-Delhi sought Rs 2,400 crore, IIT-Bombay presented a budget of Rs 2,250 crore, IIT-Kanpur Rs 2,475 crore, IIT-Madras Rs 2,800 crore, IIT-Guwahati Rs 2,695 crore, IIT-Roorkee Rs 5,550 crore and IIT-Kharagpur Rs 3,700 crore.
The plans under Project Vishwajeet approved by the IIT Council on August 24, 2016, include filling 20 per cent vacancies with foreign faculty and international students at the undergraduate and post-graduate level, 1:7 faculty-student ratio, apart from separate capital grants for world class infrastructure besides allowing off campus for PHD students.
Project Vishwajeet also offers research grant of Rs 1 lakh for scholars and faculty members who have published at least two papers in internationally renowned journals.