TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: Goa has lost to Gandhinagar the promised United States’ technical support for setting up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state, the second IIT sponsored by the U.S. since after the first being IIT Kanpur set up in 1960.
Under the plan, a consortium of American universities, research labs and industries were to help in setting up the Goa IIT and continue to provide it with faculty and funds for research, development and entrepreneurship, but the government has quietly put Gandhinagar IIT in its place.
The shift came as a surprise since Gandhinagar IIT was already mentored by Bombay IIT by sending its teachers and guiding the institute every step.
No explanation is coming forth over dropping Goa except for the Human Resources Development Ministry officials claiming that they have been asked to draft a joint declaration for Gandhinagar IIT to be issued during President Barack Obama’s upcoming Delhi visit. The ministry and the United States Agency for International Development will sign the declaration.
The ministry had initially listed Goa IIT for securing the US after the Modi government decided to set it up with four other new IITs in Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, but now Goa IIT will be mentored by Bombay IIT as the American support is being taken for Gandhinagar, a ministry source said.
Though orders to prepare declaration for Gandhinagar came from HRD Minister Smriti Irani, she did not tell the officials that it was Modi who lobbied for Gandhinagar instead of Goa during his trip to the United States last September after he was told that the US will prefer to help an already functioning institute while the Goa IIT is to take off only next July.
The Soviet Union had helped the Bombay IIT to come up, while the US sponsored Kanpur IIT, Britain Delhi IIT, and Germany first Chennai IIT and then Kharagpur IIT. All the eight IITs the UPA government established between 2008 and 2010, including one in Gandhinagar, came up with support from the older IITs as mentor institutes.
The ministry has already received site proposals for four of the five planned new IITs at Panjim in Goa, Tirupati in Andhra, Palakkad in Kerala and Raipur or Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. All the new IITs are supposed to start functioning from the next academic session.
The existing 16 institutes, including 8 set up by the previous UPA government, offer 10,000 undergraduate seats. The new ones are likely to admit 120 BTech students each.
