Team Herald
PONDA: Goa got the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) on Saturday, when the institute was inaugurated at a temporary campus at Goa Engineering College (GEC). This campus is expected to serve the needs of IIT Goa for the first couple of years until the permanent campus at Loliem in Canacona taluka is developed.
Speaking at the inaugural function, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said it was a historic day and that this is the 22nd IIT in the country. “I am confident that in the coming years we will surely surpass others by reputation.”
He said with the setting up of institutions Goa is on the verge of becoming an educational hub. He said Goa now has five engineering colleges, five polytechnic colleges and 17 ITIs and that the National Institute of Technology has been successfully integrated.
Inaugurating the institute, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said IIT Goa has finally started and congratulated the first batch of students. He said the government is committed towards providing quality education and that six new
IITs have opened in Jammu, Goa, Dharwad, Dhanbad, Bhillai, Tirupati and Pallakad.
He said IITs don’t reflect well in international rankings due to perception. “Though we are best, we are not ranked on top, because 40 per cent marks are for perception in the international ranking framework,” Javadekar said. The minister said his ministry would battle to address the issue of perception to enhance the global ranking of IITs.
He promised the first batch of students that the campus will be ready within 1000 days and they will receive their degrees at the new campus at Loliem. Currently, though temporary at Farmagudi, the campus is fully equipped with classrooms, laboratories and modern hostel buildings.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will collaborate with IIT Bombay and IIT Madras to start research programmes. He said the Defence Ministry can also provide IIT students use of DRDO labs for their summer vacation training and expressed happiness that Goans have their own IIT campus.
The interim campus of IIT Goa will be mentored by IIT Bombay. A total of 10,572 seats were up for grabs in 23 IITs (including ISM) this year. Out of these, 10,476 seats have been filled after six rounds of seat allocation were conducted.
For 2016, IIT Kharagpur offered the maximum number of seats at 1341, with only 7 seats remaining unclaimed. The maximum number of vacant seats among all IITs is 38 at IIT-BHU.
Four new IITs – Goa, Jammu, Dharwad and Bhilai – admitted their first batch of students this year. While IIT Goa and IIT Jammu offered 90 seats each, IIT Dharwad and IIT Bhilai had 120 each. Of these four, IIT Goa has zero vacancy. Other IITs which reported zero vacancies include – Kanpur, Mandi and Hyderabad.
