HRD Ministry & PMO Have Different Views on Major Appointments at IIITs
HRD Ministry has already initiated the process of taking the IIIT (PPP) Bill 2016 to the Union Cabinet for the approval. With an objective to grant power to IIITs for awarding the degrees, HRD Minister has made a legislation.
Different viewpoints have been simmering between by Prime Minister Office (PMO) and HRD Ministry regarding the degree of autonomy that must be given to 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology or IIITs. These IIITs are going to come up under Public Private Partnership (PPP).
HRD Ministry has already initiated the process of taking the IIIT (PPP) Bill 2016 to the Union Cabinet for the approval. With an objective to grant power to IIITs for awarding the degrees, HRD Minister has made a legislation.
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However, HRD Ministry and PMO have different standpoints reading the appointment of directors and chairpersons of the institutes. According to PMO, these institutes must be given complete autonomy, and the role of the government must be minimised in making appointments. On the other hand, HRD Ministry is claiming that the government must play a vital role in making appointments to maintain accountability.
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The ministry had agreed to minimise the powers and role of IIIT Council. It needs to act as an advisory body. The case with IIT Council is entirely different. All IITs need to abide by the rules and regulations of IIT Council.
As per the IIIT Bill, the apex authority to all IIITs is the Visitor. Currently, the draft of IIIT Bill is open for comments on a public domain and the Bill has given more emphasis to the relaxed framework for the institutes on lines of PPP model.
PMO and HRD Ministry had different viewpoints on granting autonomy to IIMs and proposed 20 world class institutes.