IIIT Bill 2017 Introduced in Parliament; 15 Institutes to Get Degree Granting Power

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar recently introduced the IIIT Bill 2017 in the Lok Sabha. According to the new Bill, 15 of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) set up under public-private partnership (PPP) mode will be granted the approval to award degrees.

The students who will enroll in either of the programmes offered by these institutes will be awarded degrees after the Bill has been approved. Also, these 15 institutes will be declared the institutions of national importance.

The statement of Objects and Reasons mentioned in the Bill states that the primary objective is to give statutory status to these 15 institutes.

The Bill has been introduced to improve the student outreach of these institutes. With the approval of the Bill, these IIITs are expected to enhance their reputation amongst the employers.

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Students of five of the IIITs will be graduating in July and August 2017, therefore, the ministry wants to get approval for the Bill prior to the convocations.

Once the IIIT Bill 2017 gets cleared, these 15 institutes will also get the power to conduct exams, grant diplomas and several other academic distinctions.

Out of the several IIITs in India, four are funded directly by the government and have been working according to the IIIT Act 2014. These are ABV IIITM Gwalior, IIIT Jabalpur, IIIT Allahabad and IIIT Kancheepuram.

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The government is also planning to start 20 more IIITs in the PPP mode to address the challenges faced by the Information Technology sector of India.