Centre Likely to Bring Ordinance to Empower 15 IIITs to Issue Degrees

The Central Government headed by Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi is planning to bring an ordinance to give degree-granting autonomy to 15 Indian Institutes of Information Technology or IIITs. Last month, the centre introduced IIIT Bill in Lok Sabha.

Now, the government is planning to empower at least five IIITs to award degrees. The first batch of students will complete their course from these five IIITs this year. If there is no legitimate legislation, these institutes will not have the power to award degrees. Therefore, the centre placed the issue amongst the top priority list.

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According to sources, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development has already sent the ordinance proposal to the law ministry and is awaiting approval. If the law ministry approves the proposal, the Cabinet will take up the ordinance and then send it to the President of India for his final approval.

Once the President of India approves the ordinance, hundreds of students in five IIITs across the country will get degrees this year. Currently, HRD Ministry was not available for comment on the ordinance proposal, according to sources.

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Earlier, the centre planned 20 IIITs under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Out of the 20 proposed IIITs, 15 were already functional. Since last year, there has been a demand from most of the parents and students to empower IIITs with degree-granting powers. The students claimed that their jobs prospects would have a negative effect if there is no proper degree.

However, after assuming the charge as HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar took various steps to address the issue. Now, the ministry is planning to push the issue further and sort out it as early as possible.