4 National Institutes of Design Declared as Institutes of National Importance

Four different National Institutes of Design in the states of Haryana, Assam, Madhya Pradesh as well as Andhra Pradesh have been declared as Institutes of National Importance after a Bill had been passed in Rajya Sabha on August 6, 2019. This move has given the institutes the power of granting degrees and diplomas.

Prior to being called Institutes of National Importance, the National Institutes of Design haad been registered as a Society, under the Societies Registration Act 1860. Being under the act, the institutes were not allowed to offer the students various degrees and diplomas in design. The person responsible for bringing in the National Institute of Design (Amendment) Bill 2019 in Rajya Sabha was Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry. The Bill had been introduced in Rajya Sabha on 30th July 2019 and within a couple of days, it was passed with a Voice Vote.

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The Minister continued to state that the Institutes will retain their autonomy, however, during the nomination of the Governing Council, the government will intervene. Except for this, National Institutes will be autonomous bodies.

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During the debate that was being held in the respect, a Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, had urged the government to focus on assigning the appropriate faculty for the department of design in the Institutes of National Importance. He stated that currently, Institutes such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), where the programmes in Design are currently being offered, experience a shortage in the number of faculty dedicated to promoting education in the discipline.