IT IS proposed that in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, all 16 States which do not have a Central University so far, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, would get one during the Eleventh Plan period. This information was shared by the minister of state for human resource development, D Purandeswari in a written reply to a question by Uday Pratap Singh in Rajya Sabha as per the press information bureau’s press release.  

 

Meanwhile Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on the occasion of the 60th Independence Day had announced the setting up of eight new IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. As per press information bureau release, the central government has received requests from various state governments including governments of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa to set up new IITs in these states. Based on the recommendation of the scientific advisory council to the Prime Minister, under the chairmanship of Prof CNR Rao, the government has already decided to establish three new IITs, one each in Bihar in the East, Rajasthan in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South, during the 11th Plan period. Decision on the location of the remaining institutes has not been taken yet.

 

 

But on another question on the issue of upgradation of ABV-IIITM (Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management), Gwalior to an IIT raised by Maya Singh in Rajya Sabha, Purandeswari, in a written reply to this question said that, “Madhya Pradesh is already having various centrally funded technical educational institutions viz MANIT (Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology), Bhopal; ABV-IIITM, Gwalior; PDPM-IIITDM (Pt Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) at Indore. Further, IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) has been approved in Bhopal. Planning commission has given its ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal. At present, there is no proposal to upgrade ABV-IIITMG, Gwalior to an IIT.