Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology[1] (IIEST) are institutes proposed by the Government of India to meet the growing demand for engineering and scientific manpower to meet India’s increased industrialization. The proposed IIESTs would be created by an act of the Parliament of India. They would be given the status of Institutes of National Importance, on the lines of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) by the Indian government. The first institute to actually be granted the IIEST status is Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, which is going to granted the IIEST status from the Academic Year 2011-12 onwards.[2]
Birth
Initially, a group of seven elite universities had been selected for upgradation to the status of IITs by the S.K.Joshi committee. Since these colleges were controlled by the respective state governments and which couldn't be given IIT status due to political, administrative or technical reasons the MHRD appointed another Committee, called the Anandakrishnan Committee. The Committee recommended setting up a new family of institutes by upgrading the selected group of colleges and to be called IIESTs (Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology). Later, the Government of India shortlisted it to five institutions for the upgradation.
Funding
As per the discussion with the Committee members, the IIESTs are supposed to receive funding similar to that of IITs after the planned upgrade over next five years. IIESTs can achieve more govt. support/funding by uniting together on a collective bargaining principle. Each college will receive one-time amount (spread over 5 years) of Rs. 500 crores (Rs. 5 billion or $ 125 million) for infrastructure improvement and annual funding of Rs. 50 crores.
The five institutions have been short-listed based on the final Anandakrishnan report are as follows:
- IIEST Kolkata Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (BESU)
- IIEST Cochin Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT)
- IIEST Hyderabad Osmania University College of Technology
- IIEST Visakhapatanam Andhra University College of Engineering
- IIEST Varanasi Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IT-BHU)
As of October 2010, of the original five institutions, the government has decided IT-BHU will be upgraded to an IIT.[3] Of the other four, the only institution on which the government has moved forward was BESU,[2] As for CUSAT, the proposal was rejected in November 2010 by the state government. The then Education Minister of Kerala, M. A. Baby, has said since iCUSAT t is already a university the status change will only downgrade it.[4] The rest of the institutes are being kept pending.
References
- ^ "IIEST press release" (PDF).
- ^ a b "Besu now IIEST after Centre's nod". thestatesman.net. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ "PIB Press Release". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- ^ "CUSAT if upgarded to IIEST will lose its present status: Baby — KeralaBhooshanam News". en.keralabhooshanam.com. November 25, 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2011.