Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology

Indian Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology [cite web | title=IIEST press release | url=http://www.pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2007/May07/2007050113.pdf] ("IIEST") are institutes proposed by the Government of India to meet the growing demand for engineering and scientific manpower to meet our country’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 IITs and NITs by the Indian government.

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.

Difference

* The upgradation would be brought forth initially by introducing two separate schedules in the NIT Act and the act would be renamed NIT-IIEST Act. By virtue of this act the power of authority passes to the Central Government. Gradually as more institutes get the approval, the central government would enact a separate act for the IIESTs.
* The institute will be able to have 50% seats reserved for it's domicile candidates. Rest will be selected on a national basis like the NITs. The selection will be through AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Exam) and half of the seats will be reserved for students from within the state.
* IIESTs would be special in the sense that these would be catering towards post-graduate and research studies exclusively like the IISc differing only in the sense that most of their courses will be integrated in nature like the 5-year Integrated M. Tech., Integrated M. Tech. and PhD programs in engineering and science.
* The colleges will also emphasize on admitting many foreign students for their M. Tech. and doctorate programs.
* The state would have a representative in the Governing body unlike any other institutes. The state govt. will be able to nominate 2 or 3 representatives to the governing council of IIEST. Thus the IIEST model is deviating from the recommendations made by the Committee, which assumed full control of central government and admission of students on 100% national basis.

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.BESU along with CUSAT would be the first two IIESTs to start functioning from the academic year 2008-09. BESU has already received the formal approval letter from the Govt. of India.

The five institutions have been short-listed based on the final Anandakrishnan report are as follows:

#IIEST Kochi Cochin University of Science and Technology
#IIEST Kolkata Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur
#IIEST Hyderabad Osmania University College of Technology
#IIEST Visakhapatanam Andhra University College of Engineering
* IT-BHU which was shortlisted to be an IIEST in now on the path of being upgraded to an IIT.

References

External links

* [http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/28iit.htm The IIT story: IIESTs, 3 new IITs on way]
* [http://www.cusat.ac.in/iiest/mhrd_report.pdf Anandkrishnan Committee Report on IIESTs]
* [http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=36955 New IITs/IIM]