NASSCOM announced that it has formally presented the model DPR (Detailed Project Report) to Ministry of Human Resource Development for establishment of 20 new IIIT Institutes in India
NASSCOM, the trade body representing the Indian IT-BPO industry, announced that it has formally presented the model DPR (Detailed Project Report) to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for establishment of 20 new Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in India, as announced by the Prime Minister in the 11th Five Year Plan. This Model DPR will serve as a template for the preparation of the DPR for each individual IIIT.
Each of the IIITs has been proposed to be set up as a fully autonomous institution, through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The partners in setting up the IIITs would be MHRD, Governments of the respective states where each IIIT will be established, and industry members.
Each IIIT has been envisioned to become a world class academic institute and also evolve into technology/functional Centres of Excellence through a strong focus on research in frontier technology areas. To achieve this objective, it is imperative to attract best-in-class faculty, and students; develop sustainable linkages with industry; and provide an environment conducive for research excellence. To justify the large investments being made in the IIITs, it is important that they provide a sufficient scale at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral research levels.
The location of the IIIT will play an important role towards the realization of these objectives. NASSCOM, in its report, has provided guidelines for the selection of the location for an IIIT and has also indicated 20 locations that may be considered by MHRD and other stakeholders.
Speaking about NASSCOM’s role in preparing this model DPR, Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “Addressing the current skill gap is vital for the Indian IT industry to maintain its growth trajectory and move up the value curve. Skill gap here refers not only to the low employability of the current graduate pool but also to the future needs of the industry in frontier technologies and functional domains. While the former will be addressed through upgrading the curriculum, facilities and faculty development in the academic institutions, the latter will require the academic institutions and industry to collaborate in pre-competitive research and develop specializations. Given the increasing requirements of the IT industry, it is also important for the new institutes to scale up beyond the conventionally accepted numbers at both under-graduate and post-graduate and doctoral research levels.”