Saturday, July 15, 2006
IIT Mumbai plans campuses in Goa, Pune and has invitation from Ahmedabad
After IIM, Ahmedabad now eyes IIT
MANSI BHATT
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JULY 01, 2006 12:00:12 AM] AHMEDABAD:
You read it right. The home to India’s best-known management school
(IIM-Ahmedabad) is warming up to house an Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT).
The Gujarat government has already written to IIT-Bombay to consider
setting up a ‘satellite’ centre in either Ahmedabad or in the
Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar knowledge corridor.
If the Gujarat government manages to clinch the deal, Ahmedabad will
be the first city in the country to have both an IIM and an IIT.
IIT-Bombay’s director, Ashok Misra confirmed having received a
request from the Gujarat government.
“We are considering the proposal. We need to see what benefits the
state has to offer,” he told ET. The institute has already firmed up
plans for a satellite centre in Goa. There is a plan to set up a new
campus in Mumbai and another satellite centre in Pune, he added.
If the Gujarat government manages to clinch the deal, Ahmedabad will
be the first city in the country to have both an IIM and an IIT.
At the new campuses, the institute will offer the same courses it
offers at its Powai campus. The student intake will also be on par.
But the total intake by IIT-Bombay will go up. Sources in the state
capital, Gandhinagar, said that the government’s education
department wrote to IIT-B in April this year.
The institute was urged to set up a campus in the state. The
institute showed willingness, but has asked for certain relief in
land costs, among other benefits. Misra will meet state government
officials during his visit to Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar next month. He
will be here to kick-off the Gujarat chapter of PanIIT India, a
global body of IITians.
If the institute agrees, it will come as a shot in the arm for the
Modi government’s plans of building Gujarat into a technology hub.
The current government believes IT will be the next growth driver
for the state which is India’s second most industrialised state.
Thousands of IITians already work in its myriad factories.
The expansion plans of the IITs — seven in all — contrary to the
IIMs, has the backing of the Union HRD ministry. The HRD ministry’s
proposal to implement reservation for other backward classes (OBCs)
in higher education has been used by IIT-Bombay to roll out its
expansion plans quickly.
The institute has around 500 acres of land in the Powai campus, but
there is little room for expansion.
At the same time, land prices in Ahmedabad, already known for
top-class institutes of premier education like IIM, National
Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Fashion Technology
(NIFT), Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Centre for
Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) and Physical Research Lab
(PRL), is among the lowest among many tier-II cities.
MANSI BHATT
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JULY 01, 2006 12:00:12 AM] AHMEDABAD:
You read it right. The home to India’s best-known management school
(IIM-Ahmedabad) is warming up to house an Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT).
The Gujarat government has already written to IIT-Bombay to consider
setting up a ‘satellite’ centre in either Ahmedabad or in the
Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar knowledge corridor.
If the Gujarat government manages to clinch the deal, Ahmedabad will
be the first city in the country to have both an IIM and an IIT.
IIT-Bombay’s director, Ashok Misra confirmed having received a
request from the Gujarat government.
“We are considering the proposal. We need to see what benefits the
state has to offer,” he told ET. The institute has already firmed up
plans for a satellite centre in Goa. There is a plan to set up a new
campus in Mumbai and another satellite centre in Pune, he added.
If the Gujarat government manages to clinch the deal, Ahmedabad will
be the first city in the country to have both an IIM and an IIT.
At the new campuses, the institute will offer the same courses it
offers at its Powai campus. The student intake will also be on par.
But the total intake by IIT-Bombay will go up. Sources in the state
capital, Gandhinagar, said that the government’s education
department wrote to IIT-B in April this year.
The institute was urged to set up a campus in the state. The
institute showed willingness, but has asked for certain relief in
land costs, among other benefits. Misra will meet state government
officials during his visit to Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar next month. He
will be here to kick-off the Gujarat chapter of PanIIT India, a
global body of IITians.
If the institute agrees, it will come as a shot in the arm for the
Modi government’s plans of building Gujarat into a technology hub.
The current government believes IT will be the next growth driver
for the state which is India’s second most industrialised state.
Thousands of IITians already work in its myriad factories.
The expansion plans of the IITs — seven in all — contrary to the
IIMs, has the backing of the Union HRD ministry. The HRD ministry’s
proposal to implement reservation for other backward classes (OBCs)
in higher education has been used by IIT-Bombay to roll out its
expansion plans quickly.
The institute has around 500 acres of land in the Powai campus, but
there is little room for expansion.
At the same time, land prices in Ahmedabad, already known for
top-class institutes of premier education like IIM, National
Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Fashion Technology
(NIFT), Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Centre for
Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) and Physical Research Lab
(PRL), is among the lowest among many tier-II cities.
