During the review meeting, Pokhriyal highlighted the importance of quality education and the need to create as many vocational courses as possible in order to push the youth into the employment stream without delay. The Minister advised the officers to set up a definite target of employment generation through these courses and also to customize these courses region-wise by providing proper linkages with industry and trade plus other employment opportunities available in that particular region. The skill and education should be given as per the aptitude which should be identified at an early stage, the Minister added. The Minister was briefed about the new vocational courses designed by the Ministry to cater the requirements of industry.
The HRD Minister asked the officers to prepare an action plan on how the various Indian languages across the country can be developed in an integrated manner. We should also try to do further research in the wealth of knowledge hidden in our ancient texts and integrate them with modern day science, the Minister opined. He directed that the foundation stone of the six IIMs, which are in pipeline, should be laid at the earliest.
Commenting on Study in India programme, the HRD Minister said that India-centric courses should be started to attract foreign students. Branding of these courses should be undertaken, for example in the field of yoga, spirituality, Ayurveda among others since these are specific to India and have a great potential.
The twenty IIITs are partially supported by the government and are required to become self-sufficient in a short span of time.
The IIIT Council also approved lateral movement of students of one IIIT to another IIIT or any other foreign institute for short periods during summer or internship.
According to an official statement, similarly, the faculty can also move to another IIIT for a semester or half a semester in order to tide over the shortage of faculty. It was also decided to start joint degree (PhD) programme with other IIITs in line with the IITs.
The decision were taken at the fourth meeting of the IIIT Council here, with Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' in the chair.
At the meeting, the Chairman, was is the HRD Minister, was authorised to appoint a Director in case of vacancy for short periods, on temporary charge.
It was also decided to inculcate entrepreneurship among students. The Minister said that each institute must identify or specific domain of expertise for themselves based on which their national and international branding would be done.
The HRD Ministry will examine a proposal for enhancing the budgetary support to each IIIT by Rs 50 crore towards capital and Rs 10 crore toward revenue to enable them to meet the increase in cost of material and manpower over the decade.
In a major move to support weaker students who are admitted to IIITs, the IIIT Forum advised the IIITs to provide options to such students to opt for BSc degree in the respective disciplines, so that they get the basic degree and look for appropriate employment opportunities.
Those who have qualified in the JEE Advanced 2020 will have to register for JoSAA Counselling. The registration can be done online at josaa.nic.in.
JoSAA, which conducts admissions to IITs, IIITs, NITs and other government-funded technology institutes (GFTIs), recently announced some changes in the admission process.
As per the official statement of JoSAA, a total of six rounds of seat allotment will be there this year as opposed to seven rounds conducted earlier.
JoSAA has reportedly taken the decision to conclude the admission process before Diwali and to start the new academic session immediately after the festival.
Besides, there will be no physical reporting by the candidates this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and hence, admission can be confirmed by submitting the required documents online.
NOTE: Online submission of all the required documents and payment of seat acceptance fee are must to continue to be a part of JoSAA-2020 till the final round of seat allocation.
“Candidate whose seat has been confirmed by JoSAA can Withdraw from the seat allocation process starting from the 2nd round and up to the 5th round of seat allocation before the last round of seat allocation (i.e., no Withdrawal will be allowed after 6th November 2020),” reads the official statement of JoSAA.