2 education bills passed

After a long wait, Parliament on Monday passed HRD Ministry’s two key bills declaring five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as institutions of national importance.

The Rajya Sabha passed the National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2010,  and The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2011, by a voice vote. The passage of the National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill came as a relief to the IISER graduates who completed their courses from Pune and Kolkata in May last year but could not get their degrees till now because the institutes did not have the power to issue degrees. The graduates of the two institutes were only issued provisional certificates.

The 2010 Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 19 but it could not get through in the Rajya Sabha despite it being listed in the House business for six consecutive days in Winter Session last year.

IISERs were conceived to bridge the gap between India and China in academic excellence. But, the uncertainty on the legal status of their degrees had cast a shadow on the career of its graduates. Other than Pune and Kolkata, IISERs have been set up in Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.