JOIN US The Centre on Wednesday approved a bill to grant statutory status to 15 existing Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) set up under the public-private partnership framework at various places, including Dharwad in Karnataka.
The bill, which seeks to declare these IIITs as institutions of national importance, would also vest in them powers to grant degrees, if it gets the Parliament nod.
The Union cabinet approved the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Public Private Partnership (IIIT-PPP) Bill, 2017 at its meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the prime minister, also approved a proposal for opening 50 new Kendriya Vidyalayas for children of central government employees and defence personnel.
“The proposal to open 50 new Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) under Civil/ Defence sector in the country was approved keeping in view the high demand for these schools for their quality of education and excellent results,” the government said in a statement.
It, however, did not mention the proposed locations of these new schools.
The government said 650 regular posts will be created for the 50 new schools with classes from 1 to 5. The total project cost for the these schools is Rs 1,160 crore.
These new schools would grow every year with addition of one more higher classes and become “full-fledged” schools with the opening of senior secondary classes, up to class 12.
There will then be a requirement of about 4,000 regular posts of various categories – about 2,900 teaching posts and about 1,100 non-teaching posts.
“These new KVs, when fully functional, will provide quality education to approximately 50,000 students in addition to the approximately 12 lakh students already studying in present KVs,” the government added.