Image Courtesy : www.facebook.com/DrRPNishank

On Feb 22, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank directed the 54th meeting of the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology to discuss the implementation of NEP 2020 (New Education Policy).

During the virtual meeting, Dr. Pokhriyal directed IITs to design Institute Development Plan as envisaged in New Education Policy 2020 to upgrade the transportability of instructors between institutions and industries which will further promote the collaborations between academia and industry.

Earlier, Under the leadership of Dr. K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of Standing Committee for IIT Council, a committee was constituted to suggest faculty's recruitment in IITs. On the recommendations of Dr. Radhakrishnan, 04 working groups were constitute on NEP 2020 related issue:

• Group 1: Graded Autonomy, Empowered and Accountable BoG and Director

• Group 2: Grooming distinguished academics for the directorship of IITs

• Group 3: Reform and restructuring of the Academic Senate

• Group 4: Innovate Funding Mechanisms.

The reports of these groups including a new group's report on faculty development will be presented to in a meeting headed by the Union Education Minister, as per the release. In 54th meeting, the council also suggested to arrange an Online IIT R & D (Research and Development) fair which will showcase the quality research work and R&D works being done by IITs.

Dr. Pokhriyal, highlighting several initiatives undertaken by the government, also notified about approval of funds to upgrade the overall infrastructure of the 4 IITs at Delhi, Madras, Mumbai and Kharagpur. He also spoke about making IITs interdisciplinary institutions for comprehensive growth in all education disciplines without losing its attention from Scientific Research and Technology Development. He also called upon IITs to benefit from recently announced National Research Foundations scheme.