Rajya
Sabha today passed the Indian Institute of
Information Technology Public Private
Partnership (IIIT-PPP) Bill 2017. The bill has already been
passed in Lok Sabha. Today in Rajya Sabha Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of
State (HRD) told that this bill is required to grant degrees to the students IIITs set
up in PPP mode. It will also grant statutory status to the fifteen IIITs
established in PPP mode and declare them Institutes of National Importance. The salient features of the bill are as follows:
›
·
·
IIITs in PPP
mode has the concerned State Government and industry partners as stakeholders
and, therefore, have a different governance structure, including composition of
Board of Governors, nomination of Chairman, appointment of Director, etc. It is
also supposed to be self-sustainable within 5 years of commencement and,
therefore, needs to have appropriate financial process in place.
›
The
Guiding Principle
– Provide autonomy to the Institutes but at the same time maintain a fine
balance between autonomy and accountability of the IIITs in PPP mode.
›
The
current scheme
·
Funding is Centre:
State: Industry Partner in the ratio of 50:35:15 (for NER, 57.5:35:7.5).
State Government, in addition, provides land.
·
The approved project
cost of each IIT-PPP is Rs 128 crore to be shared among the Centre, State and
industry partner(s) in the above ratio. In addition, Rs 10 crore to be provided
by the central government for recurring expenditure.
›
Current
Status of IIITs-PPP
·
Total 15 started
so far and covered by the Bill:
o
5 (five) in
2013-14 at Kota, Chittoor, Guwahati, Vadodara, Tiruchirapalli.
o
3 (three) in
2014-15 - Sonepat,
Kalyani, Una
o
4
(four) in 2015-16 - Lucknow, Senapati, Dharwad, Kottayam
o
3
(three) in 2016-17 - Nagpur, Pune, Ranchi
·
3
(three) to start in 2017-18 - Bhopal, Surat, Bhagalpur
›
Consultation
Process
·
Inter-ministerial,
including Finance and Law
·
Draft Bill
was uploaded on website and comments were invited.
·
Draft Bill
was also circulated earlier to State Governments and Institutes and comments
were invited till 30th December 2016
·
Intensive
consultation with all stakeholders (concerned State Governments, industry
partners, Chairpersons and Directors of the Institutes) on 23rd December
2016
›
Some
important provisions of the Bill
›
Role of
Industry Partner(s) [S. 11(6)]
·
Expected to
contribute towards research labs and projects, internship, faculty chairs etc.
from time to time.
·
Depute
industry professionals as adjunct faculty
·
Students
to do research projects with Industry professionals as mentors.
·
Faculty
to have sabbaticals for short period with industry.
·
Internship,
job opportunities for students of IIITs
·
Sponsor
PhDs. For employees of Industry.
·
To
provide inputs on course curriculum
›
Board
of Governors (Section 14)
·
The Board of
Governors shall be the principal policy making and executive body (In case
of centrally funded IIITs/ IITs/ NITs, important policy decisions are taken by
the IIIT Council).
·
All members,
other than the Chairperson and nominees of Central / State Govt. and Industry
Partners, shall be appointed by the Board (unlike centrally funded IIITs in
which IIIT Council nominates 4 members to the BoG).
·
The
Chairperson shall be nominated by the Visitor.
·
The BoG has
the power to grant degrees, diplomas, fellowships and scholarships.
·
BoG has to
put in place policies to make the institute self-sustaining in 5 (five) years.
·
The Board has
the power to conduct enquiry against the Director (S. 23).
›
Appointment
of Director (S. 23)
·
The process
of appointment of Director is initiated by the Board itself.
·
Chairperson
of BoG is also the Chairperson of the Search-cum-Selection Committee (ScSC) (In
Central Government funded IIITs, chairperson of ScSC is separately nominated by
the the Minister of HRD).
·
Representatives
of private partner, State / Central Govt in ScSC.
·
Two other
members of ScSC to be nominated by the Board itself from amongst eminent
technocrats, industrialists, administrators, educationists, scientists, etc. (In
centrally funded IIITs, one eminent person is nominated by the Minister, HRD).
·
Visitor is
the approving authority.
›
Coordination
Forum (S. 38)
·
It has only
coordination and advisory role and not of policy making (unlike centrally
funded IIITs which also have policy making role).
·
Chaired by
Minister, HRD.
·
Directors of
all institutes are members
·
Three persons
having special knowledge in industry, academia etc.
·
Representations
provided by rotation- Four each from State Govts., Chairpersons of IIIT PPP and
Industry Partners- to keep it at a reasonable size.
·
Official representations
are very limited.
›
Financial
Provisions and Audit (Chapter-IV)
·
The Central
& State Govts. both may pay to the institute funds after due appropriations
including scholarships or fellowships (S. 26).
·
The Board may
create endowment funds for receiving donations (S. 27).
·
The accounts
shall be audited by CAG or any other person appointed in accordance with the
provisions of the extant rules (S. 28).
*****
GG/AK