Panel to help IITs to stay connected

Stop working in individual silos, and collaborate more with other institutions and with industry – that's the message the government today sent out to the country's top engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Stop working in individual silos, and collaborate more with other institutions and with industry – that's the message the government today sent out to the country's top engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology.

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The human resource development (HRD) ministry has set up a panel under former Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) director general RA Mashelkar to drive greater collaboration between the IITs, other educational institutions and industry.

The panel's mandate was finalized on Thursday at a meeting between the HRD ministry and Directors of the IITs, top government sources told HT. "The IITs, it was felt, need to connect more with other academic institutions and with industry than they do at present. The panel will both devise a strategy to fill this gap, and will oversee the IITs' movement towards this goal over time," an IIT director said.

Officials said the idea was first discussed at the last meeting of the IIT Council – the highest decision making body of the Institutes.

The HRD and IIT Directors also finalized plans to separate the IIT Council from the government, as was reported by HT on May 4. The Council is chaired by the HRD minister and comprises directors and chairmen of all IITs and IISc Bangalore, and academicians.