E-Paper
HRD adopts wait and watch policy over ‘Institution of Eminence’ tag on Jadavpur and Anna varsities
Under the Institution of Eminence scheme, the public varsities chosen for the coveted tag can get an additional ₹1000 crore for developing themselves.
The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has adopted a wait and watch policy regarding the conferring of the prestigious ‘Institution of Eminence’ tag on Jadavpur and Anna Universities.
The HRD ministry had earlier set the ball rolling for providing this coveted tag to nearly a dozen new institutions like the Delhi University, IIT Madras, Banaras Hindu University, University of Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, in the public sector and Vellore Institute of Technology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Bengaluru), Jamia Hamdard (New Delhi), Shiv Nadar University (Greater Noida) etc in the private sector.
However, the granting of status to Anna University in Tamil Nadu and Jadavpur University in West Bengal was not initiated due to a procedural issue, an official said.
Like the other institutions, the University Grants Commission had recommended the prestigious tag to these varsities as well. However, there was a caveat that these varsities would be considered only after the respective state governments agree to share up to 50% of the maximum of the ₹1000 crore each that they will be given over the next five years.
Under the Institution of Eminence scheme, the public varsities chosen for the coveted tag can get an additional ₹1000 crore for developing themselves.
The HRD ministry had written to the two state governments but have not yet received a response, a senior official said.
Asked about the future course of action, the official said “no decision has been taken as yet”.
“We have adopted a wait and watch policy,” he said.
The Institution of Eminence scheme is one of the ambitious projects of the Modi government which aims to catapult Indian varsities to the top of International rankings on education.
Till now, the efforts, however, have met with limited success with internationalisation of campuses being an area where Indian varsities consistently scored below par.
The HRD ministry has been making efforts to bring more students to campuses. The ministry has also contemplated a ‘Gian Plus’ scheme under which more Indian teachers would be able to go and teach in varsities abroad.
