Jio Institute not given Institution of Eminence status: Javadekar

New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said Jio Institute has not been granted the status of Institution of Eminence yet, and has only been issued a Letter of Intent, under which it should complete the process of setting up in three years.

"As far as Jio Institute is concerned, let me make it very clear that it has nothing to do with the government. The Letter of Intent has been issued by the government to this Institute under which the Institute should be set up within three years. Only then the government will grant it," the Union Human Resource Development Minister told the Lok Sabha.

He said: "No greenfield university, which is not in existence but has a plan to come up in future, has been given the status of Institution of Eminence. They have been only issued Letter of Intent with a clear guideline of what they should do for three years, complete the process and then only they will be granted status after verification and inspection," he said during a reply in Question Hour.

The Minister said there were 114 applications -- 74 from public institutions, 29 from private universities and 11 greenfield category universities -- which did not exist but had a plan to have major investment in education and better education. 

"A committee headed by N. Gopalaswami included Tarun Khanna of Harvard University, Renu Khator of University of Houston, Pritam Singh (former Director of IIM Lucknow) took presentations from all of them.

"The criteria were to have a 15-year vision and five-year implementation plan," he said replying to a question regarding the criteria adopted for granting the Institutions of Eminence status.

The question was raised by TMC MP Prasun Banerjee.

"The implementation plan includes academic plan, recruitment plan, research plan, administrative plan, infrastructure plan, collaboration plan, finance plan, governance plan, outputs and outcomes per year, and clear annual milestones and action plan," said Javadekar.

"So, all these aspects were comprehensively considered by the committee. The government kept it at arm's length because this was an empowered committee," he added.

The minister also said out of 11 institutes which were to be selected under the greenfield category, only one had been recommended. 

"So, the issue is very clear. The government is giving Rs 1,000 crore only to public institutes, that is, IITs and IISCs. No single paisa is given to the private institutes," he said.

Raising a question, TMC MP Sougata Roy said: "I appreciate the Minister's effort in bringing about improvement. What steps are being taken by the government to bring the best Indian professors working abroad to work in Indian universities or institutes of technology?"