Note: There is no serious move since past two year for innovation universities which were also referred as World Class Central Universities or National Universitites earlier. While interacting Kapil Sibal had recently mentioned local MP from Kalahandi there is currently no proposal for Innovation/national universities other than 16 central universities due to financial problem. I think such universitites are temporarily frozen and hope if thinks take up in near future Kalahandi is considered for the same.
Call to run varsity like a company
The Telegraph (Kolkata), March 16, 2010
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
New Delhi, March 16: Private firms should be allowed to set up and run the Prime Minister’s promised innovation universities like companies without any government role other than catalysing the project, Indian industry networks have told the Centre.
The innovation universities were conceived by Manmohan Singh as hubs that could emerge as international knowledge magnets that would attract the best teachers and researchers from across the globe for path-breaking research.
Assocham and the PHD Chamber of Commerce have asked the human resource development ministry to exempt private firms interested in starting the innovation varsities from basic requirements all educational institutions have to satisfy. PHD stands for Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
In separate but almost identical letters to the ministry, the two industry chambers have demanded that institutions registered as companies be allowed to start the innovation universities. The demand is controversial because accepting it could signify the first step towards allowing private educational institutions to legally distribute profits.
Under India’s National Education Policy, education remains a strictly not-for-profit industry which means that all institutions — public funded or private — must reinvest profits into education.
All educational institutions must first be registered as a society under the Societies Act — which bars entities from distributing profits — before any course or degree they offer can be recognised.
An industrial group must start a separate society registered under the act to enter the education industry.
But if the demand made by the industry chambers is accepted, private firms can start educational institutions and the profits earned can be listed as company profits.
While both the chambers have suggested allowing companies to run the innovation varsities, PHD has recommended adding a condition barring the distribution of profits for the first 10 years.
The chambers have also proposed — using identical language — that the “visitor will be a professional of international repute identified by sponsors and appointed by the president of the board”. The president, in turn, will be picked by the sponsors.
But at the same time, the chambers want the government to offer tax exemptions and assistance in acquiring land for the universities.
The HRD ministry’s blueprint for the innovation universities already grants them much greater autonomy and lesser government scrutiny than any varsity.
These universities can follow their own pay structure or faculty salaries, set their own fees, and their accounts will not be scrutinised by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Yale offers to mentor 14 'innovation universities'
Business Standard, March 22, 2010
Kirtika Suneja / New Delhi March 22, 2010, 0:25 IST
Yale University is in talks with the ministry of human resource development to develop leadership programmes to mentor the 14 “innovation universities” the government is planning to set up.
The “innovation universities” are part of the HRD ministry’s “brain gain” policy to attract global talent. Fourteen such institutions are to be set up under the eleventh plan (2007-12).
Several other leading foreign universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have also expressed an interest in mentoring these institutions. An official confirmed the ministry met these institutes almost two weeks ago to discuss these plans.
Yale’s talks with the HRD ministry involve mentoring all 14 universities through its leadership programme. Since none of these universities have been built, the Ivy League university’s role is to act as consultant and conceptualiser,
“Minister Sibal has agreed to work with us on the new innovation universities for references and conceptualising. We will be developing leadership programmes for the deans and vice chancellors of these universities,” George Joseph, assistant secretary, Yale University, told Business Standard.
“We don’t plan to set up an India campus anytime soon because there is no way to replicate Yale’s experience anywhere in the world but we would like to mentor the new innovation universities just like the Indian Institutes of Technology were mentored when they were established,” he added.
Each “innovation university” is expected to focus on one area or problem of significance to India, such as urbanisation, environmental sustainability and public health.
MIT has expressed interest in mentoring one university that is focused on the energy sector. "Though MIT's proposal is still under discussion, the university has shown keen interest in this,” a ministry official confirmed.
Meanwhile, Yale also plans to use part of the funds from its Yale India initiative for the leadership programme for these new universities. The initiative began in November 2008 and now has almost $75 million (Rs 338 crore).
“In the next phase of the initiative, we will raise funds for research,” Joseph added.
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