When IITs and NITs to venture into other domains to become a real complete University in the line of proposed Central Universities, then why should IIT/NIT, Innovation/central Universtities etc be located in one single location/city rather than exploring another town/city not having any such facilities nearby?

Note: Undivided district in Orissa not having any form of national institution for higher education or research so far are Kalahandi, Boud-Phulbani, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, whereas Balangir and Sambalpur have institute in the level of polytechnic like Food & Craft Institute and Indian Institute of Handloom Technology respectively. Ganjam is proposed to have IIIT, Koraput has central university, Cuttack has Cetral Rice Institute, Balasore has DRDO Lab, Puri has many including IIT, NISER, IoP, ILS, etc, Dhenkanal has IIMC and MCRGIMSR (MCL Medical College) and Sundergadh has NIT.


IITs to soon venture into other domains
Expressbuzz, May 18, 2010
Sameer Ranjan Bakshi

BANGALORE: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will soon go beyond their traditional domain of technological education. Law, management, social sciences, and even medicine are fields that they will make their foray into.


Very soon, the IITs will offer education in many fields apart from technology and engineering. Talks are on to conduct post graduate programme in medical science in premier IITs.

IIT Hyderabad and PES Bangalore have recently started collaborative biomedical research projects. This will act as a prelude for IIT Hyderabad before starting PG courses in medical sciences.

"The ministry of human resources development is supporting us and we are discussing the modalities and framework of the courses. After a decision is taken in this regard, we will be able to offer PG courses in medical science," said Professor U B Desai, director of IIT Hyderabad.

"We are not only looking into medicine. IIT, Bombay already has Shailesh J Mehta School of Management and IIT Kharagpur has Vinod Gupta School of Management," he said. "We want to expand into management and medicine and give a holistic spectrum of education."

Dr V C Vivekanandan, former dean of Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur, said, "The law school in IIT Kharagpur started in 2006. The first batch has just passed out. If it is successful, we can replicate it in other IITs."

He added, "Now technology is not standalone. It is related to management and law. A number of senior managers in MNCs have a technical background. So, now almost all IITs have a management school... Similarly, medicine is not separated from technology. Medical technology is in fact the buzzword."

Professor Ranvir Singh, ViceChancellor of National Law School, Delhi University, and president's nominee for selection in IITs, however was a bit skeptical about IITs moving beyond their domain.

He said, "IITs should first ensure that they have adequate number of teachers before venturing into different streams. I don't think there is a problem for management schools in IITs as they have a good interaction with industry. But medicine and law are subjects which they should tread carefully. They must ensure that they maintain the standard and quality in these fields."
  
Proposal to introduce MBBS course in IITs in jeopardy

ndtv, May 16, 2010


A proposal to allow IITs to start courses in medicine will be delayed with the Law Ministry


sending back a Cabinet note of the HRD Ministry with a recommendation that further discussions were needed on the issue.

The Law Ministry has suggested that the HRD Ministry should discuss the matter further with the Health Ministry, which had earlier disfavoured such a proposal.

The Law Ministry has sent back a Cabinet note of the Ministry of HRD (MHRD) regarding amendment to the IIT Act for incorporating 'Medicine' in it to enable the elite institutes offer courses in that discipline.

"Law Ministry has said further discussion should be conducted with the Health Ministry on the issue of IITs' plan to offer courses in medicine," official sources said.

The MHRD proposes to amend the IIT Act, 1961, to incorporate 'Medicine' in it and include names of eight new IITs under the Act to give them status of statutory bodies.

The amendment of the IIT Act aims to enable the institutes to offer programmes bringing the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

The IIT Kharagpur has already proposed to start a medical institution in collaboration with Indian Railways and introduce programmes like MBBS, MD, MS and Ph.D.

The MHRD had earlier sought the views of the Health Ministry which opined that establishing medical colleges by the IITs for starting conventional medicine courses would not be advisable.

However, the MHRD rejected the suggestions of Health Ministry and wanted to go ahead with an amendment in IIT Act for the purpose. It moved a Cabinet note for the purpose.

It said the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all developed and most of the developing countries are seen going hand-in-hand.

At a meeting of experts organised by the Health Ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or commencing MBBS courses.