Northeast India's first IIIT to open next year in Tripura

IANS, New Delhi: An Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) will be set up for Rs 128 crore in the northeastern state of Tripura next year to boost the growth of the domestic IT market, an official said here on Friday.

The IIIT will be set up in Bodhjungnagar, one of the northeastern region's biggest industrial hubs, 25 km north of the state capital Agartala. It will be the first such institute in the northeast and will start functioning from the 2014-15 academic year.

"Two state-owned companies, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and NEEPCO (Northeastern Electric Power Corporation), and a private industrial house from West Bengal have expressed willingness to partner for the Tripura IIIT," Higher Education Department Secretary Kishore Ambuly told reporters here.

"Of the Rs 128 crore, the union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) would give Rs 119 crore, and the remaining amount would be shared by ONGC, NEEPCO and the private organisation," he added.

He said that the state government had allotted 50 acres of land for the institute. Besides Tripura, the MHRD had last year given its approval to the setting up of IIITs in Assam and Rajasthan.

"The human resource development ministry has planned to establish 20 IIITs on a not-for-profit public-private partnership (N-PPP) basis in the country," the official said.

So far, 11 state governments have identified land and are in the process of identifying industry partners and fulfilling other criteria.

Currently, there are four IIITs in India at Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Kanchipuram. These autonomous institutions provide undergraduate as well as postgraduate technical education.

The major objective in establishing IIITs is to set up a model of education which can produce best-in-class human resources in IT and harness the multi-dimensional facets of IT in various domains.

These institutions are conceived to be self-sustaining, research-led institutions contributing significantly to the global competitiveness of key sectors of the Indian economy and industry with the application of IT in selected domain areas.