BHU get nod to become IIT, Eight new IITs also approved

The Lok Sabha on Thursday cleared the Institutes of Technology Amendment Bill, paving the way for incorporating the eight new IITs under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961.

The Bill also gave the goahead for the Institute of Technology under the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to be converted into an IIT. The eight new IITs in Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Hyderabad, Indore, Mandi, Jodhpur and Ropar were set up in 2008. Incorporating these new IITs would now confer legal status on these institutes enabling them to give degrees to students.

These institutions can now be declared as those of national importance. Even as HRD minister Kapil Sibal presented the Bill, there were protests from some BSP members that the conversion of the Institute of Technology – BHU into an IIT would diminish the character of the university.

Sibal assured the members of the House that according to the amended Bill, the BHU vice-chancellor would head the board of governors of IIT-BHU, so that there was no question of the institute being bifurcated or diminished in importance.