Funding
As per the discussion with the Committee members, the IIESTs are supposed to receive funding similar to that of IITs after the planned upgrade over next five years. IIESTs can achieve more government support/funding by uniting together on a collective bargaining principle. Each college will receive one-time amount (spread over five years) of 500 crore (US$91 million) for infrastructure improvement and annual funding of 50 crore (US$9.1 million).
The five institutions have been short-listed based on the final Anandakrishnan report are as follows:
- IIEST Kolkata Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (BESU)
- IIEST Cochin Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT)
- IIEST Hyderabad Osmania University College of Technology
- IIEST Visakhapatanam Andhra University College of Engineering
Out of the four, the only institution on which the government has moved forward was BESU, As for CUSAT, the proposal was rejected in November 2010 by the state government. The then Education Minister of Kerala, M. A. Baby, has said since CUSAT is already a university the status change will only downgrade it, and that they are seeking an upgrade to an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) instead. However, with the change of government following the elections in 2011, P. K. Abdu Rabb, the next Minister of Education, said they have given up on upgrade to IIT, and are seeking upgrade to IIEST again. The rest of the institutes are being kept pending.
Read more about this topic: Indian Institute Of Engineering Science And Technology