New Delhi: The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has constituted a panel under former Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) director general RA Mashelkar to make better cooperation between the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), other educational institutions and industry.
The panel formed by the government has a message for the country's top engineering schools, the IITs, to stop working in individual silos, and collaborate more with other institutions and with industry. As per the sources, the panel's mandate was finalized on Thursday i.e. on May 5, 2011, at a meeting between the HRD ministry and Directors of the IITs.
According to a statement issued by an IIT director, it was felt that the IITs need to connect more with other academic institutions and with industry than they do at present. He also added that the panel will both devise a strategy to fill this gap, and will oversee the IITs' movement towards this goal over time. Besides, the officials said the idea was first discussed at the last meeting of the IIT Council - the highest decision making body of the Institutes.
Furthermore, as per sources, during the meeting the HRD and IIT Directors also finalized plans regarding the separation of the IIT Council from the government. Moreover, the Council is chaired by the HRD minister and comprises directors and chairmen of all IITs and IISc Bangalore, and academicians.
