The All India Council for Technical Education , which is commonly known as AICTE, has informed the Lok Sabha on 15th July 2019, Monday, that new conventional disciplines that have low employment potential will not be allowed by the council from the academic session of 2020-2021. The AICTE will only permit emerging fields like Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) .
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the Union Cabinet Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), responded to all the supplementary during the Question Hour and said that engineering students are given training so that they can be a part of the famous ‘Make in India’ initiative that has been started by the Government of India.
The AICTE has brought forth several steps in order to bridge the gap that exists between industry requirements and the courses that are taught at engineering institutes. One of these initiatives is making internships compulsory for all engineering students.
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Pokhriyal responded to a question on employability and said that students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) get employment in 200 of the top 500 companies of the world. Shashi Tharoor (Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha) claimed that there is a significant mismatch between the demands of the industry and the courses that are being imparted. He laid emphasis on the removal of this mismatch.
In his written response, Ramesh Pokhriyal said that the All India Council for Technical Education will not permit new conventional courses with low potential of employment from the academic year of 2020-2021. It will only allow new and emerging fields like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Quantum Computing, Robotics, Cyber Security, Data Sciences, and 3D Printing and Design.
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Pokhriyal also said that the organisation of Smart India hackathons is under process and will be started soon so as to encourage innovations which can act as a “funnel” for Startup India.