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- Older IITs sought around Rs. 1,500 crores over a period of five years for the project.
- Currently, only seven IITs out of 23 are a part of Vishwajeet project.
IITs or Indian Institutes of Technology are planning to seek more funds from the government to make way for 'Vishwajeet', a project that aims at helping the engineering institutes to achieve higher rankings at the global level. Older IITs sought around Rs. 1,500 crores over a period of five years for the project. The project was announced by the government last year but is yet to be launched formally. Currently, only seven IITs out of 23 are a part of the Vishwajeet project.
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An official associated with a renowned IIT pointed that the allocation for IITs, particularly older ones have fallen drastically in the past few years. However, an official of HRD Ministry indicated that the government had increased the allocation to IITs by Rs. 2,468 crores to Rs. 7,856 crore for the financial year 2017-18. The officials of IITs were aware of the hike in the government allocation. They are demanding a special grant for project Vishwajeet.
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According to sources, the fund allocation by the government to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay was Rs. 200 crore in the year 2015-16. The fund allocation was dropped to Rs. 157 crore last year. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee has witnessed a drop in the allocation of funds by 33% over the last three years. From the above statistics, it is quite evident that the funds allocated by the government were not enough thereby disabling these institutes to lay more emphasis on research activities.
Earlier, the government had promised special funds for project Vishwajeet. However, the IITs have not received any sanction letter so far in this regard. The situation of other older IITs is also similar as they are also facing a financial crunch.
Allocation of funds for project Vishwajeet will boost up the global rankings of the premier Indian institutes. Therefore, it is time for the government to take a call on it.
