Cabinet approves 7 new IIMs

Updated on: Thursday, August 27, 2009

New Delhi: The Union cabinet approved the setting up of seven new IIMs and the interest subsidy on educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections.

The seven new IIMs, already announced two years ago with even locations of a few of them having been finalized are coming up in Tamil Nadu. J&K, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

In Jharkhand, the IIM will be situated in Ranchi and in the initial years will function from a government training institute. The IIM in Chhattisgarh will be in Raipur, the one in Tamil Nadu in Tiruchirapalli, while Haryanaâ€™s will be in Rohtak. The location of IIMs in Uttarakhand, J&K and Rajasthan has not been decided yet.

Around Rs 250 crore are required for each IIM to be fully functional.

The finance minister in his budget speech announced the interest subsidy scheme. It will roughly benefit five lakh students and provide a big boost to poor students to pursue higher education.

Students whose family income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum will be eligible under the scheme.

The scheme will cover loans taken by students from scheduled banks to pursue any approved course in technical and professional streams in recognised institutes in the country.

These students will avail the benefit for a moratorium period, which is one year from completion of the course, or six months from joining a job, whichever is earlier.

Cabinet approves 7 new IIMs

More Education news