Updated on: Friday, October 02, 2015
HRD minister Smriti Irani on Thursday said common counselling helped reduce stress on students and also vacant seats in IITs and NITs.
Addressing the meeting of council of NITs, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research at Warangal, HRD minister Smriti Irani said less than two per cent of seats remained vacant after five rounds of counselling.
HRD minister Smriti Irani emphasized that each NITs/IISERs should be an island of excellence in innovation, design, and research in specific areas to collaborate and grow together.
The Council deliberated on the proposal to have 'one exam, one rank, one counselling' for all institutes of national importance, and also on the proposal to do away with 40 per cent weightage for the Board exam. Since there are other stakeholders who need to be consulted, it was decided to constitute a core committee examine and recommend suitable course of action.
The Council adopted a funding mechanism under which government will appreciably enhance investments in capital assets, labs, equipment and research, leaving the bulk of running expenses to be recovered through student fee.
The increased fee would be met 100 per cent by student - loans at zero per cent rate of interest. This will help in building NITs into robust institutions, HRD minister Smriti Irani said.