The Hindu : All RECs are now NITs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 17, 2003

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All RECs are now NITs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 16. With the Regional Engineering College (REC), Srinagar, finally becoming a National Institute of Technology (NIT), the Human Resource Development Ministry's year-old plan of "upgrading'' RECs to the level of the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is complete. At least, structurally.

For, all 17 erstwhile RECs of the country have now formally become NITs. The Srinagar REC was declared an NIT and granted "Deemed to be University" status this week under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission. Consequently, NIT, Srinagar, has become a fully-funded Central Government institution.

Though the Srinagar NIT now comes directly under the Centre's jurisdiction, the existing admission quota, wherein 50 per cent of the seats are reserved for students hailing from the State, will continue. At the administrative level, the earlier system of having the State's Minister of Technical Education as chairman of the institution has been abandoned. Instead an "eminent technologist/ engineer/ industrialist/ educationist will be the chairman. Also, it will have a Board of Governors made up of eminent persons from the fields of academics, industry or technology.

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