Drawing flak from various quarters for its decision to grant the 'Institution of Eminence' (IoE) status to the proposed Jio Institute, the HRD Ministry on Tuesday said it is the institute's "ability" to break into top global rankings that weighed in its favour.
The IoE granted to Jio Institute is "provisional" and exists only in the form of Letter of Intent, the Human Resource Development Ministry said.
"They have been given three years to come up with the building and other infrastructure ready, failing which the status will be withdrawn," HRD Ministry's Higher Education Secretary R. Subrahmanyam told the media here.
Jio Institute is one of the six higher education institutes granted IoE tag on Monday by the Ministry.
He clarified that a committee responsible for selecting the IoEs relied on different criteria like availability of land and building to shortlist the institutes. The official said the Ministry was "convinced" about the committee's decision to select Jio Institute.
He said that the committee's preference for institutes which it thinks have the "ability to break into the global rankings", a prime criterion, also got Jio the berth.
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"Under the regulation, there are three categories in which the institutes were to be selected... Jio Insititute was selected in the 'greenfield category' wherein institutes are not (in existence) right now but have a proposal...," Subrahmanyam said.
In the greenfield category, the official said, 11 institutes had applied, of which only the Jio Institute got the provisional nod.
"The committee, in its wisdom, after listening to their proposals and their ability to mobilise land and other resources and their vision, arrived at the decision that there was only one eligible institute," the official said.
Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, IIT-Bombay and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (all public sector), and BITS Pilani and Manipal Academy of Higher Education(private sector) were five other institutes granted the IoE.
The Secretary said the Jio Institute will be located in Karjat town near Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra over 800 acres of land.
According to the proposal submitted by the group to the committee, the JIO Institute will use Rs 9,500 crore in capital expenditure.
As per the University Grants Commission (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017, the Ministry was to select 20 IoEs -- 10 private and 10 public.
It had formed an Empowered Expert Committee to shortlist the entries solicited from the institutes on the basis of their research calibre and other criteria.
The government received 114 applications (74 public, 40 private) in total from the higher education institutes, of which six were recommended by the EEC for IoE tag.
Each public institute will get financial assistance up to Rs 1,000 crore for five years under the scheme.
--IANS
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