Union cabinet approves six new IITs in the country

The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave ex-post facto approval to a law on setting up six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country.

The approval to the amendment to The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, will also facilitate conversion of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, to an IIT.

The new IITs will come up at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Palakkad in Kerala, Dharwar in Karnataka, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Goa and in Jammu district in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The approval will bring the six new IITs and the ISM within the ambit of the Act of 1961 and declare them as institutions of national importance," a government statement said.