The annual fee for undergraduate courses in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has been hiked from Rs.90,000 to Rs.2 lakh, official sources said on Thursday.
"The Human Resource Development Minister (Smriti Irani) has approved the increase today (Thursday). It will be applicable from the coming academic session starting in July. The hike will not be applicable to students of second, third and fourth year," ministry officials told IANS here.
"Students from families living below the poverty line or having annual income of Rs.1 lakh, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and physically disabled categories will continue to get full-fee waiver."
"Students from the general category with family's annual income between Rs.1 lakh and Rs.5 lakh will have to pay only one third fees," the officials said.
The hostel and mess fees will be in additional to the increased fee, the officials said.
The government took the fee hike decision after accepting the recommendations of the Anil Kakodkar committee appointed in 2010 on increasing the autonomy of IITs.
"The committee had said that the government must neutralise subsidies on basic fees in these institutions and should invest more in research and improving infrastructure," the officials said, insisting that the government spent up to Rs.3 lakh on every IITian.
As per HRD ministry figures, the IITs have an annual intake of 10,000 students. So, the total number of IIT students is around 40,000.
The IITs have seen an eight-fold hike in fees in the last six years. The last fee hike to Rs.90,000 was effected in 2013.
