The first meeting of the Board of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) — Naya Raipur was held in Mantralaya here on Tuesday.
The IIIT has been established as a University, under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model between the Government of Chhattisgarh and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The meeting was chaired by the newly appointed chairperson of IIIT, Ajai Chowdhry, the founder of India’s leading IT company, HCl.
The IIIT Board set a target of commencing B Tech. programmes, with 60 seats each in computer science and information technology, from academic session 2015-16.
For this, the board set a target of completion of the Academic-cum-Administrative Block of IIIT by August 2014, and completion and commissioning, inclusive of 415-seater hostel accommodation, faculty residences, laboratories, lAN and library by April 2015.
The IIIT Board reviewed in-depth all activities being carried out by NTPC to this end. After the meeting, the board members visited the campus under construction over an area of 25 acres, just 15 minutes away from Swami Vivekanand Airport, Raipur. It also initiated the process of appointment of Vice-Chancellor and Director of the University.
Moreover, the board decided that, going forward, M Tech and Ph D programmes would also be initiated in IIIT, arrangements made for teaching over 1,000 students, and courses in multidisciplinary subjects allied with IT commenced.
The board set the goal of developing IIIT, located in the futuristic new State capital Naya Raipur, being developed over an area of 237 square kilometres, as a world-class university equipped with faculty, infrastructure and student community of global standards. The board members deliberated at length on how to evolve IIIT—Naya Raipur as one of the foremost IIITs in the country. It decided to associate with a leading IIIT as a Mentor Institute for the initial years.
It had been decided that IIIT—Naya Raipur would establish an identity for teaching and research in some such specialised areas of IT in which existing IIITs do not have expertise in. In this connection, keeping in view the teaching and research needs for IT applications in the energy and mining sectors, the board requested NTPC to prepare a preliminary plan for developing IIIT’s capacities and expertise in this direction.
The board also decided that IIIT—Naya Raipur would give particular attention to tailoring the programme to the needs of the IT industry, so that students passing out from IIIT may be employed directly by leading IT companies, without further skill development.
For this, IIIT would establish strong linkage for course development, internships and collaboration with leading IT companies and educational institutions of national importance located in Raipur, among which are included an IIM, an AIIMS, a National law University and an NIT.
At the same time, IIIT would make special efforts to attract reputed faculty from academic institutions and experienced Adjunct faculty from industries, so that both the conceptual and experimental sides of students are strong.
The IIIT would take systematic steps, right from the first batch of 2015 admitted through the JEE entrance examination, for attracting students securing a higher merit rank to opt for IIIT—Naya Raipur.
Amit Agrawal, Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh, Technical Education Department and NTPC representatives A. C. Chaturvedi, Director, Power Management Institute, Noida, G. J. Deshpande, Regional Director, Western Region-II, and S. K. Patnaik, General Manager, lara Power Project were present at the meeting as board members.