The Odisha Government is now seriously scouting for partners to set up another Indian Institute Information Technology (IIIT) in the State to take the advantage of Digital India.
DoEIT and PPP Principal Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena is taking up the matter with the State Government to rope in a major player from the corporate sector.
With Prakash Javadekar now being the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), the IIITs are expected to get a boost as these elite institutions would be granted the tag of Institute of National Importance by the MHRD.
Earlier, Smriti Irani as the MHRD Minister was not very much interested though Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to make these institutions as Institutes of National Importance.
leading NRO educationist Chitta Baral has also urged the Odisha Government to move quickly in this regard as delay may cost the State. Prof Baral, who teaches at the Arizona State University, has been pursuing the State Government for aiming at more institutions of higher learning. Out of the country’s 20 IIITs, partners have already roped in for 16 IIITs and four others are scouting for partners, said sources.
The Union Government has already sanctioned an IIIT for Odisha, and now the State’s DoEIT is trying for an eligible partner to join hands for setting up a second IIIT on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
While the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is partnering for IIITs at Ranchi, Nagpur and Pune, it is showing little interest for Odisha and is supporting IIIT in Kerala. In fact, the Tata Steel is making its fortune from Odisha but is ignoring the State as it can get away with it because the State Government has a soft corner for the steel major.
It was expected that like Jharkhand, the Tata Group would take interest in Odisha, but sources said there is a lukewarm response for the proposed IIIT to be set up in the PPP mode.
Experts say that regardless of a site where the proposed IIIT comes up, a detailed project report (DPR) should be prepared and presented to the MHRD at the earliest.