We all know the quality of higher Educational Institutes of India. None of the Indian Institutes has been able to secure a place in the top 200 institutes of the World Institutes Rankings.
To improve this, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development has introduced a scheme to set up 20 Institutes of Eminence out of which, ten will be public and the other ten will be private institutes. These institutes should have a proper plan to rank in the Global 500 rank within the next 10 years.
How many institutes will be chosen as Institutes of Eminence?
What benefits will be given to these institutes?
The government will grant some benefits to the institutes chosen. The public institutes will be given complete autonomy and a fund of Rs 1,000 crores, while the private institutes will be given complete autonomy from stringent government regulations.Here is a small list of the incentives offered to the Institutes of Eminence:
a. The Institutions of Eminence would be free to admit additionally foreign students on merit subject to a maximum of thirty percent of the strength of admitted domestic students.
b. The Institutions of Eminence would be free to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restriction.
c. The Institutions of Eminence would have the freedom to determine the domestic student fees, subject to the condition that no student who gains admission should be turned away for lack of finance. This should be accompanied by a credible programme of scholarships and loans to ensure that the needy are able to pursue higher studies without any financial problems.
d. The Institutions of Eminence shall have complete flexibility in fixing of curriculum and syllabus, with no UGC mandated curriculum structure.
e. The Institutions of Eminence will have the freedom to offer online courses as part of their programmes with the restriction that not more than twenty percent of the programme should be in online mode. However, this twenty percent restriction would not preclude the Institutions from offering certificate courses entirely through online mode.
Read the full list here.
What is the selection criteria to be an Institute of Eminence?
Here are a few things expected from a government controlled institute to get the IoE tag:
- It should preferably be multi-disciplinary and have both teaching and research focus of an exceptionally high quality.
- Apart from the regular courses, it should also offer various inter-disciplinary courses, including in areas of emerging technology and interest as well as those of relevance to the development concerns of countries like India.
- It should have a good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty. Institutions which succeed in mobilizing a broadly diverse national and international academic staff are likely to maximize knowledge capacity.
Which are the first institutes chosen to be given the IoE tag?
In the first round of selection, the MHRD gave the tag of IoE to IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi and IISc Bengaluru, and BITS Pilani, Manipal University, and Jio Institute. 
Why was Jio chosen as an Institute of Eminence?
Jio Institute was chosen over many other private institutes including Krea University in Tamil Nadu, which has Raghuram Rajan as an advisor, and Vedanta University in Odisha. Even the established and famed Indian School of Business Hyderabad was passed over.
Reasons for choosing the Jio Institute
- Other applicants did not own land and were negotiating with the government for tax exemption. On the other hand, Jio had land (Reliance started acquiring land in 2003 [source]) and was soon going to start building the required infrastructure.
- Jio Institute has proper funds to manage the institute and achieve the required milestones.
- The primary goal is to secure a rank in the Global institutes rankings. Jio Institute presented a well-formed report on their plans to achieve the results. This went to their side.
Was Jio's money chosen over other well-established institutes?
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