Institute for IT, advanced sciences to come up in Assam

It will be a joint venture of the governments and private partners

An Indian Institute of Information Technology and Advanced Sciences (IIITAS), on the lines of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), will be set up by the Government of India and the Assam government in the public-private partnership mode, with the industry partners being the Tata group, Oil India Limited and the Assam Electronics Development Corporation (AMTRON).

S. Ramadurai, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Council on Skills Development, will head the IIITAS.

The proposed institute will be one of 20 new IIITs which the government of India plans to set up across the country. At present there are four IIITs in the country.

This was announced by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here on Monday. Mr. Gogoi said the IIITAS would have a wider mandate, to cover advanced and applied sciences. “It will be the first institute of international standards to be set up by our government in association with the Government of India and industry partners. We have involved national and international experts as members of the Board of Governors to make the proposed institution a centre of excellence,” he said.

The tentative site selected for the institute is 7 km from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bardoloi international airport, near the proposed information technology park to come up on 100 acres.

Mr. Ramadurai told journalists that the academic session of the institute was slated to begin in August 2012. The Board of Governors had their first meeting at Dispur on Monday. Other members of the Board include, Rajeev Sangal, Director of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad; M.S. Ananth, former Director IIT-Madras; O.P. Bhatt, former Chairman of the State Bank of India; Devi Shetty, Chairman Narayana Hrduyalaya, former Chief Scientific Adviser, Government of United Kingdom; M. Madhavan Nambiar, former Special Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology; and Satish K. Tripathi, president of the University of Buffalo, New York.

The Centre will have a share of 57.5 per cent, while the Assam government's share will be 35 per cent and the rest 7.5 per cent share will be picked up by three industry partners.