Four new IITs and six IIMs are announced on Friday to be established by Government in various states besides upgrading some of the state universities to the status of central universities. The decision is taken to encourage higher education in the country.

The new IITs would be located in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Gujarat and Punjab and the IIMs would come up in Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Uttarakhand and Haryana. These new institutions would be part of the eight IITs and seven IIMs proposed to be set up during the 11th five year plan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has consented for the location of the institutions.

Four IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh and one IIM at Shillong are already announced. Admissions to new IITs in AP, Rajasthan and Bihar as also IIM in Shillong would start from this year.

Government also proposed to convert the Institute of Technology of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) into an IIT. Admission to this institute was already based on the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE).

The 14 central universities aiming at world class standards would be located in Pune, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Patna, Bhopal, Kochi, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Greater Noida and Guwahati. Land for the universities will be defined shortly. However, their locations will be decided on the basis of infrastructure and connectivity which such universities would need.

Dismissing a suggestion that Kerala has been left out in the exercise, HRD Minister Arjun Singh said the southern state has got a central university and a world class university. “It is not correct that Kerala is left high and dry”, he said.

A central university each for Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa is suggested.

Dr Hari Singh Gaur University at Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, Guru Ghasidas University at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Goa University will be converted into central universities.

To a question on the Right to Education Bill, he said a cabinet note on the issue has been circulated and his ministry was awaiting planning commission’s response on it. He hoped the bill to provide free and compulsory education to children in the 6-14 age groups would be introduced and passed in parliament.