Panel chief seeks inclusion of 2 institutes

NEW DELHI : Former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami, the head of the panel constituted to recommend the names for the Institution of Eminence (IoE) status, has asked the human resource development (HRD) ministry to take a relook into cases of two niche institutions that did not get the coveted tag.

In a letter to HRD ministry’s higher education secretary, R Subrahmanyam, Gopalaswami said that the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and Gandhinagar’s Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) are unique institutions working in key highly specialised areas of immense importance to the country’s growth.

“I have written to the HRD ministry as urbanisation is an area of high importance and the IIHS is working in that domain. Similarly, the IIPH is also working in the equally vital area of public health,” Gopalaswami told HT. “Our recommendations explain the reasons for bestowing the status on them.”

The IIPH and IIHS were among the 30 institutions the panel recommended in December 2018 for the IoE tag. In August, 20 of them excluding the two were chosen for the prestigious tag on the basis of the panel’s recommendations. The IIPH and the IIHS were among 15 private institutes recommended for the tag.

An HRD ministry official said that the ministry had received the letter, but the Union cabinet’s nod may be needed to include more institutions. “The permission was to choose 20 IoEs. For increasing the number, the ministry may have to go to the cabinet,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The IoEs would be allowed greater autonomy, admit foreign students, recruit faculty from abroad and follow a flexible course and fee structure to enable them to vault to the ranks of the top global institutions.