Centre gives 7 top IITs power to hike fees without nod Rattled state govt gives freeships to poor students from all communities

Seven top Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will be allowed to fix their own fee structure without consulting the apex council that governs these premier institutes for technical education in the country.

The move to grant them fee autonomy is part of a larger project called Vishwajeet, which is aimed at assisting the IITs to improve their global university rankings. None of the IITs are in the top 200 of the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Ranking for 2016-17, in which IIT Bombay is the lone entry in the 351-400 rankings.

“The decision to fix the fee of students would be delegated to the board of governors (BoG) of these institutions,” a source said.

At present, the fee structure is determined by the IIT council, the top decision-making body, which is chaired by Union human resource development minister and includes IIT directors and board of governors of each institute.

Each IIT charges Rs2 lakh from BTech students, though these institutes spend almost Rs 6 lakh a year on each student.

The IIT council has approved project Vishwajeet on August 24.

In a bid to ease tensions in the Maratha community and reduce the intensity of the ongoing protests, the BJP-led state government on Thursday announced various schemes and freeships for professional courses for economically backward class (EBC) students from all the communities.

The steps seem to be an attempt to extend reservation on the basis of financial backwardness.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also said he had started deliberations with Dalit leaders to prevent the misuse of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 — a major issue for the Maratha agitators — besides reservation for the politically influential community in government jobs and education.