Officials quickly backtrack on honour given to Jio Institute

GOVERNMENT SAYS EMINENCE AWARD NOT FINAL AS ONLY ‘LETTER OF INTENT’ WAS ISSUED

Under fire for declaring the Jio Institute of Reliance Foundation, which exists only on paper, as an ‘Institution of Eminence’, the federal government yesterday clarified that the move was not final as Jio had only got a “letter of intent”.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had on Monday announced the name of six institutes — three public and three private — Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)Bombay, Indian Institute of Science (IISC)-Bengaluru and IIT-Delhi, Jio Institute, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani and Manipal University.

Proposals

Defending the move, UGC said Jio Institute was selected under rules for greenfield category for new or proposed institutions.

“At this juncture, there is only a letter of intent. They are not same as established institutions. For a greenfield institution, they should have land, equipment, building, staff, etc and for that, they need a lead time. They have to first meet the requirements,” Head of Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) N. Gopalaswami told media.

He said Jio was given three years’ time to make the cut.

“So they have been given three years’ time. It is only after that they will be given the status,” Gopalaswami added.

The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry yesterday said in a statement that it received 11 private proposals but its panel felt that only Jio cleared all four factors — land availability, highly qualified and experienced core team, funding and strategic vision with clear milestones and action plan.”

Yet to qualify

Education Secretary R. Subramanyam also clarified that Jio Institute was yet to qualify for the tag of “Institution of Eminence.”

“If they set up a good campus within three years and have a good faculty and fulfil all the criteria, they will get the ‘Institute of Eminence’ status. Right now they don’t have the tag, they only have a letter of intent,” he said.

He dismissed reports that Jio would receive a grant of Rs10 billion (Dh534 million).