Indian Institute of Information Technology(IIIT) to Set Up Their Campus in North-East

Indian Institute of Information Technology is expected to function as an international learning centre from a location near the LGBI (Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport) on the outskirts of the city from August 2012, the IIITAS – conceived in the PPP mode with shares of the Assam Government, the Centre, and Tata, Oil India Limited and AMTRON – would have world-class infrastructure for academics and research work in the fields of IT and sciences.

Announcing this at a press conference, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who shared the ideas with several acclaimed scientists including S Ramadorai, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Skill Development, termed it as a milestone and said that the institute would effect sweeping changes in the realm of the State’s science education. Gogoi said, "This is the first institute of international standards that would be set up by the Assam Government in association with the Government of India and industry partners. Industry-interface research and development will be a key aspect in the IIITAS so that it impacts employment generation.

Ramadorai will chair the first board of governors of the IIITAS, which will have luminaries such as Prof Rajeev Sangal, director, IIIS, Hyderabad; Prof MS Ananth, former director, IIT-Madras; Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Adviser, Government of UK; OP Bhatt, former chairman, SBI, among others.Ramadorai, while asserting that the IIITAS would be “absolutely relevant to the needs of the North-east and socially conscious”, said that undergraduate research would also be a key component of its diverse activities.“The results of its research would be linked to employment generation, particularly rural employment,” he said, adding that the institute would have provision for intake of a certain percentage of foreign students right from graduation level, especially for South East Asian and SAARC countries.Apart from promoting research and development in IT and advanced and applied sciences, the IIITAS is expected to emerge as a major supplier of skilled resources to national and international IT markets.

The project cost of the IIITAS is Rs 127 crore, and the institute is to come up on a plot of 100 acres where an IT Park would also be developed. While the shares of the State Government and the Centre is 35 pc and 57.5 pc respectively, Tata, OIL and AMTRON will have shares in the rest 7.5 pc.
Source: Sharwan Kumar Jha, Guwahati (Stringer)