Parliament passes IIIT bill

Any decision on education policy will be in tune with constitution, Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani assured as Parliament passed a bill to bring four institutes of information technology under the ambit of a single authority.

The Indian Institutes of Information and Technology (IIIT) Bill, 2014, passed by Rajya Sabha 1 December, seeks to provide the four existing IIITs an independent statutory status and proposes to declare them as institutes of national importance to enable them to grant degrees to their students.

The bill, passed by Lok Sabha last week, is the first education bill passed by the Narendra Modi government.

Moving the bill for passage, Irani assured the house that any decision on education policy by government will be in ambit of the constitution.”Some members asked if the education policy decisions by government will be influenced by my own thought. I would like to assure members any decision by government will be within the ambit of constitution,” she said. Irani also called it a “golden moment” saying MPs from “left, right and center” came together for the education bill.

“I am feeling proud… the message is clear, there is no politics in education,” she said. The four institutes are IIIT-Allahabad, IIIT-Gwalior, IIIT Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur and IIIT Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram.

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