Here's how Jio Institute got Institute of Eminence (IoE) status

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry yesterday announced that it had named six educations institutes as Institutes of Eminence (IoE), including the yet-to-be-launched Jio Institute.

Here's a quick FAQ on the IoE issue and how Jio Institute got the tag.

Q: What is an Institute of Eminence?

A: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech 2016 had announced that “It is our commitment to empower higher educational institutions to help them become world-class teaching and research institutions. An enabling regulatory architecture will be provided to ten public and ten private institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions. This will enhance affordable access to high-quality education for ordinary Indians. A detailed scheme will be formulated.”

Accordingly, the Government/UGC approved the scheme of providing Regulatory Architecture for setting up/upgrading of 20 institutions (10 from public sector and 10 from private sector) as world-class teaching and research institutions called as ‘Institutions of Eminence’. The regulatory architecture was provided in the form of UGC (Declaration of Government Institutions as Institutions of Eminence)

Guidelines, 2017 for public institutions and UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017 for private institutions.

Under this scheme, 114 applications (74 from public sector and 40 from private sector) were received in the Ministry for selection of IoEs. In order to select the institutions as IoEs, an Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) comprising of N Gopalaswami (Chairman), Prof. Tarun Khanna, Prof. Pritam Singh & Smt. Renu Khatore was formed. All the Institutions/sponsoring organizations have made presentations before the EEC between April 2, 2018 and May 8, 2018. The Committee in its report recommended selection of only 6 institutions (3 from public sector and 3 from private sector) as Institutions of Eminence.

Q: Why was Jio Institute selected as an IoE?

A: EEC took the following parameters into account for judging the applications received for setting up Greenfield institutions:-

a) Availability of land for construction of the institution.
b) Putting in place a core team with very high qualification and wide experience.
c) Making available funding for setting up the institution.

d) A strategic vision plan with clear annual milestones and action plan.

11 applications were received for IoE status under greenfield category. Out of the 11 applications, only Jio Institute satisfied all the 4 parameters stated above.

Q: Will private institutions be eligible for government funding?

A: No.