Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has asked the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to increase the mobility of faculty members between the institutions as well as the industry members. He said it at the 54th meeting of the council of IITs held on Monday. The conference was held in online mode. Minister of State for Education Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre; secretary, Higher Education Amit Khare also attended the meeting.

Pokhiryal said that IITs can become a driving force behind realising the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant) India. For which, IITs can adopt the “One IIT – One Thrust Area” approach based on local needs.

The council has also put up for consideration a suggestion to arrange an online IIT R&D fair to showcase the quality research work done by IITs to the industry. This may be followed by a physical fair in after the normalisation of the present situation, the Education Ministry informed in an official statement.

Digital transformation using Blockchain, AI, ML, and Cloud Computing at IITs also came up for discussion during the meeting. It was recommended to constitute a taskforce to review use of technology at all IITs and also to accelerate deployment of digital tools. It was also recommended to undertake rationalisation of staff from current standards to a lower number, as per the official statement.

Pokhriyal asked IITs to develop Institute Development Plan as envisioned in NEP 2020 to improve the mobility of faculty between institution and industry. The mobility of faculty members and industry experts between technical institutes and industry will promote collaborations between industry and academia, he added.

Earlier, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Dr K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Standing Committee for IIT Council for suggesting recruitment of faculties in IITs (Industry interaction and mobility of faculty). Four groups will be formed based on recommendations. The reports of these groups and also of a new group which will work on faculty development will be presented in a meeting to be chaired Union Education Minister.