The Union Cabinet has sanctioned ₹1,074 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
As per the Detailed Project Report (DPR), a campus for 2,500 students and associated faculty and staff is in the pipeline.
Stating this, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal expressed happiness that the IIT’s logo symbolises the
“IIT Tirupati, with five other new IITs at Palakkad, Jammu, Bhilai, Goa, and Dharwad, is the result of the vision of our government to meet the expectations of the people of the respective States. I believe that creating these Institutes is another significant step in making our country one of the largest pools of technical manpower in the world”, he added.
The Minister said India should aim to become a global innovation leader in science and technology. There are some areas, such as space programme led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and information technology where we are doing extremely well.”
However, we have a long way to go in other areas. “I understand that IIT Tirupati has identified various thrust areas including smart infrastructure, food technologies, precision agriculture, materials and manufacturing, educational technologies and design which are of immense importance”.
At the same time it is important to recognise that a large part of the country lives in villages and small towns and address their needs of science and technology in everyday lives. Technologies like automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sustainable technologies in the areas of energy and materials will be meaningful only when we make use of these to improve the social and economic condition of ordinary citizens, he said.
Post-bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the government is committed to establish premier institutions in the State including IIT Tirupati, IISER Tirupati, an IIM, NID, AIIMS, Tribal University, and all are in various stages of development, Pokhriyal said referring to the State. 104 students graduated in the convocation on Tuesday.