New Delhi: In a landmark development, the Union Government has released a list of six universities that are officially declared Institutes of Eminence (IoE).  Out of these six three are public and three are private universities.

The three public universities are Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi; Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.

The three private universities that are declared Institutes of Eminence (IoE) are Jio Institute of Reliance Foundation; BITS Pilani;  and Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

These institutes are selected by experts panel.

Informing about the development, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said “Institutes of Eminence are important for the country.  We have 800 universities, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today’s decision will help achieve this.”

The Minister commented that this decision is a landmark decision for following reasons: This was never thought off & tried; it is more than a graded autonomy, it is really a full autonomy to the institutes; the institutes can take their own decisions.

Union HRD Minister commented “it will help these institutes to grow rapidly to a scale and improve quality and add new courses. Also do whatever is needed to become world class institutions.”

Congratulations to IISc Bangalore, which has been our real pride, the Minister said “This institute has been ranked in world ranking. It has the scope to improve further. Though it is a public sector institute, it is being granted full autonomy to become really world class institute.

These three institutes which are granted status of Institutes of Eminence will get government grant of Rs 1000 crore in next five years.