Parliament passes two higher education bills

India’s Rajya Sabha, the Council of States, last week passed two key bills to enable students at Indian institutes of science education and research to get their degrees and give eight new institutes of technology their status through an Act of Parliament, reports ZeeNews.com.

The Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill 2011, already passed by the Lok Sabha, or House of the People, seeks to set up eight new Indian institutes of technology – in Bhubaneshwar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna and Ropar – and integrate the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, within the ambit of the Act. All will be declared institutions of national importance under the amended Act.

The National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill 2010, also passed by the Lok Sabha, declares certain institutions of technology to be institutions of national importance and seeks to add five Indian institutes of science education and research – established in Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram – as institutions of national importance. It also specifies the members of the board of governors of each institute and establishes a council for all Indian institutes of science education and research.
Full report on the ZeeNews site