Innovation varsity in Kovai soon

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The Union government has added another feather to Tamil Nadu’s cap by proposing to set up a university of innovation at Coimbatore.

This will be one of the 14 universities to be set up in the country.

The Centre will table Universities for Innovations Bill, 2011, in Parliament soon.

The Bill will provide an in-principle approval for establishing universities for innovation. Some of the innovation universities will be in partnership with private players also and they will be made eligible for the government’s funding for research activities and student scholarships.

The Union HRD minister will discuss the proposal with education secretaries of all state governments on April 13 in New Delhi.

The XIth five-year plan provided an outlay of Rs 2,800 crore for establishment of 14 universities for innovation and the national development council had proposed to create these universities over the XIth and XIIth five-year plan period.

These universities will also come up at Visakhapatnam, Mysore, Kochi, Kolkata, Greater Noida, Jaipur, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Bhopal, Gandhinagar, Patna and Guwahati.

Prof C. Pichandy, general secretary of Association of University Teachers (AUT) and head of department of journalism and mass communication at PSG College of arts and science in Coimbatore welcomed the Union government’s decision and said that this would help attract international talent at Coimbatore.

“This institute will contribute a lot to the town’s academic culture and make Coimbatore a hub for higher education. Coimbatore is already a hub for industries and agriculture and this will make the town appear in the national and international education map,” he said. Pointing out that the cost of land in Coimbatore had sky rocketed, Prof Pichandy said that it would be difficult for the government to acquire land in the industrial town as private persons hold most of the land in the town.