2/2/80, 1:13 pmii. introduction 17 2.1 growth of knowledge led business 2.2 definition of it 2.3...

Ministry ofHuman Resource Development

Department ofSecondary Educationand Higher Education

Government of India

Untitled-2 2/2/80, 1:13 PM1

http://www.education.nic.in/htmlweb/main.htm

ContentsExecutive Summary

Recommendations

Contents

ContentsExecutive Summary 7

Recommendations 9

Strategy Paper

I. Background 13

1.1 Constitution of the Task Force1.2 Terms of Reference1.3 Discussions & Consultations

II. Introduction 17

2.1 Growth of Knowledge Led Business2.2 Definition of IT2.3 Indian Software Industry2.4 Indian Hardware Industry2.5 Manpower for IT Software & Services – National2.8 Manpower for IT Software & Services – International2.9 Manpower for IT Enabled Services2.10 Supply of IT Manpower2.11 Projections for 20082.13 Concerns2.15 Need for Continuous Monitoring of IT Manpower2.17 Different Initiatives

III. Capacity Enhancement of Institutions � ToR (i) 25

3.1 Background3.2 Government Initiatives3.3 Self-Financing Institutions3.5 Institution Specific Approach3.7 New Institutions3.9 A System-Wide Approach3.10 Institutional Setting3.12 Infrastructure – Computing & Networking Facilities3.14 Networking of Institutions to Synergise Strengths3.16 Faculty3.18 Curriculum3.19 Qualifications Framework

Contents

3.20 Courseware3.21 Promoting Technology Enhanced IT Education3.26 Improving Connectivity3.27 Postgraduate Education and Research in IT3.28 Role of Regulatory Body3.31 Educational Institutions – IT Industry Interface

Road Map

IV. Investments 43

4.1 Programme Outlay4.2 Sources of Finance

V. Implementation 45

5.1 Institutional Mechanism5.2 Plan of Action

VI. Anticipated Benefits 47

Schedules

Schedule A – Capital Outlay with Year-Wise Break UpSchedule B – Revenue Outlay with Year-Wise Break UpSchedule C – Action Plan

Annexures

Notification Constituting the Task ForceOM Constituting Committee on IT ManpowerUpgrading Computing & Networking in Category-IIInstitutionsNational Networking Infrastructure

HRD in ITTask Force on

5AIBITE All India Board for IT Education

AICTE All India Council for Technical Education

BSNL Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

CIM Committee for IT Manpower

EdCIL Educational Consultants India Ltd.

EFIP Early Faculty Induction Programme

ESC Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council

ET Education Technology

IETS IT Education & Training Systems

IIIT Indian Institute of Information Technology

IIITM Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management

IIM Indian Institute of Management

IISc Indian Institute of Science

IIT Indian Institute of Technology

ISTE Indian Society for Technical Education

MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development

MIT Ministry of Information Technology

NAAC National Accreditation and Assessment Council

NBA National Board of Accreditation

NIFFT National Institute of Foundary and Forge Technology

QIP Quality Improvement Programme

REC Regional Engineering Colleges

TDCC Training and Development Communication Channel

ToR Term of Reference

TTTI Technical Teachers Training Institute

UGC University Grants Commission

List of AcronymsList of Acronyms

7

ExecutiveSummaryExecutiveSummary

1 In pursuance of the announcement made by the Prime Minister of Indiain the First National Conference of IT Ministers on 15th July, 2000, a‘Task Force on Human Resource Development (HRD)’ in InformationTechnology (IT) was set up with four specific Terms of Reference(ToRs). The Task Force was initially required to submit its interimreport on the first ToR. The Task Force met on 24.8.2000 and again on16.9.2000. On the basis of deliberations of the Task Force and writteninputs received from the Members, Permanent Special Invitees andothers, the Task Force has made Forty Seven(47) specificrecommendations relating to ToR (i).

2 These recommendations are made with a view to integrate the corecompetencies / expertise of the country and innovative informationtechnologies to create for it a sustainable competitive advantage. Thiswill enable the country to maintain its ‘Global Leadership Position’ inthe knowledge led businesses. For this purpose, a re-engineering of thetechnical education and training system of the country with focus on ITeducation is proposed.

3 All these recommendations could come under the umbrella of a ‘Nationalprogramme for Human Resource Development in IT (NP-HRDI)’. Theserecommendations relate to strategic interventions under a definite planof action rather than a mere statement of intention. Interventionsproposed are the most cost-effective options with short gestation periodsand with emphasis on critical infrastructure like computer andnetworking facilities, faculty, curriculum, courseware, promotion ofinnovations and initiatives throughout the system by an open exchangeof ideas, and a system of recognition through awards and rewards. Inexceptional cases, support for very pressing physical infrastructure suchas hostels, classrooms and laboratories would be provided.


4 The recommendations relate to monitoringof the capacities of institutions (both intakeand out-turn) periodically with 1999-2000 asthe base year. Objective shall be to doubleintake in IT / IT related programmes by2001-2002 and triple it by 2003-2004 for thesystem as a whole with strategic use ofvarious institutions for different purposes.Whereas a cautious approach is proposedfor self-financing institutions, the premierinstitutions shall be encouraged andfacilitated to increase intake in IT / ITrelated programmes, introduce newprogrammes and use new technologies forincreasing their reach and enhancingeffectiveness through a networkingapproach. New ‘Institutes of InformationTechnology’ have also been proposed.

5 A multi-pronged approach for increasingavailability, improving quality and retainingquality faculty in IT is proposed. Theseinitiatives would form the ‘IT FacultyDevelopment Initiative’. A flexible andmodular approach in curriculum design tofacilitate student mobility both horizontallyand vertically, developing a mechanism ofequivalence of programmes / courses,special emphasis for courseware in Indianlanguages and for laboratory activities andweb-based courseware has been proposed.The Task Force also recommends immediateimplementation of recommendations of thePG Review Committee for promotion ofpostgraduate education and research in allfields of engineering and particularly in IT/IT related areas.

6 Continuous review of trends in ITmanpower, both for the IT hard core sectorand IT enabled services is recommended.

This would create public information on ITmanpower so that the system can makeperiodic adjustments. Instead of followinga gap filling approach between demand andsupply, there shall be a thrust on producingsurplus IT manpower at the higher end, sothat the country is able to record evenbetter rates of growth in software andservices than has been hitherto beenprojected by the capturing of a larger shareof the global markets.

7 An ‘Action Plan’ for implementation of theserecommendations has been drawn up withan indicative course of action. Agenciesresponsible have also been identified.Institutional arrangements forimplementation have been kept simple,transparent and effective based on an openconsultative approach with a three layeredcommittee mechanism.

8 Investment required would be to the tuneof Rs. 2000 crore (central share alone)over a seven year period (up to the end of10th Five Year Plan). Most of the capitaloutlay would, however, be required in first3-4 years only.

9 These interventions would result in anoverall increase in availability of quality ITmanpower in larger numbers in the country.This will help the Indian software servicessector to increase its productivity and moveup the value chain, enabling the country tocapture larger share of global markets. Therecent developments in IT have offered aunique opportunity to the country befittingits natural advantage of having a large poolof talented manpower. The country cannotafford to miss this opportunity.

9

RecommendationsRecommendations

Creating Public Information on IT Manpower

1. Conduct studies, research, seminars and workshops on IT manpowerissues through a network of institutions / consultants [para 2.15].

2. Set up a ‘Joint Forum of Education and Training Providers and the ITIndustry’ for periodic interaction – highlight an ‘Annual Meet’ fordissemination and exchange of notes, findings and review of trends forcreating public information for enabling corrective action [para 2.15].

3. Develop ‘IT Manpower Database’ at the National level through asystem of unique e-identity for IT professionals [para 2.16].

4. Monitor international mobility of IT professionals including evolving asuitable mechanism at the port of exit / re-entry [para 2.16].

5. Expand reach of Indian IT professionals to non-English speakingcountries by integrating language / cultural skills with the regularengineering curriculum. [para 2.8]

Promoting What W orks

6. Compile initiatives of States, evolve a clearinghouse mechanism andcreate facilitating environment for replication of initiatives andinnovations that work [para 2.17].

7. Promote non-governmental initiatives in HRD in IT with focus onbridging the digital divide, innovations in pedagogy and delivery ofeducational contents etc. by recognizing such initiatives through asystem of ‘National Awards’ [para 2.17].


Monitoring Intake and Out-turn

8. Monitor capacities of institutions periodically(both intake and out-turn) with 1999-2000 asthe base year. Objective shall be to doubleintake by 2001-2002 and triple it by 2003-2004 for the system as a whole with strategicuse of various institutions for differentpurposes [para 3.1].

Categorisation of Institutions

9. Categorisation of institutions to be done by a‘Technical Group’ for adopting differentstrategies for different categories ofinstitutions contingent upon the situationalparameters [para 3.5].

New Institutions

10. Set up exclusive ‘Institutes of InformationTechnology’ with the State and CentralGovernment funding (and possibly externalfunding) and industrial collaboration. Theseshall function as ‘Resource Centres’ andprovide training in cutting edge technologiesfor the products of category III & IVinstitutions in particular. [para 3.7].

11. Explore possibilities of setting up of newInstitutes of Category- I in the country[para 3.7].

12. Ensure cost effectiveness in planning newinstitutions. A ‘Technical Group’ to reworkthe space norms for institutional buildingsfor educational purposes. [para 3.7]

13. Facilitate bridge courses and minor areaprogrammes in IT for easy migration to ITkeeping in mind the impact IT is making onall disciplines of tertiary education and inevery industry [para 3.8].

Improving Institutional Quality

14. Bring about improvement in overallinstitutional setting through a package ofmeasures with focus on Category-I & IIinstitutions at the National level. States to befacilitated to take up similar efforts for otherinstitutions [para 3.10].

15. Use of IT for improving institutionalperformance using computer supportservices for increasing efficiency andproductivity [para 3.11].

Improving Infrastructure

16. Strengthen computing and networkingfacilities in category I, II & III (G) institutions(around 265) with 100 % financial assistancefor category I & II institutions (around 65)and 50 % financial assistance for category III(G) institutions (around 200) – balance 50 %to come from the State Governments[para 3.12].

17. Create an ‘Equipment Replacement Fund’ atthe Institution level for upgradation andreplacement of obsolete equipmentperiodically, earmarking 20 % of the feerevenue for the purpose [para 3.13].

18. Improve the physical infrastructure – such asadditional classroom, hostel, and laboratoryfacilities to cater to increased capacities inexceptional cases in Category-I & IIinstitutions [para 3.12].

Networking

19. Promote Networking of institutions (bothhorizontally within a category and verticallyacross categories) to synergise strengths byforming a ‘National Network of Institutions’

11

and ‘State Level Networks’ for effectiveresource sharing and academic collaborationwith 100 % financial assistance for servicingthe ‘National Network’ and 50 % financialassistance for servicing the ‘State Networks’– balance 50 % would come from the StateGovernments [para 3.14].

20. Digitise libraries of original works (thesis,research publications) and old and expensivejournals in category ‘select’ institutions[para 3.15].

IT Faculty Development Initiative

21. Launch an ‘IT Faculty DevelopmentInitiative’ with a multi-pronged approach, toaddress critical shortages of IT faculty, retainquality faculty and their periodic up-skillingand create a ‘Faculty Development Fund’ forthe purpose [para 3.17]. [Specific componentsof this initiative are from serial no. 22 to 35]

22. Attract quality faculty by greater thrust onPost-Graduate and Research Programmes inIT [para 3.17].

23. Scale up Early Faculty Induction Programme(EFIP) in IT [para 3.17].

24. Scale up Quality Improvement Programme(QIP) in IT [para 3.17].

25. Introduce Sequential PG Programme in IT[para 3.17].

26. Start PG programmes in IT in ‘Dual Mode’[para 3.17].

27. Supplement efforts of local faculty by usingfaculty of premier institutions [para 3.17].

28. Allow transmigration in all postgraduate andresearch programmes [para 3.17].

29. Allow switchover of faculty from interfacingdisciplines [para 3.17].

30. Encourage concept of Teaching Assistants(TAs) [para 3.17].

31. Encourage Dual Degree Programmes withPG in IT related fields [para 3.17].

32. Create enabling environment to invitevisiting faculty from industry, reputedinstitutions from India and abroad[para 3.17].

33. Encourage ‘Adjunct Faculty’ from ITindustry [para 3.17].

34. Re-employ IT faculty beyond the age ofsuperannuation on a temporary basis[para 3.17].

35. Greater focus on continuing educationprogrammes for skill upgradation and createa ‘Faculty Development Fund’ at theInstitution Level with 10% of the fee revenueflowing to it [para 3.17]

Curriculum & Courseware

36. Evolve a network of institutions to workclosely to evolve IT curriculum, pedagogyand delivery methods for all levels[para3.18].

37. Adopt modular, credit based approach incurriculum design at various levels forenhancing student mobility and facilitatingtransfer of credits [para 3.18].


38. Provide special attention to both horizontaland vertical mobility of students in theexisting and the new programmes and workout equivalence mechanisms under an overall‘National Qualification Framework’ for ITeducation [para 3.19].

39. Launch ‘Courseware Development Initiative’for development and low-cost publication ofcourseware – special emphasis being oncourseware in Indian Languages, coursewarefor laboratory activities and other gap areas[para 3.20].

40. Create web-based forum for facilitatingcurriculum and courseware developmentefforts [para 3.20].

Promoting Technology-mediated ITEducation

41. Promote Technology-mediated IT Educationusing broadcast media, teleconferencing,web-based and other multimedia approach.[para 3.21 to 3.25].

Improving Connectivity

42. Make provision for concessional tariff forconnectivity for educational institutions[para 3.26].

Promoting PG Education and Research

43. Promote Post-Graduate education andResearch Programmes by earlyimplementation of the recommendations ofthe PG Review Committee [para 3.27].

44. Set up Special Research Groups and Schoolsof Advanced Studies in high technology andemerging areas [para 3.27].

Facilitating Interface with IT Industry

45. Facilitate interface with IT industrycollaboration by adopting CO-OP educationmodel. [para 3.31-3.33].

Investments & Implementation

46. Share investments required between theCentral / State Governments and theIndustry [para 4.2].

47. Pool all initiatives under the umbrella of a‘National Programme for Human ResourcesDevelopment in IT (NP-HRDI)’ with suitableinstitutional arrangement for implementation.[para 5.1].

13

Constitution of Task Force

1.1 In pursuance to the announcement made by the Prime Minister of Indiain the First National Conference of IT Ministers on 15th July, 2000, aTask Force on Human Resource Development (HRD) in InformationTechnology (IT) was set up vide notification no.460/31/C/27/2000-E &SI dated 1.8.2000 (Copy at Annexure I). The Task Force comprises ofthe Minister for HRD as its Chairman and the Finance Minister,Minister of Information Technology, Chief Ministers of AndhraPradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, Director (IITDelhi) as its members. The Task Force was serviced by the Departmentof Secondary & Higher Education with the Secretary of the Departmentas its Member-Secretary. Secretary, Department of Scientific andIndustrial Research; Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology;Secretary, Department of Telecommunications and the Secretary,Department of Expenditure are Permanent Special Invitees. In view ofthe crucial role of the Planning Commission in HRD in IT, the DeputyChairman and the Secretary of the Planning Commission were includedin the Task Force as Member and Permanent Special Inviteerespectively with the permission of the Chairman of the Task Force interms of para 4 of the notification.

Terms of Reference (ToRs)

1.2 The Task Force had four specific Terms of Reference (ToR) as under:(i) To draw up a plan to optimally use the existing infrastructure of the

IITs, RECs, other engineering colleges and educational institutions todouble their student intake in IT from the next academic year andtriple it in the next two years.

I. BackgroundI. Background


(ii) To make recommendations regarding themodalities for achieving mutually beneficialcooperation between educational institutionsin IT in the formal sector and those in theprivate sector.

(iii) To suggest measures necessary for enduringthat good quality IT education does notremain a preserve of the rich and theEnglish-education, and is also available tostudents from poor and rural families,especially those from the Scheduled Castes,Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.

(iv) To suggest measures necessary to improveteaching of non-IT subjects by usingcomputers and the Internet for all students.

The Task Force could be assigned such otherfunctions as may be found necessary from timeto time. The Task Force was expected to submitits interim report on ToR (i) and then the finalreport on the remaining ToRs.

Discussions & Consultations

1.3 The Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment constituted a ‘Committee for ITManpower (CIM)’ in the country. A copy ofthe order constituting the Committee on ITManpower is given at Annexure – II. Thisinter-ministerial committee met on 26th July2000 and again on 17th August 2000 todeliberate on the issue of long term planningfor IT manpower in the country. Based on theviews that emerged from these consultations,a ‘Discussion Paper’ for the first meeting ofthe Task Force was prepared. The paper wasbased on the understanding of the Ministry ofthe issues relating to HRD in IT withparticular reference to the specific ToRs of the

Task Force. Keeping in view the time schedulegiven to the Task Force, there was a detailedcoverage of ToR (i) whereas for other ToRs,only issues were flagged for the time beingwith indicative course of action. The paperwas discussed in details in the first meeting ofthe Task Force on 24th August 2000.

1.4 Inputs were received from the Ministry ofInformation Technology, Ministry ofCommunications, Department of Scientific &Industrial Research, Department ofElementary Education & Literacy,Directorate-General of Employment &Training, All India Council of TechnicalEducation (AICTE), UGC, NAAC, IITs,particularly IIT (Delhi), IIITs and some ofthe RECs. Based on these inputs and alsothe suggestions received in the first meetingof the Task Force, a ‘Draft Interim Report’was prepared and placed for considerationof the Task Force in the second meetingheld on 16th September 2000. Based on thedeliberation in the meeting, the ‘InterimReport’ was finalized in a meeting ofofficials of the concerned Ministries andAgencies on 19th September 2000.Consultations were then held with thePlanning Commission and the Ministry ofFinance on the financial implications ofthe report.

1.5 The Department has also started aconsultation process for restructuring of theRECs to promote academic excellence. Topromote PG education and research to meetacute shortage of faculty in engineering andtechnology and to provide competitive edgeto Indian engineering and technology, therecommendations of the PG ReviewCommittee have been accepted by the

15

Department in-principle. To facilitatenon-governmental initiatives in higherscience and technology education,provision in UGC and AICTE guidelineshas been made for de novo institutions

to be declared as ‘Deemed to beUniversities’. The recommendations of theTask Force therefore need to be viewed inthe overall context of these initiatives toenable India to become a ‘IT Super Power’.

Source: Reliance Research

Growth of Knowledge Led Business

2.1 Over the last few decades, technology has contributed verysignificantly in the rapid economic growth of many countries. Nowthe knowledge led businesses are set for rapid growth. It is estimatedthat the contribution of knowledge led business in global GDP willdouble in the next ten years and it will contribute to two thirds ofgrowth in global GDP. India enjoys a comparative advantage inknowledge led businesses due to its very large pool of scientific andengineering manpower. Cost advantage due to low cost of ourmanpower complements the talent pool. The education and traininginfrastructure both in the formal and non-formal sector has beencontinuously feeding this pool. With these advantages, it is thereforenot surprising that the country has witnessed rapid growth in ITsoftware and services.Indian software industriesconstitute a competitivechallenge to the softwareindustries in the developedworld. There is however aconcern that ourcompetitive advantagemay be lost unless oureducation and trainingsystem continues to supplyIT manpower of requisitequality and ensures itsperiodic up- skilling – shelflife of IT skills andemerging technologiesbeing very short.

II. IntroductionII. Introduction


development tools and languages, howeverthe industry prefers engineering graduatesbecause that instills in them a set of problemsolving skills, method of thinking logicallyand learning tools. This trend is thereforelikely to continue. However in the years tocome, domain knowledge in addition to ITskills would become important. IT ismaking inroads in all fields of engineeringeducation. Further the private traininginstitutions are likely to increase their share.The study also reveals that Indian Softwareindustry is characterised by lowproductivity and is still at the lower end ofthe value chain. Indian software exportsconsist largely of low level design, codingand maintenance services. Therefore thetwo challenges before us are to provide therequired numbers and improve quality toraise productivity and moving up thevalue chain .

Indian Hardware Industry

2.4 As per projections of the MIT, totalequipment and components requirements inthe hardware sector would be cumulativeUS $ 220 billion by year 2008. It shallgenerate direct employment of 16 lakh andindirect employment of 32 lakh. Theserequirements have been worked out on thebasis of very ambitious growth targets interms of telephone density (5 times thecurrent level by 2008), PC penetration (10times the current level by 2008), TVpenetration (3 times the current level by2008) and strategic and professional

electronics (12 times the currentproduction level by 2008).Not only this, 75 % ofindigenisation in equipment

Fig. 2: The Waterfall Model of SoftwareDevelopment

Definition of IT

2.2 IT could simply be defined as ‘thetechnology to exploit information the mostefficient way’. It encompasses computerscience, telecommunications, electronics(including microelectronics) and computerapplications. This could also includespecialisations such as Artificial Intelligence,Computer Aided Manufacturing (Robotics,Flexible Manufacturing System, NumericallyControlled Machine Tools), ComputerIntegrated Manufacturing (CIM), ComputerAided Design etc.

Indian Software Industry

2.3 As per NASSCOM’s HRD survey, therewere 3,40,000 software professionalsemployed in the country as on 31st March2000. A study of the Indian SoftwareIndustry by Arora, Arunachalam & Othersreveals that 80% of the softwareprofessionals have engineering degrees and12% have diplomas/certificates from privatetraining institutions. Though the work insoftware industry is relatively non-technicaland requires mostly logical and methodicalwork and a familiarity with software

19

and 65 % in components has been assumed.Trends show steep shortfalls in thesetargets. Even if these targets are met,discussions with experts suggest that therequirement of formally trained manpower(university degree / diploma) would onlybe a small proportion of the manpowerrequirement projected. This would largelycome from disciplines such as electronics,microelectronics, telecommunications andrelated engineering disciplines. The systembroadly has the capacity to produce thenumbers required. The issue of manpowerrequirement for the hardware sector wouldherewith require a more detailed study.

Manpower for IT Software & Services –National Demand

2.5 It is estimated that total size of IT industryin India will be over US $ 100 billion by2008. A large part of it would be from the ITServices. By 2008, it is expected to becomesingle largest contributor to the GDP of thecountry. One of the key issues in achievingand sustaining this level of growth will bethe availability of high quality ITprofessionals in adequate numbers. As per

Source: IDC, NASSCOM

NASSCOM study, this would require 22lakh IT professionals – 11 lakh in the hardcore IT sector and another 11 lakh for theIT enabled services.

2.6 Ministry of Information Technology (MIT)has worked out a figure of 23.67 lakh inthree categories – 2 lakh IT professionals ofcategory A for software products, 5.77 lakhof IT professionals of category B for ITservices and E-business and 15.9 lakh of ITprofessionals of category C for IT enabledservices and E-business. This would mean7.77 lakh professionals in the hard core ITsector, if we broadly fit in category A andCategory B manpower here. Thisrequirement is less than projected byNASSCOM largely due to assumptions ofvery ambitious growth in productivity.

2.7 Further, it is estimated that nearly 20,000teachers in the formal tertiary educationsector with PG or research qualificationswould be required. Assuming a very realistictarget of all secondary schools providingcomputer education by 2008, requirement ofteachers for school sector would be in therange of 100,000. This would be largely fedby BCA and equivalent degree holders. It isexpected that there will be significant use ofcomputers and Internet even at the primaryand pre-primary level by 2008. Therewould be additional teacher requirement forthe purpose.

Manpower for IT Software & Services –International Demand

2.8 In addition to national demand, therewould be international demand in view ofintrinsic quality of Indian Software


Professionals and therefore premiumattached to them. However, notionally, wecould take it as 20% of the overallmanpower requirements. The demand forIT professionals from USA under HIB Visahas been increased to around 2,00,000 fromthe present level of 1,14,000. SimilarlyGermany, UK, Ireland, Japan are likely topermit immigration at a level between20,000 to 30,000 per annum for ITprofessionals. IT being English-Intensive,we presently enjoy an advantage due to ourlarge English speaking population, but thismay soon be lost in view of concertedefforts by other nations like China to catchon. Presently, many non-English speakingcountries are forced to meet theirrequirements only from their local marketsbecause of the language barrier. This offersimmense opportunities in countries like –Japan, Germany, France and Korea, whichcould be exploited, if we are able to bridgethe language and cultural gap. This could bedone integrating training in language –cultural skills of potential countries in ourregular engineering programmes in the 3rd

and 4th year by tying up with the generaluniversity system and the foreign missionsof those countries here in India.

Manpower for IT Enabled Services

2.9 Several Multinational Corporations, airlines,banks, hospitals etc., outsource a wide rangeof customer services to other parts of theworld. This provides them with inexpensiveskilled labour and quick response time inview of the difference in local times of thesecountries from that of India. Apart from thecall centre and animation services, whichaccount for 85% of the current global market,

data search / integration services andremote education are gaining importance.India is making its mark in the IT enabledservice area and is targeting servicescovering human resources, remote customerinteraction and data management which arebeing increasingly outsourced by bigcompanies in the US and Europe. Accordingto a NASSCOM Report, India could earn upto $17 billion from IT enabled services overthe next eight years, which would accountfor around 12% of the projected $142 billionglobal market. In view of our strong base ofEnglish speaking population and easyavailability of professional skills, this targetis not only achievable but we can expect tocapture a much larger share of the globalmarket. There is a great opportunityavailable for the country in e-services, wherethe human capital intensity is high and theservice can be easily digitised. This could bein the area of product development anddesign, contract R & D, market data analysis,software modelling, e-learning and a widerange of customer services. For most of theseservices, a high level of IT literacy is notessential and short duration skill-basedtraining is being provided by the ‘IT EnabledService Providers’ themselves. Therefore, itis realised that IT education in future wouldbe more as an enabler having relevance in allfields of human activity. For this purpose,there is a need for broad-basing IT educationand integrating it at all level in education.

Supply of IT Manpower

2.10 There are 1270 colleges (776 collegesawarding degrees in engineering andtechnology and 494 colleges awarding MCAas on 04.05.2000) in the country with a total

21

Source: AICTE, NASSCOM, MIT

intake of 2,05,153(1999-2000). 1032 (81.25%)of them offer IT courses with an intake of66,214 (32.17%). In addition, IITs, IIITs, IIScBangalore have an intake of nearly 7,000(1999-2000) – around 1200 of which is in ITcourses. All these institutions also offercourses in electronics, microelectronics, andtelecommunications. Whereas some of themgo for hardware, it is estimated that asizeable number of them today migrate tosoftware services. Large numbers ofgraduates from other disciplines alsomigrate to IT. This is perhaps in response tosignificant new opportunities in these areasand also to the fact that the SoftwareIndustry is now looking for professionalswith domain knowledge in other fields ofengineering. PG Review Committee indicatesthat in case of IITs more than 90% of thenon-IT graduates migrate to IT sector.

Projections for 2008

2.11 Based on current availability of intakecapacity at various institutions and projectedadditions to the system considering linearextrapolation, it is estimated that 2.63 lakhpostgraduates (including MCAs), 7.85 lakhgraduates and 7.42 lakh diploma holders inIT and related areas would be added to thesystem by 2008. The projections are based onthe assumption that 50% of the studentsfrom electronics and communications and30% from other engineering disciplineswould work in the IT software sector. Thiswould mean that 10.48 lakh IT graduates(PG, MCA and UG) will be available for thehard core IT sector and 7.4 lakh for the ITenabled services from the AICTE recognizedinstitutions. It is noted that as a result of thespecial drive during the current year for

increase in intake/new courses in IT, nearly35,000 seats has been added during 2000-2001 itself, which is more than 50% increasecompared to the normal 15%. This will addto the numbers. Further other institutions(IITs, IIITs and IISc Bangalore) would addnearly 12,000 graduates by 2008. Therefore, atotal of around 10.60 lakh graduates will beadded to the system by 2008. When viewedagainst an additional requirement of nearly7.6 lakh manpower for hardcore IT sector asper NASSCOM estimates (or 4.37 lakh as perMIT estimates), this presents a satisfactorypicture – providing an adequate cushion forfaculty requirement of the formal tertiarysector, international migration and attrition.

2.12 For the IT enabled services, non-formalsector itself has a capacity of 5 lakh as perMinistry of Information Technology (MIT)estimates (growing at a rate of 20%). BCA,


BIT courses in recognised institutions,distance education programmes of openuniversities and correspondence courseinstitutes add another 60,000 per annum(growing at 15%). All this together wouldadd up to several times the actualmanpower requirement projected for the ITenabled services including teacherrequirement for the school sector.

Concerns

2.13 From the foregoing discussion, it is clearthat there is no cause for panic as far asnumbers are concerned, but there is noroom for any complacency either. Thoughas per present demand projections thenumbers appear to be adequate both for thehard core IT software sector and the ITenabled services, yet the rate of growth ofIT sector worldwide cannot be predictedwith absolute certainty. Also how much ofour IT manpower would be attracted awayby other countries is difficult to predict.Further there are serious concerns about thequality of IT manpower. At present only afraction of the graduating students areacceptable to the industry. Low acceptancerate also results in underemployment andmay have other serious repercussions.

2.14 Quality concerns emanate mainly from anacute shortage of quality faculty. Although,no detailed survey has been done, as per asample survey for the AICTE approvedinstitutions, teacher: student ratio variesfrom 1:39 to 1:52 (average being 1:45) for ITcourses, against AICTE relaxed norms of1:15. Almost all IT education institutions findit difficult to attract and retain good faculty.The available faculty are mainly graduates

Fig. 5: IT Manpower Requirement forIT Enabled Services

from the same institutions waiting forpermanent employment. It is learnt thatnearly one-fourth of the IT / ComputerScience faculty positions even in the premierinstitutions are lying vacant. This is due toheavy demand from the industry and bettersalary and other perks offered by them.Faculty having PG or doctoral qualificationsare difficult to find. Demand for PG andresearch programmes is also low andstudents do not normally opt for thembecause of better opportunities availableelsewhere.

Need for Continuous Monitoring of ITManpower

2.15 In high technology area susceptible torapid change, the present may not be atrue reflection of the future. Indian

23

software industry contributes only a tinyfraction of the around US $450 billionworld software market presently. Targetsset are not very ambitious. It is possible torecord greater rates of growth, if we areable to move up the value chain byproviding high skill manpower. Thereforethere is a need for continuous monitoringof the job markets in IT and variousalternative scenarios need to bedeveloped. There is a need to undertakecoordinated research and studies in ITmanpower area and create publicinformation. These studies could beconducted by existing education andresearch institutions with one of themresponsible for overall coordination. Therecould be a ‘Joint Forum of Education andTraining Providers and the IT Industry’.Apart from periodic interaction, therecould be an annual meet, where Educationproviders and IT industry could meet todisseminate findings of research andstudies and exchange notes on trends. Thismechanism will help in matching of ITmanpower needs of the industry on acontinual basis and assess availability andabsorption of IT manpower. The strategyshall be to make available larger numberof better-qualified quality IT professionalsfor capturing larger share of globalsoftware and services market. This willalso enable corrective action to be taken byall stakeholders periodically. Thisarrangement could ultimately form a partof the expanded ‘National TechnicalManpower Information System (NTMIS)’.

2.16 Among other strategies, we could developa IT Manpower Database at the National

level through e-identity for ITprofessionals. ‘Self-Declaration’,‘Authentication’ and ‘Validation’ through acompetency test may be three sequentialsteps for entry to this database. This couldbe continuously updated and the colleges/institutions and the alumni associationscould be associated with this exercise.Having some mechanism at the time of exitfrom /re-entry into the country at theInternational ports could monitorinternational migration of IT professionals.

Different Initiatives

2.17 Different State Governments have alsotaken a variety of initiatives to promote ITeducation and address related issuesincluding those covered under the ToR ofthis Task Force. Some of these initiativeshave been very successful. Task Force,therefore, recommends that successfulinitiatives be endorsed for their replicationat the All India Level. In addition, severalinnovations are taking place outside theGovernment system. In most cases,replication of such innovations is neithertime consuming nor expensive. It would,therefore, be desirable that such innovativeuse of IT tools and Internet could bepopularised by the Government for theentire system to emulate through a systemof awards and rewards.

2.18 It is proposed that an exhaustive list of allsuch initiatives is compiled and put up onthe Web for replication by other states.Central Government could pick up a few ofthese initiatives for replication at an ‘AllIndia Level’.

25

Term of Reference (i)

To draw up a plan to optimally use the existing infrastructure of the IITs,RECs, other engineering colleges and educational institutions to doubletheir students intake in IT from next academic year and triple it in thenext two years.

Background

3.1 The Task Force decided that 1999-2000 be treated as the base year anddoubling could be achieved by the next academic year i.e. 2001-2002and trebling by another two years after that i.e. 2003-2004. In case,some of the institutions had taken major initiatives in starting ITprogrammes or increasing intake in IT programmes even prior to1999-2000, the same could be taken into consideration while planningfor future expansion in these institutions. There has already been anincrease of 50 % seats in IT programmes this year. In addition the IITsand RECs have made special efforts to increase seats in ITprogrammes. All these efforts are to be harmonised and furtheraccelerated to achieve the mandate provided under ToR (i). There isneed to give special focus on increase in intake in ‘Quality’Institutions and efforts to improve quality in others.

III. CapacityEnhancement ofInstitutions

III. CapacityEnhancement ofInstitutions


demand and due to lack of publicinformation, even substandard institutionshave been flourishing. In the years to comethis high cost, low quality education frommany of the self-financing institutions islikely to create social problems.

3.4 Notwithstanding the apprehensions, it mustbe realised that major expansion in thetechnical education system in the last twodecades has taken place through self-financing institutions. Many of theseinstitutions have come up in recent yearsand would take some time to mature anddevelop. It would, therefore, be imperativeto nurture them in the initial years of theirexistence. After giving adequate time andopportunity to them, AICTE need nothesitate to withdraw approvals in case ofproven wilful default in meeting thefacilities and faculty requirements andcommercial considerations outweighing the

Government Initiatives

3.2 Government has taken a number ofinitiatives in the last few years both toincrease intake in IT programmes and startnew IT programmes in Government andGovernment aided institutions and self-financing institutions. Whereas, self-financing institutions have been very eagerto expand capacities in IT programmes andoften at the cost of quality, mostGovernment institutions have been moreprudent. In spite of this, many IT / ITrelated programmes have been introducedin the Government institutions and manyothers are proposed to be introduced in thecoming years. Such increase in capacity inIT / IT related courses in these institutionshas been done by not only optimally usingthe resources, but also stretching them to alimit. Also the Government fundedinstitutions have to be ‘Role Models’ in thetechnical education system. Any furtherexpansion would require additionalresources with associated costs. For this,additional investment over and above theexisting plan outlays would be required.

Self-Financing Institutions

3.3 There is need for a more cautious approachin case of self-financing institutions, sinceexpansion of intake in these institutions isnot necessarily accompanied by improvedfacilities and increased availability ofquality faculty. Inspection driven approachfor ensuring quality in these institutions hasalso not helped, because of lack ofcommitment for quality amongst somepromoters of such colleges. Overallcapacities being still low compared to the

Source: AICTE (*As on 4.5.2000. Total number on 30.11.2000

is 836)

*

27

academic considerations in their operations.There is also a need for creating publicinformation for ensuring better-informedchoices by the students and parents aboutthe programmes and institutions. For thispurpose, facilities and faculty status shouldbe made available by the AICTE on theInternet along with date of review/inspection and the names of the members ofthe review team.

Institution Specific Approach

3.5 A uniform approach for enhancing capacitiesis neither feasible nor desirable.Interventions required therefore would becontingent upon the situational parameters.Different initiatives would be required fordifferent categories of institutions tostrategically address the issue of quality IT

Fig. 7:

manpower in the country. Institutions couldbroadly be categorised as under:

l Category-I Institutions: 6 IITs, IISc(Bangalore), 2 IIITs and 6 IIMs (with focuson management of IT) could broadly fall inthis category. In these 15 Institutions, therecould be a greater focus on PG / Researchprogrammes for moving up the value chainfor increased productivity, dual modeprogrammes [Refer to para 3.17] to cater tolarge numbers and providing quality facultyfor ‘Category-II Institutions’ for multipliereffect. Thrust will be on sustaining andenhancing quality levels in these institutionsto enable them to become ‘Role Models’ forother institutions.

l Category-II Institutions: 17 RECs and 33other university level / established technical


institutions could fall in this category. Someof the established non-governmentalinstitutions could also be included in thiscategory. In these 50 institutions, therecould be focus on quality undergraduateprogrammes adding to direct IT manpowersupply and on PG programmes forproviding faculty to Category - IIIinstitutions. A suggestive list of 50institutions is given in Annexure III. The listcould be finalised after taking variousfactors into consideration, such as - specialthrust to IT educationally backward states,responsiveness and readiness of anInstitution to accept greater role for itselfetc. A package of measures may be taken inall these institutions for their upgradationto Category – I level. Such upgradation willcost only a fraction of what a new IITwould cost.

l Category-III(G) Institutions: Balance 200 orso Government and Government Aidedinstitutions (largely State Govt. institutions)could fall in this category. Here the focusshall be mainly to improve quality ofengineering education in general and ITeducation in particular and enhanceemployability of the graduates from theseinstitutions mainly at the higher end of thevalue chain. State Governments areexpected to support these institutions. Partof the funding could however come fromthe Central Government.

l Category-III(S) Institutions: Remainingaround 550 self-financing institutions couldfall in this category. Bulk of the financialrequirements in these institutions wouldhave to be provided by the promoters.Government could however step in for

providing support for improvingnetworking to enable them to benefit fromthe academic resources of the institutions inthe system. Assistance provided to theseinstitutions under various schemes of theAICTE could be enhanced and bettertargeted.

3.6 These are broad categories to define the kindof interventions that would be required.These do not necessarily grade the quality ofthe programmes offered by them. Some of theself-financing institutions could be better thanmany of the Government institutions. Theseare by no means water - tight compartments.Different category of institutions couldstrategically be used for different purposes toreach the overall goal of meeting qualitymanpower requirement of the country. A‘Technical Group’ could be constituted forcategorisation of the Institutes. There is aneed to evolve a hierarchical structure interms of the networking between Category I,II and III institutions. Category I institutionscould act as Resource Centres for theCategory II institutions and therefore,represent the first tier of the hierarchy.Similarly Category II institutions could act asResource Centres for the Category III.

New Institutions

3.7 Many States have come up with exclusive‘Institutes of Information Technology’. Theseinstitutions can function as resourceinstitutions at the regional / state level.Depending on the level of theirdevelopment, the institution could fit ineither Category-I or Category – II. TheseInstitutions could also offer the opportunitiesfor training in cutting edge technologies in

29

addition to offering bridge courses for theproducts of the Category – III institutions.All major states could be facilitated topromote an exclusive institute for IT withstate / central funding (and possibly externalfunding) and industry collaboration.Possibility of setting up new institutions ofcategory – I in the country could also beexplored. There is a need for ensuring cost-effectiveness in planning new institutions. A‘Technical Group’ may be constituted towork on space norms for institutionalbuildings for educational purposes.

3.8 There is increasing demand of ITprofessionals having a proper mix of subjectspecific and IT knowledge. In this context,the efforts are being made by differentacademic institutions in re-orienting manyof the traditional disciplines to offer ITrelated courses. It was noted that manyinstitutions have taken up specialisationcourses in IT/IT related areas in normalprogrammes facilitating students’ easymigration to IT. Further, bridge coursescould be specially designed for easymigration from other disciplines to IT.However, this will have to be done withoutcompromising on the demand for graduatesof those disciplines. Therefore, the focusmay not be restricted only to increase inintake in IT courses, but there is need forspecial thrust on increasing bridge coursesand encourage minor area programmes.

A System-Wide Approach

3.9 A practical and feasible strategy for enhancingcapacity of our system would be anaccelerated increase in intake andintroduction of new IT courses in

programmes and areas having multipliereffect in ‘Select’ Institutions (including IITs /RECs) without diluting the quality of theprogrammes and overall qualityimprovement for other institutes withnormal increase in intake.

A system-wide approach would involve lookingat the IT Education & Training System (IETS)from an overall perspective. Typical inputs forquality programmes in IT would be:

a. Quality Institutional Setting

b. State of the art computing and networkingfacilities.

c. Quality faculty.

d. Relevant and up-to-date curriculum withsupporting courseware

e. Effective and efficient delivery.

Interventions required would therefore attemptto address these issues.

Institutional Setting

3.10 A quality engineer or IT professional canonly come out of a quality institution.Quality of an institution is determined by acombination of factors. Whereas adequacyof infrastructure and financial support areessential, infrastructure and funds alone arenot sufficient. More critical are academicautonomy with internal accountability,leadership, governance structure, quality offaculty (and also non-faculty support),quality of students, processes of teachingand learning and finally the level of


3.11 There is great potential for improvinginstitutional performance particularly inthe tertiary sector beyond teaching andlearning. IT can effectively beleveraged for enhancing administrativeefficiency, increasing transparency,promoting cost effectiveness by costreduction of labour - intensive androutine operations in support services.Unfortunately, this aspect has not beengiven enough thought in oureducational institutions even thosehaving adequate IT infrastructure. Athrust is therefore, required to be takento develop custom applications forroutine type of institutionalmanagement functions like admission,fee collection, budgeting, inventorymanagement, space management,maintenance of campus and essentialservices, students placement services,alumni associations, hostelsmanagement, use of laboratories andsharing of inter-university resources etc.

Infrastructure Support – Computingand Networking Facilities

3.12 It is proposed to take up all category I,II & III (Govt. funded) institutions(nearly 250) for upgradation in a phasedmanner over the next seven years (Tillthe end of the tenth five-year Plan ).Focus shall be on upgrading computingand networking facilities. TheseInstitutions shall include all 205Government / Government aidedinstitutions and selected self-financing /Private institutions, which havedemonstrated excellence over the years

Fig.8: Essentials for Quality IT Programme

motivation and commitment of thestakeholders. A comprehensiverestructuring exercise has therefore beentaken up for the RECs based on therecommendations of a High PoweredReview Committee. This includes change ingovernance pattern, providing academicautonomy, change in funding pattern (bybringing them under the block grantscheme) etc. Other institutions, particularlyin Category-II would have to take up asimilar exercise to become qualityinstitutions. To maintain standards andprevent trauma and harassment of studentsand parents, all category I and IIinstitutions could be brought under thepurview of a single admission testconducted on an ‘All India’ basis from theyear 2002 onwards without, however,disturbing the existing reservation system /domicile requirements. This could be a pre-condition to providing them support underthese initiatives.

31

it does not become obsolete. There could bea ‘Procurement Policy’ for procurement ofthe IT resources and specificationbenchmarks established at the State level orby the funding agency, so that precious timeis not lost in long drawn tenderproceedings and the institutions are notburdened with dated equipment. Instead ofdirect procurement, possibility of leasingequipment with provision for periodicupgradation and evolving a system ofsoftware consortium could be explored.There is also a need to encourageinstitutions to assemble equipment foreducation and training purposes in-house(wherever possible) to provide hands ontraining and impart practical skills rarelyfound in our qualified manpower.

Networking of Institutions toSynergise Strengths

3.14 Networking of the institutions is envisagedto synergise the strengths of theparticipating Institutions. There could besharing of faculty, courseware, goodinstructional resources, and informationresources. National Network couldcomprise of around 65 institutions incategory I & II. Apart from knowledgenetworking for quality improvement, thereshould be focus for increase in intake andintroduction of new IT/IT relatedprogramme in these institutions. Attemptsneed to be made for using the physicalinfrastructure optimally through extendedand flexible working hours and staggeredschedules. Similarly states can also identifyother state / self-financing institutions forsimilar networking. Even Category - III(Self-financing) Institutions could be

in the area of technical and engineeringeducation. An amount of Rs.8 to Rs.10 croreper institution would be required forupgrading computing / networkingfacilities for Category-II institutions (nearly50). A brief outline of the proposal forstrengthening IT infrastructure in theseinstitutions is given in Annexure III. Allcategory-I institutions either have or aregoing to have state of the art computingfacilities. An amount of Rs.90 crore hasbeen sanctioned for the IITs for thepurpose. IIITs and IIT (Guwahati ) are stillin project mode and requisite computingfacilities are being created. Category-I & IIinstitutions for enhanced intake may requireadditional hostel and classroom facilities.Since such requirements may vary frominstitution to institution, a lump sumamount of Rs. 200 crore is proposed for thepurpose. Investment required forupgrading the computing and networkingfacilities in category-III institutions (nearly200) would be in the range of Rs. 6 to Rs. 8crore. This could be shared between theCentral Government and the StateGovernments in the ratio of 50:50. It isexpected that the recurring expenditure forthe purpose will either be internallygenerated or met by the main fundingagency of the institution. It is proposed thatscheme for Upgradation of computing andnetworking facilities in Category - IIinstitutions and for strengthening of otherphysical infrastructure in Category I & IIinstitutions be immediately taken up onpriority basis.

3.13 Each institution should apportion at least 20% of its fee revenue for replacement andupgradation of its IT infrastructure, so that


based system be developed for a betterorganisation and structured guide toelectronic resources available in theseinstitutions. An initiative of this kindwould have a per institutional average costof Rs.15 lakh.

Faculty

3.16 The most important parameter, which isgoing to affect the quality of education isthrough faculty. Unless measures are takento recruit good qualified faculty it is notgoing to improve the situation. A majorweakness in IT education that will befurther aggravated on account of expansionof capacity is the non-availability of qualityfaculty. All IT education institutions arefinding it difficult to attract and retain goodfaculty. This is due to heavy demand and

Key objectives• “Role models” for others - thrust on

sustaining and enhancing quality• Resource centres for category II

institutions

• Focal points for value addedlearning materials and high qualityfaculty development

• Focus on quality undergraduateprogramme

• Resource centres for category IIIinstitutions

• Nodal point for PG programmes forfaculty and course content

• Improve quality of engineeringeducation and enhanceemployability of graduates at thehigher end of value chain

Fig.9:

provided support for networkinginfrastructure. Linkages of the state levelnetworks with the national network couldbe facilitated. A better synergy could comeabout if additionally regional networkscould be set up. This approach will bring asynergy between these Institutes and themajor and minor Engineering Colleges intheir respective regions through exchangeprogrammes, joint R&D, etc.

3.15 Further the libraries in at least Category Iand II institutions should be digitisedproviding not only bibliographic record ofdocuments but also its full text electronicversion digitised images and graphic digitalaudio and video component. Fragile anddeteriorating old volumes and journalscould be scanned. An education basedinformation and storage and retrieval data

Description• Top tier institutes with greater

focus on PG and Research• Include 15 institutes (Six IITs,

one IISc (Bangalore), two IIITs,six IIMs)

• Include 17 RECs and 33 otheruniversity / technical institutions.Could include some self-financinginstitutes

• Potential to reach category I levelsby added investment / plannedDevelopment

• Balance government and self-financing institutions (200government and 550 self-financing)

• Some government support possiblefor improving infrastructure andconnectivity

33

better salary and other perks offered by theindustry. This position is not likely tochange unless specific interventions aremade. In many institutions there are largenumbers of vacancies, which are notfilled due to non-availability of properqualified faculty.

3.17 Meeting faculty shortages, improving theirquality and retaining quality faculty arecritical to improving the standards of ITeducation in the country. Therefore, theTask Force has identified this as a thrustarea and recommends a package ofmeasures that should be taken forincreasing availability, improving qualityand retaining quality faculty in IT. An ‘ITFaculty Development Initiative’ is to belaunched on a crash basis to address thisproblem. This initiative would include:

l Providing a ‘Major Thrust to Post-Graduate and Research Programmes’. Thiswill have a multiplier effect in providing ITfaculty to other institutions. Greater focuson PG and Research programmes willattract good quality faculty to teaching andalso facilitate increased intake at UG levelas many PG students can act as TeachingAssistants (TAs) in labs, and undertaketutorials, and preparation of pedagogicalmaterial. Even bright final year students inB.Tech could also be used as TAs.

l Scaling up of ‘Early Faculty InductionProgramme (EFIP)’ by increasing thenumber of host institutions (from present 5to 50), quota for IT Programmes (from 40 to1000 for only IT) both at the PG and theDoctoral level. Procedure needs to bestreamlined involving host institutions.

Total annual financial outlay requiredwould be of the order of Rs.0.50 croreduring the year 2000-2001 increasinggradually to Rs.13.6 crore by 2006-2007.

l Scaling up of ‘Quality ImprovementProgramme (QIP)’ by increasing thenumber of host institutions, quota for ITProgrammes both for M. Tech. and Ph.D.programmes. To encourage institutions tosponsor faculty for QIP, the Institutions maybe allowed to fill up the posts temporarilyso that the academic schedules are notdisrupted. Younger persons need to begiven opportunity. There should be anobligation to serve the sponsoringinstitute. Annual financial outlayrequired would reach up to Rs.15 crorein 2006-2007.

l Introduction of ‘Sequential PG Programmein IT’ for working faculty with core coursework completed in vacation breaks overthree years and project work done in theirown institutions. Individuals to beencouraged by reimbursement of fees andhost institutions to be encouraged through aone time library / equipment grant.

l Starting ‘PG programmes in IT in ‘DualMode’ (i.e. a proper mix of web-based andmultimedia tools with adequate provisionfor periodic contacts). In the dual mode,while we are able to reach out to largerstudent numbers, problems faced in pureweb-based education - absence of verbalinteraction, evaluation problems are alsoaddressed. This is expected to be a low costoption and would be self-sustaining. 15Resource institutions and 50 participatinginstitutions could be identified.


of the premier institutes to a greaternumber of institutions.

l Allowing transmigration in allpostgraduate and research programs forfaculty development (including EFIP, QIP,Dual Mode) from interfacing disciplines like- physics, mathematics etc. Graduates ofother engineering disciplines could also beoffered direct entry into Ph.D. (in IT orcomputer science). The entry norms intosuch programme can be relaxed whilekeeping the same exit norms.

Fig. 10: IT Faculty Development Initiative

Supplementary funding for improving theirEducation Technology (ET) infrastructure isto be provided. With a class size of 40, itshould be possible to create 2000 positionsat PG level in IT targeted at facultydevelopment.

l Faculty of premier institutions could teachother institutions to supplement efforts oflocal faculty for improving teachinglearning in other disciplines. Video andCDs and development of learning resourcematerial on web would enhance the reach

35

l Allowing switchover of faculty frominterfacing disciplines like - physics,mathematics etc. through short-termtraining and skill-upgradation programmesby making provision for joint appointments.There has been a problem in this cross-migration scheme. Faculty from otherdisciplines trained in IT, when they returnto their parent institution continue in theirown discipline defeating the very purposeof cross-migration. Remedial steps for thiswould be essential.

l Encouraging concept of TeachingAssistants (TAs) in all institutions. Top 5%of a graduating batch could be offeredteaching assistants’ position directly toattract them to teaching career and helpobtain higher qualification with a view tooffering them regular faculty positioneventually. All institutes should leverageTAs for using senior faculty time moreproductively by using them for tutorialsand grading assignments.

l Encouraging Dual Degree Programmeswith PG in IT related fields though minorarea programmes could be very effective todevelop experts in niche areas and personswith domain expertise. Such faculty wouldprovide a multi-disciplinary focus toteaching of IT and would be useful fortraining in industry specific needs.

l Visiting faculty from industry, C-DOT, C-DAC, reputed institutions from India andabroad for a semester or two or part thereofcould be invited. Procedures can besimplified and such offers made moreattractive. In case of Persons of IndianOrigin, possibility of waiving requirement

for Government clearance could be exploredin consultation with the MHA & MEA. Forall of these categories the process ofgovernment clearances need to bestreamlined.

l Persons from industry with M.Tech /Ph.D.qualifications or B.Tech with relevantexperience be given ‘Adjunct Faculty’status in engineering colleges and attractivecompensation package / honorarium beoffered per lecture in specialist’s categorieswith flexibility in scheduling of classes tosuit them. Better incentives, openness andcooperation among selected institutes andIITs may be fostered by inviting faculty onweekends, vacations, sabbaticals etc. onspecial topics of mutual interest and thoserelevant for competency building in ITcourses. Institutions need to developenabling environment for implementation ofthis scheme.

l To attract quality faculty, there could begenerous perks such as – greater flexibilityin secondment to industry during vacationand opportunity for undertakingconsultancy (without howevercompromising on teaching), liberalisedleave rules for sabbatical and attendingconferences. A professional developmentfund could be considered. Efforts should bemade to provide excellent workenvironment, ambience and housing. This isparticularly important, as industry hasstarted offering packages, which can be tootempting even for a very devoted faculty toconsider moving to industry. There could befiscal incentives for work beyond normalteaching loads.


l Re-employment of IT faculty beyond ageof superannuation as a temporary measurecan also be allowed till the shortagescontinue.

l Contractual appointments could also bemade by the Institutions to attract facultyfrom the industry for short periods of 2-3years.

l For select premier institutions, possibilitiesof de-linking salary structure from thenational norms to attract quality facultycould be explored.

l There should be greater focus oncontinuing education programmes forskill upgradation of the faculty in ITdepartments. Fast obsolescence of existingcourses and emergence of newer areas arethe order of the day. Such skill upgradationneed to be done in a collaborative modewith IT Industry and IT IndustryAssociations. Training could take placeflexibly through existing framework ofacademic staff colleges in universities orQIP programmes in engineering collegesetc., summer training camps for IT teachersthrough ISTE and other Agencies. Manyprivate institutes are effectively providingquality education in IT, particularly in useof IT tools. Tie-up with these institutes maybe helpful. Faculty of the engineeringinstitutes may be provided some supportto attend a course at these privateinstitutes for skill upgradation. It has beenobserved that due to lack of properlyskilled faculty at local engineeringinstitutes, many students are attendingclasses at private IT-institutes for acquiringpractical skills. Training the faculty in the

first place and providing them incentivesfor supporting the students can reverse thetrend. This could be supplemented bycontribution from the parent institution.Institutions could be encouraged toapportion a part of their fee income (say10%) for faculty skill upgradation.

For operationalisation of these initiatives, aFaculty Development Fund is proposed to becreated.

Curriculum

3.18 Regular updating of curriculum would alsobe critical. It is seen that in mostinstitutions, the process of curriculumrevision is very inflexible and timeconsuming. This bottleneck is causedparticularly by the affiliating system.Therefore, wherever possible theseinstitutions are being declared deemed tobe universities. Whereas, All India Board ofIT Education could coordinate and monitorcurriculum issues, there could be a networkof institutions, which may take up the job ofworking closely and continuously to evolveIT curriculum, pedagogy and effectivedelivery methods. These Institutions (mayinclude private education and trainingproviders) may evolve a curriculumframework in IT embracing all levels rightfrom certificate to postgraduate level.There is need for in-built mechanism forrevision at least every three years. Thecurriculum framework need not be too rigidand should provide adequate scope forinnovation and initiatives by individualinstitutes. Possibility of working out amechanism to ensure that both the publicand private sector units adhere to this

37

frame of reference could be explored. Suchcurriculum framework should be circulatedthroughout the system, particularly toCategory-III institutions for adoption.

Qualifications Framework

3.19 If the entire curriculum is prepared on amodular and credit form, the flexibility ofstudent mobility and transfer of creditsbetween these two categories ofinstitutions can be further facilitated,though mutual recognition (includingawards from the private education andtraining providers). There is a need for a‘National Qualifications Framework’ for ITeducation embracing all levels.

Courseware

3.20 Based on the curriculum framework, therecould be ‘Courseware DevelopmentInitiative’ including web-based courseware.Particular emphasis need to be given tolaboratory textbooks – identified as a weakarea. This could be a shared activity.There could be a web-based forum forfacilitating curriculum and coursewaredevelopment efforts for widest possibleconsultation. Financial support would berequired for this initiative. This wouldinclude documentation and publicationof courseware.

Promoting Technology Enhanced ITEducation

3.21 Number of resource persons and centres ofexcellence is limited. To enable these limitedresources to reach out to the large number itwould be essential to use the latest

technology for delivery depending uponthe requirements. The delivery networkcould be one way or interactive. An optimalmix of these technologies would berequired to meet the needs of facultydevelopment and resource sharing. TheInternet itself could be an importantdelivery mechanism. A number ofinstitutions are already offering courses onthe net. This would meet only part of theneeds. Conferencing networks could beestablished amongst institutions, andexisting networks could be utilised. TheTraining and Development CommunicationChannel (TDCC) could be utilised forproviding one way video and two wayaudio teleconferencing with minimuminvestments. Data broadcasting networksusing multimedia dissemination systemscould be effectively utilised for distributionof learning materials to classrooms withprovisions for live explanation and conductof lectures. Such a network would use littlebandwidth and could provide an effectivenetworking between the resource centresand the classrooms. A mix and match ofthese technologies would be needed toprovide the best solution in a givensituation. The top institutions could use theInternet with TDCC for classroom delivery.The second tier institutions could useTDCC and or DSDB with digital talkback.The lower may have to start with DSDBand talkback only due to bandwidthconstraint. Content creation would requiremajor efforts and have to be tailored toeach system so as to best utilise the featuresof each system. Interaction will have to bepartly online and largely offline withgenerous use of Frequently AskedQuestions (FAQs).


3.22 Institutions of excellence could beencouraged to video record courses runningon the campus, digitise and provide themthrough the servers, where high bandwidthis available and wherever this is notpossible, the same can be sent on DVDs orCDROMs. Educational institutions shouldbe facilitated by providing themconcessional tariff for connectivity. Thismethodology could be used for facultydevelopment as well as other programmes.

3.23 Fifteen (15) ‘Resource Institutions’ could beidentified. This could include the seveninstitutions (including 5 IITs) alreadycovered under the ‘Nationally CoordinatedProgramme on Use of EducationTechnology’. In addition existing facilities inthe 4 TTTIs could be utilized. Fifty (50)Participating Institutions (PIs) could beidentified as the receiving institutions. Mostof these institutions are expected to havethe requisite facilities. Upgradation offacilities could also be covered under thescheme of strengthening computing andnetworking infrastructure. However, somesupplementary funding to upgrade theEducation Technology (ET) infrastructurewould be required. This is expected to be alow cost option and self-sustaining.Management of IT and software andservices is becoming equally important.Therefore, at least two of the ResourceInstitutions could be from amongst theManagement Institutions and 8 of the 50 PIscould offer special programmes on subjectareas related to management of IT. Thiswould enable the finest faculty from thepremier institutions to teach and reach outto a much larger number of students. Thiscould also evolve into joint degree

programmes offered by multiple institutionsthat share their academic and facultyresources and content and allow larger classsizes by effective use of multimedia andtutorials without loss of effect.

3.24 As distance learning is becoming popularand gaining acceptance, it has raised otherissues like adding interactivity to booststudent’s attention level and interest. This isbeing done by adopting differenttechnologies such as satellite broadcasting,computer based and web base methods,pre-recorded tapes and video-conferencing,etc. Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity (IGNOU) has taken lead in thisdirection by launching the ‘Virtual CampusInitiative’. Two IITs at Kharagpur andMumbai have also initiated IT programmesin the Distance Mode. Using InteractiveTechnologies through a combination ofVSATs and Leased/ISDN Lines andadditionally exploiting chat rooms andbulletin boards specially set up on internet,many of the core courses and advanced PGcourses in IT can be made available tostudents as well as working professionalsacross the country. All Category I and IIInstitutions should be encouraged tobecome resource centres in IT DistanceEducation while category III Institutes andspecific Industry centres should becomeparticipants. Three to four major centresshould emerge as focal points for thisimportant effort over next two years. AllInstitutes (up to say 100) that show interestin quickly participating in the programmeshould be facilitated for setting upreceiving / interacting equipment. EachInstitute / college should chargeappropriate fees from students / working

39

professionals so that the schemes not onlybecomes self-sufficient in its annualrecurring expenditure, but also generatesome surplus to support the academic andresearch programmes of the Institutes.

3.25 IT enabled Distance Education, i.e.,Imparting high quality education inconventional fields to remote villages andtowns using the powerful interactivemechanisms of modern IT would constitute avery important and immediate initiative.While Open universities, classical universitiesand conventional colleges can work towardsmultimedia and local language contentcreation for different subjects, the technicalInstitutes should operate as resource centresfor managing the servers and networks thatsupport this activity. All category I and IIInstitutions (65) could each be providedassistance for the purpose for high diskcapacity web server, network / modems andsome technical manpower. These resourcecentres will have the responsibility ofsynchronising / catching contents acrossservers and supporting retrieval by othercolleges/schools in the city/region. Thesupport for content creation and actualexecution of the education programme couldcome from respective states. Category I andII Institutes could receive conditionally othergrants, if they agree to provide this service.Such “Interlocked” grants would forceTechnical colleges to open up and besensitive and supportive of the othereducational system. Investments mentionedin this and the preceding para wouldlargely come under strengtheningcomputing and networking facilities andsupplementary support for upgradation ofET infrastructure.

Improving Connectivity

3.26 It is learnt that ambitious plans are in theoffing to offer higher bandwidth facilitatingIT-enhanced learning. Whereas, it is learnedthat some ISPs are offering free Internetaccess. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL) on its part has already decided toextend 50% concession on the port chargesas well as 20% concession on the leased linerentals to educational institutions. Evenwith all this, it has to be seen, if educationalinstitutions could afford the costs of suchhigher bandwidths. Internet access tariff ispresently determined by the market forces.It is expected that due to pro-competitivepolicies of the Government in this sector,the tariff would go down. A brief note onthe other initiatives taken by the BSNL forproviding a stable and reliable networkinginfrastructure in the country is given inAnnexure IV.

Postgraduate Education and Researchin IT

3.27 10,000 Masters degree holders and 800 Ph.D. degree holders in computer science areproduced in the USA every year.Compared to that, we in this countryproduce only 25 Ph. D. and 300 M. Tech.degree holders in computer science. Forthe country to move up the value chainin software industry and to become asuper power in knowledge led businessparticularly computer science andengineering/information technology, it isessential that we give greater importanceto post graduate education and research.This would be essential if we wish tograduate from mere users of IT to


generators of IT products and services andwish to become internationallycompetitive. Setting Up Schools ofAdvanced Studies and Special ResearchGroups, as recommended by the PGreview committee, in IT areas wouldconstitute a very important beginning inthis direction. These should be set up inareas of local as well as global relevancesuch as man-machine synergy, multimediacontents in Indian languages, informationsecurity, Internet appliances, low costhardware, embedded systems, bio-informatics and biometrics, digital designand software interface design, ITentrepreneurship etc. Each such centrecould be a joint effort between a leadInstitution from Category I and two otherInstitutes from category-II & III in thatregion. A total infrastructure and researchfunding of Rs. 100 crore could be providedin three-year initial period. After theseCentres are expected to become self-supporting. Follow up grant over thesubsequent four-year period could beprovided if that does not happen. Toattract outstanding research professionals,compensation package in these Centrescould be more liberal and de-linked evenfrom the host institution. Whereas theseCentres would be immediate criticalrequirement, other interventions likeincrease in out-turn and increase in rate ofassistance-ship and associated costs forimplementation of the report of the PGReview Committee are being worked outand will be presented separately.

Role of the Regulatory Body

3.28 AICTE is a statutory body set up under an

Act of Parliament for proper planning andcoordinated development and maintenanceof standards in the technical / professionaleducation in the country. In a country of thesize and diversity of India a regulatorybody is needed to ensure minimumstandards and quality of education,specially in view of the high mobility ofstudents for higher education andemployment within and outside the country.

3.29 With a large-scale increase in the size of thetechnical education system, AICTE has as afirst step towards decentralisation,decided to devolve the approval functionsconnected with Diploma Level Institutionsto the states. AICTE will however continueto function as an appellate body. Steps arealso being taken to simplify and rationalisethe existing procedures. Regional officesare being strengthened, and the affiliatinguniversities and the State Boards ofTechnical Education assigned greater roleto address the local needs. There is a needto evolve a nationwide coordinationmechanism for maintenance of standards atall levels.

3.30 It was noted that many of theinterventions proposed by the Task Forcewill have to be implemented through theinstrumentality of the AICTE and hopedfor its full support.

Educational Institutions - IT IndustryInterface

3.31 Both the educational institutions and the ITindustry can mutually benefit throughcloser cooperation and collaboration. Inspite of efforts made, such collaborations

41

have not been very successful in the past.There are wide differences in perceptions ofeducational institutions and industry. Theseact as barriers in effective cooperation. ITprofessionals are short on time and cannotbe expected to devote too much of it onsuch interactions. Though, some of themcould be available as adjunct or visitingfaculty, institutions need to use them morefor certain strategic activities. These couldbe - development of courseware relevant tothe industry needs, assisting them inproblem solving through on-going jointcollaborative research initiative and usingthem as faculty for specific industryoriented modules. Top experts / specialistsof IT companies could be linked through avideo conferencing facility for devotinghalf an hour a week for delivering lectureson the campus. All such collaborationswill, to a large extent, depend on boththe educational institution and theindustry partner.

3.32 The Co-operative (Co-op) System,involving a partnership in the process of

education between Industry and Educationinstitutions has become popular throughoutthe world over the last three decades. Itinvolves Academic-Terms in the educationinstitutions, interspersed with one or moreWork-Term(s) in Industry. During theWork-Term (s) of nearly six monthsduration, the student is treated as a part ofthe work force and is suitably compensatedby Industry. The student is jointlysupervised by a teacher and an industrymentor. The Co-op model has shownremarkable results in improving the qualityof education and employability ofgraduates. It has promoted interaction andcollaboration between industry andacademia. Co-op model is expected to beparticularly effective in the field ofInformation Technology (IT), and may beadopted more widely and furtherstrengthened.

3.33 To facilitate and promote this very desirableinterface, there could be awards institutedfor recognition of such initiatives at thenational level.

43

IV. InvestmentsIV. InvestmentsIV. Investments

Programme Outlay

4.1 For the interventions proposed in this paper, an amount of around2000 crore (Central share alone) would be required over a seven-yearperiod. Details of year-wise investment required are given inSchedule-A and Schedule-B for capital and revenue expenditurerespectively. This would be in addition to the State GovernmentsFunding / External Funding. This investment works out to be merelyRs.290 crore per annum (though bulk of the funding may be requiredin initial 3-4 years). This would be only around 1 % of the totalearnings from software and services in the country. With very highrates of return, this investment is fully justified. Proposed investmentof Rs.2000 crore will leverage further investment in IT education in the

Technical Education sector. All these figuresare, at this stage, broad projections and willneed to be fine-tuned in consultation withthe Planning Commission and the Ministry ofFinance. The availability of funds in thebudget of the Ministry of HRD will of coursedepend on the plan ceilings approved bythe Planning Commission from time to time,as also for the 10th Five Year Plan when itis finalised.

Sources of Finance

4.2 Various possibilities of financing theseinvestments could be explored. StateGovernments are expected to share partof the investment. Financing could alsobe done through soft loans from the


World Bank, Asian Development Bank andother multilateral funding agencies. In viewof the high rates of return on thisinvestment, there has been a lot of interestin the multilateral funding agencies for thesame. Government could explorepossibility for meeting the investment needsenvisaged in the report through otherinnovative schemes.

4.3 Existing plan allocations of the Ministry forTechnical Education sector have been onlyto the tune of around Rs.500 crore, total 9th

Plan outlay is just Rs.2375 crore. Thisprovision is made against earmarked all on-going and already approved schemes. The

proposed funding, therefore, has to comeover and above the existing plan outlay, ifthe overall resources so permit.

4.4 Recurring cost for various initiatives hasbeen kept to bare minimum with theexpectation that it would be largely met bythe institution or the funding agencyinvolved. Even provision for creation ofadditional faculty positions and gaps, if any,has not been kept to avoid unnecessarycomplication. However, the institutions ortheir funding agency will have tocategorically state that critical gaps, if any,identified during the implementation of thisprogramme, shall be filled in by them.

45

V. Implementation

Institutional Mechanism

5.1 All these initiatives could come under the overall umbrella of a‘National Programme for Human Resource Development’ in IT. TheTask Force could function as the ‘National Programme AdvisoryCommittee (NPAC)’. ‘Committee on IT Manpower’ could function asan inter-ministerial ‘National Programme Steering Committee(NPSC)’ and there could be an ‘Implementation Committee’ withinthe Ministry. These Committees could meet quarterly, monthly andweekly respectively. This hierarchy of Committees would havedifferent terms of references. There could a ‘Programme Co-

ordinator’ with a small ‘ProgrammeOffice’ within the Department. Therecould be an ‘Experts Group’ withexperts drawn from all fourcategories of institutions to aid andadvise the programme office ontechnical issues. Steering Committeecould be an Empowered Committeewith delegated financial powers tosanction funds within the overallparameters laid down in the report.It could also approve guidelines andmodalities for release of funds andselection of institutions. Theimplementation committee may beresponsible for taking decisions onday to day basis. This Committeemay also have certain delegatedfinancial powers. The Advisory

V. Implementation


Committee shall from time to time reviewthe progress of implementation, makenecessary amendments in the broadparameters laid down to adjust tochanging realities and on the basis of openfeedback received through the ‘ProgrammeWeb-site’. Expenditure on administrativeservices in the programme office shall berestricted to 0.5 % of the total outlay.

Plan of Action

5.2 A tentative ‘Plan of Action’ has beenprovided in Schedule C. This gives anindicative course of action for each of therecommendations and the ‘Agency’ thatshall be responsible for it. This has beendone keeping in view the spirit of the ToR(i), which provides for drawing up a ‘Plan’.

Fig. 13: Operational Plan

47

VI. AnticipatedBenefits

6.1 This programme is expected to provide strategic interventions ineducation and training system in the country in IT / IT related areas.These interventions are likely to increase availability of quality ITmanpower in larger numbers in the country. This would help theIndian software & services sector to increase productivity and moveup the value chain enabling the country to capture larger share ofglobal markets in software services than projected. Increasedemployment opportunities in this sector would be immediate benefitand is likely to make a dent in the problem of unemployment in thecountry. This is an opportunity that the country cannot afford to miss.

6.2 The interventions are also expected to spur quality improvementsthroughout the education and training system with effective use ofinformation technology. This will also help to resolve a dilemma whichregulatory body often faces while monitoring quality in self-financinginstitutions due to poor facilities in the Government institutions.Investment is therefore mainly targeted to facilitate improvements inthe Government institutions, though many of the initiatives shallbenefit both the Government and the non-Governmental institutions.By enabling the regulatory body to more effectively monitor qualityof IT education and ensure better compliance both from theGovernment funded and the self-funded institutions, there would bereal improvement of quality of IT education in the country.

VI. AnticipatedBenefits

SCHEDULESSCHEDULES


SCHEDULE - ACapital Outlay

(Year-Wise Break Up)(Amount in Rs. Crores)

Component 2000- 2001- 10th FY Total2001 2002 Plan Amount

1. Strengthening Computing and Networking 100.00 185.00 165.00 450.00Infrastructure in Category – II Institutions(Nearly 50 Nos. @ Rs. 9 crore each)

2. Physical Infrastructure Institutions for - 100.00 100.00 200.00enhancing capacities for IT Education

3. Strengthening of Computing and 90.00 130.00 480.00 700.00Networking Infrastructure in Category – IIIInstitutions (Nearly 200 nos. @Rs.7 croreeach- Rs.3.5 crore – Central Share; To beshared between the Centre & the States)

4. Leveraging use of IT for Modernisation/ 3.00 6.75 - 9.75Digitisation of Libraries and computerisationof administrative support services in SelectInstitutions (capital Outlay)

5. Strengthening of ET Infrastructure in select 2.00 13.00 - 15.00institutions for promotion of technologymediated IT Education

6. Setting up of Schools of Advanced Studies - 60.00 40.00 100.00and Special Research Groups in IT forpromotion of PG Education & Research

Total 195.00 494.75 785.00 1474.75

(Nearly Rupees One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy Five Crore only)

51

SCHEDULE - BRevenue Outlay

(Year-Wise Break Up)

(Amount in Rs. Crores)

Component 2000- 2001- 10th FY Total2001 2002 Plan Amount

1. Networking Services - National Network - 20.00 50.00 70.00

2. Networking Services - State Networks: 20 - 40.00 100.00 140.00Networks with 15-20 institutions each. (To beshared between the Centre and the States on50:50 basis)

3. Faculty Development Fund - National 2.00 13.00 125.00 140.00Level Initiative

4. Curriculum & Courseware Development 2.00 12.00 35.00 49.00Initiatives

5. Leveraging use of IT for Modernisation/ 1.00 3.00 10.00 14.00Digitisation of Libraries and computerisationof administrative support services in SelectInstitutions (Capital Outlay)

6. Promoting Interface with IT Industry for - 3.5 35.00 38.50creating public information IT manpowerissues and enhancing institutional effectivenessfor design and delivery of IT programmes.

7. Innovations/Initiatives in IT Education/Setting - 15.00 60.00 75.00up of a clearinghouse of such innovations/SeedMoney for Replication (Rs. 10 crore per annum)

Total 5.00 106.50 415.00 526.50

(Nearly Rupees Five Hundred and Twenty Six Crore only)

Grand Total Rs. 2000 crore (approx.)


SCHEDULE C

PLAN OF ACTION

Recommendations

Creating Public Information on ITManpower1. Conduct studies, research, seminars and

workshops on IT manpower issuesthrough a network of institutions /consultants.

2. Set up a ‘Joint Forum of Education andTraining Providers and the IT Industry’for periodic interaction – highlight beingan ‘Annual Meet’ for dissemination andexchange of notes, findings and review oftrends for creating public information forenabling corrective action

3. Develop ‘IT Manpower Database’ at theNational level through a system ofunique e-identity for IT professionals.

4. Monitor international mobility of ITprofessionals by evolving a suitablemechanism at the port of exit / re-entry.

5. Expand reach of Indian IT professionalsto non-English speaking countries byintegrating language / cultural skill withthe regular engineering curriculum.

Promoting What Works6. Compile initiatives of States, evolve a

clearinghouse mechanism and createfacilitating environment for replication ofinitiatives and innovations that work.

7. Promote non-governmental initiatives inHRD in IT with focus on bridging thedigital divide, innovations in pedagogyand delivery of educational contents etc.by recognising such initiatives through asystem of ‘National Awards’.

Monitoring Intake and Out-turn8. Monitor capacities of institutions

periodically (both intake and out-turn)with 1999-2000 as the base year. Objectiveshall be to double intake by 2001-2002

Indicative Course of Action

Identification of institutions.Selection of subject areas of study andaward of studies etc.

Hold consultations with thestakeholders in education and trainingsector and IT industry. Finalise thecomposition of joint forum inconsultation with the MIT / ESC /NASSCOM / MAIT etc. and service theJoint Forum.

Hold consultation and explorepossibility.

Hold consultation with MEA / MHAand evolve a mechanism.

Identify potential countries. Work out aprogramme in consultation withCategory I & II institutions to beginwith.

Request States to furnish information,compile it and put it on the web.

Finalise scheme of awards.

Devise standard formats forcollecting information through aconsultative process. Whereverpossible online collection of

Agency

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office

Ministry

Ed.CIL / ESC

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office/ AICTE / ISTE

53

Recommendations Indicative Course of Action Agency

and triple it by 2003-2004 for the systemas a whole with strategic use of variousinstitutions for different purposes.

Categorisation of Institutions9. Categorisation of institutions to be done

by a ‘Technical Group’ for adoptingdifferent strategies for differentcategories of institutions contingentupon the situational parameters.

New Institutions10. Set up exclusive ‘Institutes of

Information Technology’ with the Stateand Central Government funding (andpossibly external funding) and industrialcollaboration. These shall function as‘Resource Centres’ and ‘FinishingSchools’ particularly for category III &IV institutions.

11. Explore possibilities of setting up of newIITs in the country.

12. Ensure cost effectiveness in planningnew institutions. A ‘Technical Group’ torework on space norms for institutionalbuildings for educational purposes.

13. Facilitate bridge courses and minor areaprogrammes in IT for easy migration toIT keeping in mind the impact IT ismaking on all disciplines of tertiaryeducation and in every industry

Improving Institutional Quality14. Bring about improvement in overall

institutional setting through a packageof measures with focus on Category-I &II institutions at the National level. Statesto be facilitated to take up similar effortsfor other institutions.

15. Leverage IT for improving institutionalperformance by computerization ofsupport services.

information to be encouraged.

Constitute a technical group for firstcycle of categorisation of institutions.

Hold consultations with thestakeholders.

Hold consultations with the PlanningCommission and the Ministry ofFinance.

Constitute a ‘Technical Group’ withrepresentatives of the Ministry ofUrban development, Council ofArchitects and Educational Institutes.

Identify institutes where bridge coursesin minor area programmes have beenrun successfully over the years. Apaper highlighting their experiences becirculated to all the institutions andhold a National Workshop.

A consultation paper on re-structuringof RECs circulated. On receipt offeedback further action to be taken.Similar exercise could be taken up forother Category II institutions.

Evolve mechanism using experiencesof Institutions.

Ministry / AICTE

Programme Office

Ministry

Ministry

NIEPA

Ministry

Programme Office



Improving Infrastructure16. Strengthen computing and networking

facilities in category I, II & III (G)institutions (around 250) with 100 %financial assistance for category I & IIinstitutions (around 65) and 50 %financial assistance for category III (a)institutions (around 200) – balance 50 %to come from the State Governments.

17. Create an ‘Equipment ReplacementFund’ at the Institution level forupgradation and replacement ofobsolete equipment periodicallyearmarking 20 % of the fee revenue forthe purpose.

18. Improve of physical infrastructure –such as additional classroom, hostel, andlaboratory facilities to cater to increasedcapacities in Category-I & II institutions.

Networking19. Promote Networking of institutions

(both horizontally within a category andvertically across categories) to synergisestrengths by forming ‘National LevelCluster’ and ‘State Level Clusters’ foreffective resource sharing and academiccollaboration with 100 % financialassistance for ‘National Network’ and 50% financial assistance for ‘StateNetworks’ – balance 50 % would comefrom the State Governments.

20. Digitisation of libraries of original works(thesis, research publications) and oldand expensive journals in category I & IIinstitutions.

IT Faculty Development Initiative21. Launch an ‘IT Faculty Development

Initiative’ with a multi-prongedapproach to address critical shortage ofIT faculty, retaining quality faculty, andtheir periodic up-skilling and create a‘Faculty Development Fund’ for thepurpose. (Specific components of thisinitiative are from serial no. 22 to 35)

A brief outline for strengtheningcomputing and networking facilities isprovided in Annexure-III. Based onthis, institutions shall be invited tosubmit their proposals for upgradation.

This could be a pre-condition forsanction of funds.

Based on overall targets for increase,proposals to be invited from CategoryI and Category II institutions.

A workshop to be held to work outoperational strategy for national levelnetworking. Similar workshops couldbe held at the Regional / state levels.

Broad guidelines for Digitisation oflibraries be circulated and evolve amechanism to support such schemes.

Monitoring and coordination ofdifferent initiatives, measurement ofthe outcomes and keeping theinitiatives on-track.

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office

Programme Office

55


22. Attract quality faculty by greater thruston Post-Graduate and ResearchProgrammes in IT.

23. Scale up Early Faculty InductionProgramme (EFIP) in IT.

24. Scale up Quality ImprovementProgramme (QIP) in IT.

25. Introduce Sequential PG Programme inIT.

26. Start PG programmes in IT in DualMode.

27. Supplement efforts of local faculty byusing faculty of premier institutions.

28. Allow transmigration in all postgraduateand research programmes.

29. Allow switchover of faculty frominterfacing disciplines.

30. Encourage concept of TeachingAssistants (TAs).

31. Encourage Dual Degree Programmes withPG in IT related fields though minor areaprogrammes.

32. Create enabling environment to invitevisiting faculty from industry, reputedinstitutions from India and abroad

33. Encourage ‘Adjunct Faculty’ from ITindustry.

34. Re-employment of IT Faculty beyondthe age of superannuation.

35. Greater focus on continuing educationprogrammes for skill upgradation withfinancial support from the Governmentalso through a ‘Faculty Development

Early implementation of therecommendations of the PG ReviewCommittee.

Revise the scheme suitably andimplement

Revise the scheme suitably andimplement

Working Group set up to provideoperational details.

Identify Resource Institutions andParticipating Institutions, holdconsultations and finalise the scheme.


Review of detailed guidelines.

Review of detailed guidelines.

Issue of instructions by appropriateauthorities.

Review of detailed guidelines on thebasis of past experience of institutions.

Hold consultations with the IT industry& others.

Hold consultations with the IT industry& others.

Issue instructions.

Training needs to be identified andinstitutions to be selected. Scheme forsupport may be finalised.

Ministry / AICTE

AICTE

AICTE

Ministry/AICTE

Programme Office/ AICTE

Programme Office

AICTE

AICTE

Ministry / FundingAgency

AICTE

Ministry / MIT

Ministry / MIT

Ministry / FundingAgency

Programme Office


Fund’ created at the Institution levelwith 10 % of the fee revenue.

Curriculum & Courseware36. Evolve a network of institutions to work

closely to evolve IT curriculum,pedagogy and delivery methods for alllevels.

37. Adopt modular, credit based approach incurriculum design at various forenhancing student mobility andfacilitating transfer of credits.

38. Provide special attention to bothhorizontal and vertical mobility ofstudents in the existing and the newprogrammes and work out equivalencemechanisms.

39. Launch ‘Courseware DevelopmentInitiative’ for development andpublication of low-cost courseware –special emphasis being on courseware inIndian Languages, courseware forlaboratory activities and other gap areas.

40. Create web-based forum for facilitatingcurriculum and coursewaredevelopment efforts.

Promoting Technology-mediated ITEducation41. Promote Technology-mediated IT

Education using broadcast media,teleconferencing, web-based and othermultimedia approach.

Improving Connectivity42. Make provision for concessional tariff

for connectivity for educationalinstitutions.

Promoting PG Education and Research43. Promote Post-Graduate education and

Research Programmes by earlyimplementation of therecommendations of the PG ReviewCommittee.

Constitute expert groups and holdconsultations with the stakeholders.

Constitute expert groups and holdconsultations with the stakeholders.

Hold consultation with thestakeholders.

Hold series of Workshops involvingPublishers and private IT education andtraining providers.

Assign coordination responsibility toone of the institutions.


Hold consultations with InternetService Providers.

Make budgetary provision for earlyimplementation.


AI-BITE

AI-BITE

Ministry/UGC/AICTE/AI-BITE

AI-BITE /Programme Office

AI-BITE /Programme Office

Programme Office

Ministry ofCommunications

Ministry / Ministryof Finance

57

44. Set up of Special Research Groups andSchools of Advanced Studies in thrustand emerging areas.

Facilitating Interface with IT Industry45. Facilitate educational institution – IT

industry collaboration.

Investments & Implementation46. Share investments for various initiatives

between the Central / StateGovernments and the Industry.

47. All these initiatives can come within theumbrella of a ‘National Programme forHuman Resources Development in IT(NP-HDRI)’ with suitable institutionalarrangement – ‘National AdvisoryCommittee’ and ‘National SteeringCommittee’.


Set up an Experts Group to identifyemerging areas and institutions.

Hold consultations with IT industry.

Sharing mechanism already providedin the Report.

Programme Office to be set up anddifferent committees and Groupconstituted.

Ministry/MIT/AICTE

MIT / Ministry

—

Ministry

AnnexuresAnnexures


Annexure I

No.460/31/C/27/2000-E&S.IGovernment of India

(Bharat Sarkar)Prime Minister’s Office

(Pradhan Mantri Karyalaya)New Delhi

Dated 1.8.2000

Subject: Appointment of Task Force on Human Resource Development inInformation Technology (IT)

In pursuance of the announcement made by the Prime Minister in his address to the NationalConference of IT Ministers on 15.7.2000, Government has decided to constitute a Task Forceon Human Resource Development in IT.

2. The Task Force will have the following composition:-(i) Minister, Human Resource Development Chairman(ii) Finance Minister Member(iii) Minister, Information Technology Member(iv) Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh Member(v) Chief Minister, Karnataka Member(vi) Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh Member(vii) Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh Member(viii) Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Member(ix) Secretary, Department of Secondary & Member-Secretary

Higher Education

3. The following officers will be associated with the Task Force as permanent special invitees:

(i) Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research(ii) Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology(iii) Secretary, Department of Telecommunications(iv) Secretary, Department of Expenditure

4. The Task Force, with the permission of the Chairman, may co-opt or invite such otherperson(s) as it deems appropriate, to participate in any of its meetings as specialinvitee(s).

61

5. The main objective of the Task Force is to prepare a long-term strategy for humanresource development in IT. Accordingly, the terms of reference of the Task Force shallbe as follows:

(i) To draw up a plan to optimally use the existing infrastructure of the IITs, RECs, otherengineering colleges and educational institutions to double their student intake in ITfrom the next academic year and triple it in the next two years.

(ii) To make recommendations regarding the modalities for achieving mutually beneficialcooperation between educational institutions in IT in the formal sector and those in theprivate sector.

(iii) To suggest measures necessary for enduring that good quality IT education does notremain a preserve of the rich and the English-education, and is also available to studentsfrom poor and rural families, especially those from the Scheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes and OBCs.

(iv) To suggest measures necessary to improve teaching of non-IT subjects by usingcomputers and the Internet for all students.

The Task Force may be assigned such other functions as may be found necessary from time totime.

6. The Task force shall submit its interim report on the term of reference at S.No.(I) abovewithin one month, and its final report on the remaining terms of reference with theremonths.

7. The Task Force will be serviced by Department of Secondary & Higher Education. TheMinistry of Information Technology will render all necessary assistance to the Task Force.

Sd/-(N.K. Singh)

Secretary to PM

Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and the Secretary of the Planning Commission co-opted as membersand Permanent Special Invitee respectively by the Chairman of the Task Force in terms of para 4 of theNotification.


Annexure II

F.No.33-6/2000-TS.IGovernment of India

Ministry of Human Resource DevelopmentDepartment of Secondary Education and Higher Education

New Delhi the 7th July 2000

Office Memorandum

India enjoys a competitive advantage in the IT sector due to its low cost high quality talentpool. IT services are playing increasingly important role in the country’s development and isemerging as the most important export earner. To sustain and further accelerate this trend,key requirement is availability of quality IT manpower in adequate numbers. Thisrequirement is to be met by pooling together resources available both in the formal and thenon-formal sector. Whereas, the out-turn of IT professionals from the formal sector has toincrease more rapidly than the historical rates of growth, enabling environment needs to becreated for the non-formal sector to function more effectively. A committee is therefore beingconstituted to look into the entire range of issues relating to provision for IT manpower forthe growing IT sector.

2. The composition of the Committee shall be as under:

1) Shri M.K. Kaw, Secretary, Secondary Education & Higher Education - Chairman

2) Shri P.V. Jayakrishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology,

3) Smt. Kiran Agarwal, Principal Adviser (Education), Planning Commission,

4) Prof. Ashoka Chandra, Special Secretary, Department of Secondary Education & HigherEducation.

5) Dr. Hari Gautam, Chairman, University Grants Commission

6) Shri K.S. Sarma, Additional Secretary, Department of Secondary Education & HigherEducation

7) Prof. N.C. Nigam, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education

8) Prof. A. W. Khan, Vice-Chancellor Indira Gandhi National Open University

63

9) Shri Champak Chatterjee, Joint Secretary, Department of Secondary Education & HigherEducation

10) Prof. C.S. Jha, Chairman, DOEACC Society

11) Prof. V. Rajaraman, Chairman, All India Board of IT Education

12) Shri Sanjay Narayen, Financial Advisor, HRD

13) Shri V.S. Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Secondary Education & HigherEducation

14) Shri Pawan Agarwal, Director, Department of Secondary Education & Higher Education– Secretary

3. The Committee shall facilitate in development of a long-term ‘IT Manpower Plan’ for thecountry. It will help in creating enabling environment for its implementation throughpolicy interventions, financial support, developing institutional mechanisms and buildingpublic-private partnerships.

4. This Committee will meet as and when required. The Committee may co-opt otherofficials / experts to facilitate it in discharge of its functions.

Sd/-(V.S. Pandey)

Joint Secretary to the Government of India

Note: DG E & T and the Chairman, ESC have been co-opted as members as per advise of CoS.


Annexure III

Upgradation of Computing and NetworkingFacilities in Category-II Institutions

I. Objective

l To increase intake in IT and IT related courses by optimally utilising existinginfrastructure.

l To introduce new courses in IT and IT related areas by weeding out obsolete courseswith minimal additional support.

l To strengthen use of IT in various courses and disciplines for properly equipping anengineer for the evolving engineering industry of the future.

l To promote inter-institutional cooperation, collaboration by effective use of computingfacilities and networking for resource sharing (both faculty and learning resources).

l To ensure continued curriculum renewal and faculty development through a ‘JointStrategy’ involving networking.

l To enhance efficiency and improve transparency in institutional support services.

II. Process

l Provide state-of-art computing environment to all students and faculty.

l Provide high bandwidth connectivity (8 Mbps) to the Internet so that information andother educational resources at remote sites can be accessed with the same ease as localsites. These Internet based resources will be actively used in teaching and research.

l Use computers, appropriate software and accessories as tools for more effectiveclassroom instructions which would significantly increase the impact on students as wellas expand the reach of individual teachers;

l Modernise and automate the complete support infrastructure, namely – central library,academic, faculty students and R&D officers/functions, accounts, works, health, securitytelecommunications etc.

l Evolve a system for continuous and regular interaction for sharing good practices,

65

courseware, application software for support services, faculty resources, digital libraryresources / conventional library resources, workshop and laboratories.

III. Broad Specifications

l High performance computing and graphic servers at centralised location along with a fewhigh performance servers in specific- departments

l Access stations - One Access station each for every 10 UG/PG students, every 2 Ph.D.scholars and every faculty member.

l High bandwidth WAN links for Internet access.

l Quality software with network licenses of adequate number.

l Well-equipped classrooms for conducting computer related course instruction.

l Setting up of an Institute wide Internet service.

l Setting up of a cell for distance education utilizing IT to the maximum.

l Automation of office and support functions.

l Digital sharable libraries.

[The exact requirement may very from Institution to Institution, based on their existingfacilities.]

III. Funding

l For each Institutions Rs.8-Rs.10 crore would be required. Total requirements would beRs.450 crore over 3 years.

l Nearly Rs.200 crore would be required for other physical infrastructure in all 65institutions for increasing intake and capacities.

l The upgraded facilities are expected to generate enough revenue (through enhancedconsultancy and conducting short term continuing education programmes) to coverrecurring expenses.


IV. Time Frame

l This may be done in Project Mode with 3 year time frame.

V. Implementation

l Based on these guidelines, information on existing and required infrastructure may beobtained from each Institution. Approval could be on Institution to Institution basisdepending on their initiatives.

Suggestive List of Institutions in Category - I

1. IIT Delhi2. IIT Mumbai3. IIT Kanpur4. IIT Guwahati5. IIT Chennai6. IIT Kharagpur7. IIIT Allahabad8. IIITM Gwalior9. IIM Calcutta10. IIM Ahmedabad11. IIM Bangalore12. IIM Lucknow13. IIM Indore14. IIM Calicut15. IISc Bangalore

Suggestive List of Institutions in Category - II

I. Regional Engineering Colleges

1. Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering college, Allahabad2. Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal3. Regional Engineering College, Calicut4. Regional Engineering College, Durgapur5. Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur6. Malviya Regional Engineering College, Jaipur7. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Regional Engineering College, Jalandhar8. Regional Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur9. Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra10. Visvesvaraya Regional Engineering College, Nagpur11. Regional Engineering College, Rourkela

67

12. Regional Engineering College, Silchar13. Regional Engineering College, Srinagar14. Sardar Vallabhbhai Regional College of Engg. & Tech., Surat15. Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Surathkal16. Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirapalli17. Regional Engineering College, Warangal

II. Other Institutions

18. PSG college of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu [Trust college]19. Assam Engineering College, Jorhat [State govt. college]20. North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong [Central University]21. BITS, Pilani [Deemed University]22. Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad [State University]23. Anna University, Chennai [State University]24. University of Roorkee, Roorkee [State University]25. Jadavpur University, Calcutta [State University]26. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi [Central University]27. Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, West Bengal [Deemed University]28. Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi [State govt. college]29. Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, Delhi [State govt. College]30. Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh [UT Govt. College]31. LD college of Engineering, Ahmedabad [State Govt. College]32. Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur [State govt. College]33. MS University, Baroda [State University]34. Bihar Engineering college, Patna [State Govt. College]35. Birla institute of Technology, Ranchi [Deemed University]36. Andhra University, Waltair [State University]37. Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur [State Govt. College]38. Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi [Central University]39. Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala [Deemed University]40. VJTI, Mumbai [State Govt. College]41. Govt. College of Engineering, Pune [State Govt. College]42. Shri GS Institute of Technology & Science, Indore [State Govt. College]43. University of Vishveshvariayya, Bangalore [State University]44. SNDT Women’s University (Mumbai) [State University]45. ISM (Dhanbad) [Central Institution]46. NITIE (Mumbai) [Central Institution]47. SPA (New Delhi) [Central Institution]48. NIFFT (Ranchi) [Central Institution]49. SLIET (Longowal) [Central Institution]50. NERIST (Itanagar) [Central Institution]


Category - I and Category - II Institutes

Category - I InstitutesCategory - II Institutes13

7 530399

2421

6

1,28,29,38,47

8

10

36

1741

2,40,44,46

15

5,23

11,15,43

1816

37

14,3

11

10,31 33

14

213,42

12

34

26

5020

19

12

9,25,27

3,321,7

35,48

6

48

45

49

4

22

69

Typical Requirement for Category-II Institutions along with Costing

Specifications Quantity Estimated Cost(in Rs. Lakh)

Servers 04 Nos. 100.001. Server with 6 CPUs and 1 Tera-byte / 500 GB/300 GB Memory 02 Nos. 30.002. Ethernet Switch with Gigabit Ports 20.003. ATM Switch 20.004. UPS Support 20.005. Air-conditioning 10.006. Miscellaneous including electrical cabling etc.

Sub Total 200.00

Clients1. State of the art Node (Pentium-III with 700 MHz and 150 Nos. 90.00

128 MB RAM) @ Rs.0.60 Lakhs per machine2. 24 100-TX Port Ethernet Switches @ Rs.1.00 Lakhs per. switch 7 Nos. 7.003. UPS Support 30.004. Miscellaneous including UTP & Electrical cabling etc. 10.00

Sub Total 137.00

Application Software: Pro Engineer, VERILOG / VHDL, 30.00SYNOPSIS, ALTERA, AUTOCAD-2000, E-commerceTools, Oracle Financial Package, Sybase/Ingress, FEMPackage, GIS/Remote Sensing Software, CASE ToolsWAP Simulator

Networking: LAN, Intranet, Institute Automation: 250.001. Fiber Optic Cable2. Modular Central Ethernet Switch with Gigabit Speed Ports3. Layer-3 Ethernet Switches with 1 Gigabit Uplink4. And 100 Mbps Fiber Ports5. FDDI Ring6. 622 Mbps ATM Working Group Switch

Office Automation: Computers for Offices: Pentium-III / 50.00Celeron Processors Automation Software

High-speed Internet Link for Inter-Institutional 150.00Connectivity - 8 MBPS Leased Line with Digital LeasedLine Modems, etc.

Electronic Class Rooms:1. Electronic Boards 04 Nos. 09.002. LCD Projectors 04 Nos. 16.00

Sub Total 25.00

Total 842.00

Note: Both the specifications and the costing are tentative and will have to be worked out morespecifically for each institution separately taking into account the state of the art hardware and software

available at the time of implementation.


Annexure IV

National Networking Infrastructure

(Source: Department of Telecommunications, Govt. of India)

A reliable network infrastructure is a prerequisite for the development of web-based education. Thishas to be affordable to the educational institutions and the individuals and available in a variety offorms such as - leased lines, ISDN, Internet, ADSL, ATM and with adequate bandwidth. Some of theinitiatives taken in this regard are:

l Internet access nodes are being provided in all Secondary Switching Areas by December 2000.This will be based on a fiber optic cable connectivity, which will link the nodes with a higherspeed network. It will provide high speed and countrywide interconnect points to the ISPs.National internet Backbone-I is being set up, which will help the remote areas of this countryalso to have access to the high quality Internet services.

l Followed by the National Internet Backbone-I the second phase of National Internet Backbonehas already been started, which is expected to provide improved connectivity at the block levelby March 2001.

l In terms of the Internet Policy announced in November 1998, more than 360 licenses to theInternet Service Providers have been issued so far. Procedures have been simplified. Clearanceshave been given for setting up 102 International Gateways. With the opening of this sector, thecost of Internet access will come down substantially, which is very crucial and will help to spreadthe IT education.

l A National Technology Mission, ‘Project Sankhya Vahini (PSV)’ has been planned for establishinga very high bandwidth All India National Data Network through a joint venture companyknown as Sankhya Vahni India Limited (SVIL). The company will establish and operate nation-wide high bandwidth data network to provide high speed data access to educationalinstitutions, private and public corporations, service providers, organisations and individuals,etc. for learning, training, research and other multimedia activities. SV Network can be usedvery effectively for distance learning, Teleconferencing, setting up universal digital libraries andhazard & disaster management. This network will be primarily a data network forming theNational Backbone at speeds of 40 Gbps – 60 Gbps. The National schools, universities and alsoto commercial establishments such as financial institutions, industrial houses and softwarecompanies. It would be possible to access educational, training and digital libraries providingcontent that are available from universities around the world and also from outstandingeducational and research institutions in India. The proposed network can accelerate thedevelopment of applications for distance learning, job-oriented training, upgrading and re-orientation of skills, healthcare, training of educators, and numbers other novel applications.

71

REFERENCES

1. AICTE Directory of Approved Institutions for Degree Programmes inEngineering and Technology, 1997-98

2. AICTE. Report No.AICTE/opp/2000-1. Manpower Projections for IT Education.July 2000.

3. AICTE. Reshaping Postgraduate Education and Research in Engineering andTechnology. 1999.

4. Ashish Arora, V.S. Arunachalam & Others. Carnegie Mellon University. IndianSoftware Industry. 2000.

5. Maheshwari, S.N., “Incorporation of Quality in IT Education in India”,Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Delhi, August 2000.

6. MHRD. Strategic Road Map for the Academic Excellence of the future RECs –High Powered Review Committee Report on Regional Engineering Colleges.1998.

7. Ministry of Information Technology. Operation knowledge- Strengthening of ITEducation in India. August 18, 2000.

8. Ministry of Information Technology. Report of the Working Group on IT forMasses. July 2000.

9. NASSCOM Mckinsey Study, ‘Indian IT Strategies’. December 1999.

10. National Task Force on Information Technology and software development-Information Technology Action Plan. April 1999.

11. F.Chang, Challenges of Engineering Education in the 21st Century.

12. Prem Vrat, IIT, Delhi. Human Resource Development for IT: Issues andSuggestions. August 2000.

13. V.S. Raju, IIT (Delhi). Role of IT in Educational Institutions. June 2000.

2/2/80, 1:13 pmii. introduction 17 2.1 growth of knowledge led business 2.2 definition of it 2.3...

Documents