Six new Indian Institutes of Technology, IITs, will come up at Tirupati, Palakkad, Dharwar, Bhilai, Goa and Jammu while Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad will be upgraded to an IIT. The Union Cabinet gave its ex post facto approval to amend The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 for incorporation of new IITs.<br/><br/>The Cabinet also gave ex post facto approval to set up NIT, Andhra Pradesh which has been registered as a Society under the Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration Act, 2001. The approval will give a legal entity to the NIT.<br/><br/>In an another decision, the Cabinet gave ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between India and Maldives for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism. An official release said, the MoU aims at encouraging cooperation between tourism stakeholders, including hotels and tour operators, establishing exchange programme for cooperation in Human Resources Development and making investment in Tourism and Hospitality sectors.