The Centre has cleared a proposal to set up three new Indian Institute of Information Technologies (IIITs) under the Public- Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The IIITs will come up in Assam, Tripura and Rajasthan which had sent proposals to the HRD Ministry under the PPP scheme.

The capital cost of each IIIT would be about 128 crore rupees contributed in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the Centre, the state Government and the industry, respectively.

For the North East, the industry participation for capital expenditure will be 7.5 per cent, while the Central Government participation will be 57.50 per cent and state government's at 35 per cent.

According to the HRD Ministry, sanction of IIIT for another three states would be given shortly. An official release said, 11 state governments have identified land and are also in the process of identifying the industry partners.

At present, there are four IIITs in the country and the government proposes to add 20 more on not-for-profit PPP mode to address the challenges faced by the Indian IT industry and meet the growth objective. Each IIIT will meet its operating expenditure on its own within 5 years of commencement out of students’ fees, research and other internal accruals.

The scheme also provides for faculty development programme for which Rs 50 crores has been earmarked.