The government’s decision to reward Reliance Foundation’s Jio Institute as one of the six “Institutions of Eminence” has drawn much criticism.
On Monday, July 9, Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Human Resource Development, announced that six institutions of higher education – three each in public and private sectors – have been granted the status of “Institution of Eminence”. This included Reliance Foundation’s proposed (read yet-to-be established) Jio Institute. The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries. Others were IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), BITS-Pilani and Manipal Academy of High Education.
Originally, the government’s plan was to award this tag to 20 institutions, 10 each in public and private sectors. But the four-member expert committee led by former chief election commissioner, N Gopalaswami, found only six institutions deserving of the tag.
Speaking to Economic Times about the matter, Gopalaswami was quoted as saying: “It is not so simple or easy to break into the top 500. If you look at those in the top of the global academic rankings from the US or UK, most of those institutes have been in existence for a 100 years. Since our institutes are mostly much younger, not many can achieve the same feat. Also where we saw an institute had not improved its accreditation and ranking scores in three cycles, it does not inspire trust that it will be able to meet this goal.”
However, Jio Institute made it. It was selected under the greenfield category that primarily allows new projects to apply. Citing a proposal submitted to the committee about the Jio Institute, Hindustan Times reported that “the Jio Institute will use Rs 9,500 crore in capital expenditure and will be located in a ‘fully residential university city’ in Pune.”
Defending Jio Institute’s selection, the University Grants Commission, which carried out the selections, stated the institution was selected under rules for Greenfield category for new or proposed institutions, according to Hindustan Times. Following the controversy, the HRD Ministry also tweeted out “clarifications” in response to “misinformation campaign” being carried out on social media.
It stated that 11 applications were submitted under the Greenfield institutions. It also stated that the purpose of this provision (Greenfield) is to allow “responsible private investment to come into building global class educational infrastructure, thereby benefitting the nation as a whole”. Clarifying the four parameters that were used the ministry stated: the availability of land, a core team with “very high qualification and wide experience”, available funding, and a strategic vision plan with clear annual milestones and action plan, were considered. And from among the 11 institutions, Jio Institute was found to satisfy all four parameters and “hence was recommended for issuing a letter of intent for setting up an Institute of Eminence.”
A Press Trust of India report stated: “The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will grant Rs 1,000 crore funds to the three public institutions in the next five years, the private institutes will not be eligible for government funding.”