The panel formed by the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) has suggested excluding IITs from following the faculty recruitment policies. The committee was constituted to suggest measures for the effective implementation of reservation policies in IITs.
The committee claims that the recommendations they have put forward argue the necessity of IITs to keep up their academic excellence and lack of qualified candidates from the reserved categories.
According to reports, under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Act (CEI Act) of 2019, IITs be included in the list of Institutes of Excellence (IoE) that are excluded from reservation policies. In this list, around eight institutes, including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Space Physics Laboratory, are currently included. Currently, the report is under government’s examination.
In April 2020, the committee was constituted to suggest measures for the effective implementation of quota policies not only in recruitments, but also for admissions in IITs. The panel was headed by V Ramgopal Rao, Director of IIT Delhi, as its Chairperson and the Director of IIT Kanpur, Registrars of IIT Bombay and IIT Madras, and representatives from Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Department of Personnel and Training and Department of persons with Disabilities as members.
The committee even recommended offering a two-year Research Assistantship funded by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for students aspiring to do Ph.D programmes from reserved categories.
