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Nasscom presents DPR for IIITs to MHRD

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) announced that it has formally presented the model DPR (Detailed Project Report) to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for establishment of 20 new Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in India, as announced by the Prime Minister in the 11th Five Year Plan.

Each of the IIITs has been proposed to be set up as a fully autonomous institution, through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The partners in setting up the IIITs would be MHRD, Governments of the respective states where each IIIT will be established, and industry members.

Nasscom, in its report, has provided guidelines for the selection of the location for an IIIT and has also indicated 20 locations that may be considered by MHRD and other stakeholders.

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Nasscom recognises that this is an initiative of national importance and is of great significance not only for the Indian IT industry but also for the other sectors of the Indian economy. It is also a critical focus area for Nasscom, as part of its ‘Education and skill building initiatives’.

Som Mittal, president, Nasscom said, “Addressing the current skill gap is vital for the Indian IT industry to maintain its growth trajectory and move up the value curve. Skill gap here refers not only to the low employability of the current graduate pool but also to the future needs of the industry in frontier technologies and functional domains. While the former will be addressed through upgrading the curriculum, facilities and faculty development in the academic institutions, the latter will require the academic institutions and industry to collaborate in pre-competitive research and develop specializations. Given the increasing requirements of the IT industry, it is also important for the new institutes to scale up beyond the conventionally accepted numbers at both under-graduate and post-graduate and doctoral research levels.”

Nasscom has taken a pyramid approach to better understand the IT-BPO industry’s skills requirement and thereby create specific skill development initiatives. Over the last few years, Nasscom created a major workforce development platform and launched several initiatives, in partnership with the Government and academia that aim to bring positive changes to the Indian education system and its orientation towards building employable students by offering solutions in the short, medium and long-term time frame.

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In addition to this activity at the top of the pyramid, Nasscom has taken the following initiatives for skill development in India for the IT and BPO sectors. Some of these are as below

· Capacity building for PhD. in computer science

· Faculty Development Programmes

· Finishing school for engineering graduates (pilot conducted last year)

· Nasscom Assessment of Competence - NAC

· NAC- Tech certification