IIT fees goes up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh

The government has increased the annual fee of Indian Institutes of Technology from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh. The committee on funding of IITs had recommended the revision to Rs 3 lakh per year.

The rationale offered by the committee was that the cost of maintenance of the IITs is to be met largely from the student fee. On an average, the government spends about Rs 6 lakh per year on each IIT student, according to an official press release.

SC, ST, and differently-abled students shall get complete fee waiver, says the release. The most economically backward students—whose family income is less than Rs 1 lakh per annum—shall also get full remission of the fee.

The other economically backward students—whose family income is between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per annum—shall get remission of two-thirds of the fee.

All students shall have access to interest free loan under the Vidya Lakshmi Scheme for the total portion of the tuition fee payable.

In another decision related to IITs, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has done away with the provision of giving 40 per cent weight for the 12th Class marks in calculating the ranks in the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for 2017. However, for the candidates to qualify in the JEE, they have to secure at least 75 per cent marks or be in the top 20 percentile in the 12th class examination conducted by the respective Boards. For SC/ST students, this condition shall be relaxed to 65 per cent marks.

The decision was taken after the scrutiny of the report of Ashok Misra Committee.