Jio Institute Controversy: HRD Ministry Clarifies ‘Eminence’ Tag

Nobody is quite sure what Jio Institute is, not even Google. But it is set to be one of six “Institutes of Eminence”

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar congratulated Jio Institute in a tweet.

(Photo: PTI)

An institute that neither exists in brick-and-mortar form, nor in Google searches has been listed as one of six “Institutes of Eminence” by the Narendra Modi government.

Jio Institute has caused a collective murmur of confusion on social media after Prakash Javadekar listed it among six universities – three public and three private – that have been identified by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry as “institutes of eminence”.

IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore are the public universities on the list while Jio Institute rubs shoulders with the likes of BITS Pilani and Manipal Institute on the list of private universities.

But What Exactly is an ‘Institute of Eminence’?

A UGC guideline describes it as “a distinct category of deemed to be universities” and declares that they “shall be regulated differently from other deemed to be universities so as to evolve into institutions of world class in a reasonable time period.”

N Gopalaswami, former Chief Election Commissioner, and head of the selection panel, told The Quint: "It (Jio Institute) is not an ‘institute of eminence’ yet. It has been selected for that category. Based on their presentation, the government will issue LoI (letter of intent) and they will get maximum three years to fulfill certain conditions. The performance of the institution will be assessed and report will be submitted to the government."

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Prakash Javadekar)

HRD Ministry Clarifies

In a Twitter post, the HRD Minister clarified that the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) has granted the ‘Greenfield’ status for new institutes, to Jio since it fulfilled all the parameters.

According to the ministry, 11 applications were received but only Jio satisfied all the conditions. The conditions were:

• Availability of land for construction of an institute
• Putting in place a core team with experience
• Making funds available for setting up of the institution
• A clear strategic vision plan

The Twitter post goes on to clarify that the purpose of this provision is to allow private investment to come into “building global class educational infrastructure”. The ministry also clarified that institutions that were not selected would be considered in the second round.

The ministry, in its clarification, further emphasised that private institutions will not get funding under this scheme but will be given “academic” autonomy.

Letter of Intent to Selected Institutes

The HRD Ministry also said that the selected institutions will have to indicate their readiness to commence academic operations – within three years of the issue of the LoI.

Once the readiness is certified by the EEC, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed by the institution after which a notification will be issued, declaring the institute as an 'institute of eminence’.

How Was the Decision Made?

A representative of Reliance Jio told The Quint: “In an advertisement released by UGC, applicants were invited to apply for the status of ‘Institute of Eminence’ under both, ‘Greenfield’ and ‘Brownfield’ category”.

“After the applications were received and an EEC was constituted, they (EEC) invited all players to make presentation on their plans to attain Institute of Eminence status,” the source added.

In the meeting, the UGC examined the report and released the name of the players who are entitled to set up their institutes under the ‘Institute of Eminence’ status, both under the public and private sectors.

‘What is Going On?’

As soon as Javadekar tweeted the list of universities on his official handle around noon on 9 July, Twitter and Facebook erupted with questions about the university, its existence and whether it was eligible for a Rs 1,000 crore grant over the next five years.

Labelling the announcement as “yet another landmark quality initiative of @narendramodi government”, Javadekar, in a thread of tweets said: “The #InstituteofEminence are important for the country. We have 800 univ, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today’s decision will help achieve this (sic).”

A search on Google reveals next to nothing about Jio Institute. It does not have a website or a Twitter handle – only a dubious looking page on Facebook with 284 likes. The page directs to a non-existent URL.

According to a PTI report: “Reliance Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the country, plans to set up a university for cutting edge research and innovation as well as nurturing future leaders, musicians, scientists and Olympians.”