Students with hopes of getting admission in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are sure to get a setback with the new fees structure. According to the latest updates a decision has been taken to double the IIT fee from Rs.90,000 to Rs. 2 lakh a year.

However, according to sources Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribe students, students  with disabilities and from extremely poor families may not have to pay any fees at all.

During the month of March,  the IIT council, which includes directors and senior officials, had recommended raising the fee to three lakhs. All the IITs have said a hike is overdue, given the inflation and the huge cost of running the institution.

The IIT was set up in 1951 as centres of academic excellence by the government of Jawaharlal Nehru. Over the years, 23 IITs have come up across the country. In recently released rankings by the education ministry, IITs dominated the list of top engineering colleges. IIT Madras was ranked first in engineering, followed by IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur.

Headquartered at Mumbai, an education tech start-up, Schoolguru Eduserve has plans of raising Rs 30 crore from both domestic and foreign investors.  This education start-up wants to use the funding for technological advancement, creation of content and increasing associations with other universities.
Presently, this company has tie-ups with 14 Indian universities including Tamil Nadu Open University, Netaji Subhash Open University and Acharya Nagarjuna Open University. However, Schoolguru is further looking at tying up with 16 other Indian institutions within the next 18 months.
This start-up was launched in 2012 by three entrepreneurs- Shantanu Rooj, Ravi Rangan and Anil Bhat  with an investment of Rs 2 crore.  The company provides distance education with a revenue-sharing business model under which it partners with universities and leverages their resources. It also helps universities launch online courses.

O. P. Jindal Global University, a NCR-based Institution has entered into a tie up with Peking University, China for a major collaborative research program, wherein students from both sides would discuss on environmental challenges, faced by these fast developing nations.

Being leaders of the developing world, both India and China face enormous environmental challenges in their growth and development. In most cases, the challenges surface due to a benign approach to persistent environmental degradation over the last few years. In such a scenario, the two leading educational institutions of  these countries will launch a large scale program to promote research on environmental issues as well as highlight the humanitarian and climatic challenges being experienced by local communities in both countries.

Environmental issues such as air and water pollution, land degradation, soil fertility, sporadic monsoon patterns and climate change need deeper engagement between stakeholders of the two countries. This engagement must go beyond the deliberation and policy discourse led by the governments. As socially conscious academic institutions, the two Universities want to produce tangible research outcomes that can influence government policy.

The MoUs were inked between O. P Jindal Global University Vice Chancellor Prof (Dr) C Raj Kumar and Prof CAO Heping, Dean School of Economics, Department of Environment, Resources & Development Economics, Peking University on behalf of the institutions.

The joint initiative will involve cross learning exchange programs for students with extensive and diversified joint research within China and India focusing on key environmental challenges facing communities. Students from India will travel to different Chinese provinces while students from China will travel to different Indian states to study first-hand the environmental degradation and related challenges faced by local communities.