Cabinet allocate more funds to five IITs, new scheme for ITIs

Union Cabinet expands academic and infrastructure capacity of five new IITs, creating faculty posts and research parks.

The Union Cabinet, which met in Delhi on Wednesday (May 7, 2025), has decided to expand academic and infrastructure capacity of five new Indian institutes of Technology (IITs )— IIT Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, IIT Palakkad in Kerala, IIT Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, IIT Jammu in Jammu & Kashmir and IIT Dharwad in Karnataka.

The total cost for the scheme is ₹11,828.79 crore for over a period of four years from 2025-26 to 2028-29 will be primarily used for phase B of construction. The Cabinet also approved a ‘national scheme’ for upgrading Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and the setting up of five National Centres of Excellence for skilling as a centrally sponsored scheme.

The Cabinet also approved the creation of 130 faculty posts, at the level of professor, in these IlTs. “Five new state-of-the-art research parks are also coming up to strengthen industry-academia linkage,” the Union government said in a release after the meeting.

Student strength in these IITs will be increased by more than 6,500 in the next four years, with the enhancement of 1,364 students in the first year, 1,738 students in the second year, 1,767 students in the third year and 1,707 students in the fourth year across Under Graduate, Post Graduate and PhD programme put together. “On completion of construction, these five IITs shall be able to cater to 13,687 students as against the current student strength of 7,111, i.e. an increase of 6,576 students,” the government said.

The national scheme for upgrading Industrial Training Institutes will have an outlay of ₹60,000 crore with a Central share ₹30,000 crore, States’ share of ₹20,000 crore and industry share of ₹10,000 crore, with co-financing to the extent of 50% of Central share by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, equally. “The scheme will focus on upgradation of 1,000 government ITIs in hub and spoke arrangement with industry aligned revamped trades (courses) and capacity augmentation of five National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), including setting up of five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling in these institutes.

“The Scheme aims to position existing ITIs as government-owned, industry-managed aspirational institutes of skills, in collaboration with State governments and industry. Over a five-year period, 20 lakh youth will be skilled through courses that address the human capital needs of industries,” the Government said.