On Tuesday, a bill on the National Institutes of Design was passed in the upper house of the Parliament demanding for the bill to give national importance to the design institutes in four states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Haryana.
Since this bill has now been passed in the Rajya Sabha, the design institutes will be allowed to grant degrees and diploma. At present, these four institutes are registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and hold no power to grant degrees and diplomas to their students.
The institutes of national importance in our country are defined as institutes who generate highly skilled and well trained intellectual individuals from the specific places of the state and country. There are only a few institutes in India that hold national importance and are backed by the government or any international institutes with the motive of developing a hub of excellence in academics and research.
The National Institute of Design (Amendment) Bill 2019 was first introduced in the house by our Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal on 30th July 2019. The amendment bill seeks to amend the existing National Institute of Design Act, 2014. It was passed in the house by voice vote.
Piyush Goyal while replying to the bill assured the members that the autonomy of these institutes won’t face any changes. While the bill was being passed, few leaders from the opposition like Congress leader Jairam Ramesh participated in the debate, stating that the government must also channel some focus on recruiting well qualified and rich skilled faculty for these institutes that hold national importance. Institutes such as IITs and IIMs which are of national importance are undergoing the concern of faculty shortage.
He further added that apart from upgrading the status of these four institutes, the government must also take steps to partner with the industry and come out with customer-friendly products. In addition to this, the NIDs must also work towards fostering the designs in crafts and handloom industry in order to increase the employment opportunities.
While AIADMK leader N Gokulakrishnan asked the government to establish NIDs in Chennai and Puducherry, Kahkashan Perween of JDU too asked the government to establish one such institute in Bihar as well. One Institute of Design situated in Kerala too should be given national importance, demanded CPIM leader, K Somaprasad.
