New Delhi: A committee has been set up by the HRD ministry to prepare a roadmap for the implementation of IIT reforms suggested by a panel headed by Anil Kakodkar.

The new committee will be headed by Kakodkar himself and would also consist of Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT-Madras, chairperson of standing committee of IITs; Devang Khakhar, director of IIT, Bombay; R K Shevgaonkar, director of IIT-Delhi and one more IIT director to be co-opted later.

A senior ministry official said that Kakodkar committee gave a comprehensive report on a wide range of issues. Some recommendations need legislative intervention for which the Institutes of Technology Act would have to be amended. There are academic issues that can be dealt collectively by the IITs. The implementation committee would act as an interface between the ministry and IITs.

Some of the minor recommendations, as said by the sources would be put in place in the next six months. Issues like IITs' signing annual memorandum of understanding with HRD ministry change in the administrative and fee structure and financial autonomy would need government intervention.

One official said that the idea is to bring in the changes gradually. The IIT Council has accepted most of Kakodkar committee's report. It had also recommended that IITs should be rebranded as primary research institutes that should ramp up PhD students from less than 1, 000 students to 10,000 PhD graduates by 2020-25, and the number of IITs from 15 to 20.

A setting up of research parks at each IIT similar to the one in IIT Madras has also been recommended by Kakodkar.

An outlay of Rs 1.5 lakh per student to the old IITs, and an endowment grant of Rs 50 crore for each new IIT should be given by the government, suggested the committee.

It was also recommended that the ministry should pay the full operating cost of education along with a scholarship for all post-graduate - PhD, MS and MTech - and undergraduate students from reserved category and economically weaker sections.