New Delhi: Giving higher education in India a big push, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh Friday said that India's seventh Indian Institute of Management (IIM) will be set up in Shillong, the capital of northeastern state of Meghalaya.

Besides, two new Schools of Planning and Architecture will come up in Vijaywada and Bhopal, Mr. Singh said.

Earlier, the HRD ministry had decided to set up three Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) - one each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. A sum of Rs.800 million has been earmarked for them.

"The seven IITs and six IIMs have served the country extremely well and have done us proud. It has also been decided to establish a seventh IIM at Shillong for which a provision of Rs.60 million has been made," Mr. Singh told reporters.

Currently six IIMs are functioning at Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Bangalore (Karnataka), Kolkata (West Bengal), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Kozhikode (Kerala).

"Two new Schools of Planning and Architecture are also proposed to be started at Vijaywada and Bhopal and a token provision of Rs.10 million in each case has been provided," Singh said.

In addition to the existing Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) in different states, a new IIIT (Design and Manufacturing) is to be established at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Proposals have been submitted to the Planning Commission for starting 20 new IIITs so as to cover all major states. The commission has suggested that these could be considered under the public-private participation mode, the minister said. (IANS)