Budget 2014: Big bonanza for AP as three institutes sanctioned

Hyderabad: There has been a bonanza for Andhra Pradesh students in the Union Budget presented on Thursday, with the state being allotted three prestigious national level institutes — the All India Institute of Medical Scie-nces, an Indian Institute of Technology and an Agriculture University.

These three institutes are part of the 11 premier institutes promised to residuary Andhra Pradesh in the AP Reorganisation Act.

AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is keen on starting some of the national-level institutes like IIT from the current academic year from temporary campuses.

Read: Budget 2014 is growth-oriented, says Chandrababu Naidu

The AP government is seeking permission from the Centre to start first year classes with a batch of 120 students in Sri Venkateswara University at Tirupati.

Officials said the university has adequate laboratory facilities, which could be improved further to suit IIT’s requirement. “The idea behind moving fast to set up an IIT in a temporary campus is to ensure that an academic year is not lost,” said a minister from Mr Naidu’s Cabinet.

Though the Union HRD ministry has to give approval to AP to start IIT from a temporary campus, experts are against the establishment of premier institutes like IITs from make-shift campuses with insufficient infrastructure, mainly laboratories, as it would make a severe dent on the “brand image” premier institutes like IITs and IIMs carry.

Experts said even the Union HRD ministry is unlikely to give approval to the AP government to start IIT in SV university campus.

Locations of the proposed institutes are:

Krishna-Guntur circuit: AIIMS, AU, NIT and NIDM
Visakhapatnam circuit: IIM, IIIT, Petroleum & Tribal Universities
Tirupati circuit: IIT, IISER & Central University

“The HRD ministry has earmarked Rs 8,000 crore for seven of the 11 national institutes to be set up in AP. However, it is not in a position to release this money and may delay the entire process,” an expert who runs an IIT coaching institute in the city, said.

What Andhra Pradesh got

•  Rs 16,838 crore through central taxes
•  Rs 5,774 crore through corporate taxes
•  Rs 3,834 crore through income tax
•  Rs 13 crore through property tax
•  Rs 2,677 crore through customs duty
•  Rs 1,768 crore through excise duty
•  Rs 2,769 crore through service tax
•  Rs 1 crore through other taxes
•  Rs 10 crore each allotted for Vijayawada and Vizag metro rail works
•  Rs 1,910 crore for AIIMS (including AP)
•  Rs 1 crore for tribal university
•  Rs 1 crore for new IIT
•  Rs 1 crore each for new NIT, IIM, ISER, IIIT
•  Increased investments for Vizag port, Hindustan Shipyard, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd
•  Rs 500 crore for Satish Dhawan Space Centre

What Telangana got

•  Rs 9,749 crore through central taxes
•  Rs 3,212 crore through corporate tax
•  Rs 2,089 crore through income tax
•  Rs 7 crore through property tax
•  Rs 1,490 crore through customs duty
•  Rs 990 crore through excise duty
•  Rs 1,958 crore through service tax
•  Rs 1 crore for tribal university
•  Rs 3,850 crore for Singareni coal mines
•  Rs 7 crore Export processing zone
•  Rs 23 crore for Salarjung Museum
•  Rs 55 crore for IIT-Hyderabad