7 new IIMs

The Union cabinet on Thursday is likely to approve the setting up of seven new IIMs as well as interest subsidy on educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections. The seven IIMs, already announced two years ago with even locations of a few of them having been finalized are coming up in Tamil Nadu. J&K, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. In Jharkhand, the IIM will be situated in Ranchi and in the initial years will function out of a government training institute. The IIM in Chhattisgarh will be in Raipur, the one in Tamil Nadu in Tiruchirapalli, while Haryana’s will be in Rohtak. The location of IIMs in Uttarakhand, J&K and Rajasthan has not been decided yet. Each IIM would need Rs 250 crore for it to be fully functional. The interest subsidy scheme was announced by the finance minister in his budget speech. It will roughly benefit five lakh students and provide a big boost to poor students to pursue higher education. The scheme will cover loans taken by students from scheduled banks to pursue any approved course in technical and professional streams in recognised institutes in the country. Students whose family income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum will be eligible under the scheme. These students will avail the benefit for a moratorium period which is one year from completion of the course or six months from joining a job, whichever is earlier.