IITs and IISERs provide internships to 500 science students from Jammu & Kashmir

• Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) will provide internships to as many as 500 students from Jammu & Kashmir.
  
• The students pursuing science and other professional courses — both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level — will be eligible for the two-month internships.
  
• The participating institutions include four IITs — IIT Pune, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Ropar and IIT Guwahati — and IISER Pune, Odisha and Kolkata campuses.
• IIT Ropar said it will hire 100 interns via this programme.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) will now provide internships to as many as 500 students from Jammu & Kashmir. The students pursuing science and other professional courses — both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level — will be eligible for the two-month internships.

The internship will be conducted in two phases — May 15 to July 15 2020 and one month in December 2020. The students will work on research projects related to science and technology and will be monitored by the faculty staff at the premier institutes.

The applications will be shortlisted and prepared by April 15, 2020.

The participating institutions include four IITs — IIT Pune, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Ropar and IIT Guwahati — and IISER Pune, Odisha and Kolkata campuses.

This comes as the Higher Education Department of J&K signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to boost employability in the region.

The unemployment rate in Jammu & Kashmir is significantly higher after the blockade and internet shutdown since August. As many as 250,000 educated people in J&K are struggling to find jobs due to lack of streamlined policies.

Under the initiative, the Human Resource & Development Ministry (MHRD) will fund the travel of these students while the participating institutions will take care of the hostel and tuition fee. The Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said that the initiative will provide exposure to the youth under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme.

“The welfare of Jammu and Kashmir has always been a priority of the government. This exchange of agreement will channelize the energy of the talented youth from Jammu and Kashmir by providing them exposure to cutting edge laboratory technologies, knowledge sharing and exchange, several co-curricular activities along with deep insight to the in-depth research and academic culture followed at IITs,” said R.V. Raja Kumar, Director at IIT Bhubaneswar.

IIT Ropar also said that it will hire 100 interns via this programme. “It is our social responsibility and concern to provide them alternate career options. Along with preparing them to be employable, it is important to develop ‘job creators.’ This collaboration will accelerate economic development and growth of the country,” the institute said.

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