IIIT, Bhubaneswar grows to an institute of repute: Chief Secretary directs to match the advanced institutes in quality education

Bhubaneswar, Feb 19: Scaling up its credibility, the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bhubaneswar, established by Government of Odisha in the year 2006, has grown to an institute of national and international repute with improved quality of students, faculty, academic eco-system and higher placement records. This was known from the Board of Governors ( BoG) Meeting of the institute held  under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra  in which the independent directors from different parts of India participated through digital mode.  While complimenting achievements of the Institute over last years, Chief Secretary Mahapatra thanked Director Prof Gopal Nayak and Registrar Prof Ajit Dash for their untiring efforts in developing the institute to its present level. Further, Mahapatra directed to improve the quality of teaching, learning, research and incubation so as to match IIIT, Bhubaneswar with other advanced institutes in the sector. While placing the updates and issues for discussion, Director, IIIT Prof Gopal Nayak said, “IIIT , Bhubaneswar has joined JoSAA/CSAB counseling conducted for NITs and IIITs from OTA ranked students. All seats for the current academic session have been filled up. This year the average quality of the students at entry stage has improved significantly”. Available data show, the students above the ranking of 51490 in OTA category have preferred admission in the institute. In the last years the students with OTA ranking of around 61000 in OTA category were being admitted. Along with students of Odisha the students from other states and countries have also preferred admission in IIIT, Bhubaneswar. Discussions in the meeting show that IIIT, Bhubaneswar has maintained a high placement record of around 95% during last five years. Beating the adversities of the global pandemic during the current academic session, the institute has already achieved around 77% of placement with maximum salary offer of Rs.15 lakh and average salary offer of around Rs. 5  lakh per annum. This year around 39 companies including Amazon, Informatica, Juspay, Dell, Turtlement have visited the campus. The recruitment process of 9 more companies is going on. It is expected that the placement position will cross 90% this year. Prof Ajit Kumar Das, Registrar, IIIT appraised, “ IIIT Team of Students was the first and only Indian Team to bag eleventh position globally in Top 20 of International Digital Marketing Competition-2020 organized by Purdue University of USA. The team consisted of the students namely Dhairya Meheta, Sneha Betabyal, Sambit Mohapatra and Rachit Panda. Another IIIT team comprising Ankur Khandelwal, Barenya Kumar Panda, Kartik Kumar Singh and Zestha Patra won the MIT COVID-19 Challenge: India Turning the Tide conducted from 28 to 30 August, 2020 at national level.  The teams are currently being guided by MIT Team and partner companies for converting their ideas into reality. Considering the impact of the current pandemic on economic condition of the students, the BoG reduced the hostel fees to Rs 3000 per semester for all students. Previously, this fee varied from Rs12, 000 to Rs24, 000 per semester depending on the type of accommodation provided to the student. A discount of Rs 1500 per semester on library services for the current academic year was also approved. Further, the BoG also waived student welfare fee and power back up charges for the current session. The proposal for constituting a committee to look into the grievances of non-teaching staff was also approved by the BoG . The issues relating to allotment of additional four acers of land at Gothpatana in favor of IIIT, Bhubaneswar were resolved in the meeting. The land would be utilized for construction of auditorium, hotel for students, accommodation for staff and playing facility.