Files not found in safe room at UGC headquarters; they contained applications of four proposed institutes.

New Delhi: Files of four proposals, seeking the ‘Institute of Eminence (IoE)’ tag under the greenfield category, have gone missing from a safe room at the University Grants Commission (UGC) headquarters in New Delhi.

The greenfield category — meant for institutions that are yet to be established — is the one under which Jio Institute, proposed by Reliance Foundation, was declared as an IoE by the Modi government, triggering a controversy.

The missing files contained applications submitted by the Satya Bharti Foundation linked to Bharti Airtel Ltd, the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, the Maharashtra Institute of Tech, Pune, and the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.

That the files had gone missing was discovered when ThePrint sought to inspect them under the Right to Information Act.

The four were among eleven applicants, including Jio, which had applied for the coveted IoE tag under the greenfield category. The documents were kept in the safe room after the empowered committee picked six names for the IoE tag from the proposals that came to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Also read: Education panel chief defends Jio eminence tag, says no other had better plan

While files of all other applicants were available for inspection, these four files were nowhere to be found in the safe room or elsewhere in the UGC building. The officers in-charge of safe-keeping of the files also had no idea where they were.

“All the files related to IoEs were kept in one room in the UGC (building) after they were cleared by the empowered committee,” said an UGC official working in the section responsible for the files.

“The nodal officer in charge of the files is on childcare leave and it is only after her arrival that we will be able to give you further information on the files. However, none of those present in the office currently have any idea about the files.”

Also read: Govt colleges wanted ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag for money, freedom, not excellence: Panel

The Modi government had last month conferred the IoE tag on three public — IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IISc Bangalore — and three private institutes, BITS Pilani, Manipal University and the proposed Jio University.

The selected government institutions will get funding and greater autonomy while the private ones can enjoy greater autonomy.

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