Stand-off between IIT faculty and government "resolved"

The month-long standoff between the government and the IIT faculty over the pay structure was "resolved" today, with the HRD ministry agreeing to revisit the contentious norms, including a 40 per cent cap on promotion of professors to senior grade.

The IIT faculty expressed happiness over its hour-long meeting with HRD minister Kapil Sibal to discuss the contentious issues but did not announce an end to their agitation. "All issues between the IIT faculty and HRD Ministry over pay structure have been resolved. Our guidelines are just norms and there can be flexibility or relaxation in exceptional cases," Sibal told reporters after the meeting. The minister assured them that the Board of Governors of IITs can "deviate from the existing norms in exceptional cases to promote excellence". He also confirmed to the faculty that in case of any serious problem, they can raise the issue at the IIT Council meeting through their directors.

The IIT faculty said the flexibility of the IIT system will help the institutes to move forward. "The minister has assured us about IIT retaining flexibility and they can relax norms. We are happy that these norms can be taken off by the board if necessary. But we will discuss with the directors about the implementation. We will take a final decision on our agitation plan after that," Prof M Thenmozhi, president of All India IIT Faculty Federation, said.