India on Saturday opened two new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as part of plans to add eight such institutes, though both will have to wait for a permanent campus.

While the IIT Rajasthan will initially function from the IIT Kanpur campus, the IIT Gandhinagar will function from the Government Engineering College in Chandkheda, near Ahmedabad.

Since land is yet to allotted for the new institute in Rajasthan, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has asked IIT Kanpur to serve as its mentor institute for the time being.

Addressing the first batch of IIT Rajasthan students in Kanpur, Minister of State for Higher Education D. Purandeswari said: "The IITs have enjoyed the three basic freedoms of an educational institution - freedom to choose whom to teach, who will teach, and what to teach. The IITs also enjoy full cost budgetary support. The IITs remain successful so long as these amenities continue."

The minister also mentioned that in the past few years, the IITs have been ranked as the top educational institutions in India and Asia by national and international magazines. "This is indeed a matter of great pride."

Lamenting the shortage of quality teachers, she invited the academic community to come forward to give suggestions, proposals for solving the problem of "increasing quantity with quality in higher education".

Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said: "There is an urgent need to set up an apex institution for imparting vital and important education to strengthen security of the country."

He called upon IIT Kanpur director Sanjay Dhande come up with plans for offering degree courses on security management.

Dhande, who will also serve as director of IIT Rajasthan, and Higher Education Secretary R.P. Agarwal were among those present on the occasion.

India currently has seven IITs. Besides IIT Rajasthan, five more will open during the current academic session.

For the IIT Gandhinagar, the first day of the academic year began with a welcome address by IIT Bombay director Ashok Misra for the first batch of students.

The IIT Bombay will act as mentor for the new institute. Representatives of some of the leading industrial houses and senior Gujarat government officials including Education Secretary Anita Karwal, Revenue Secretary P. Panneervel and Director (Technical Education) Manish Bhardwaj were present on the launch function.

The new institute is short of faculty and the recruitment process is on. Until this process is over, seven professors and five research assistants from IIT Bombay have been requisitioned for it.

U.A. Yagnik, who teaches physics at IIT Bombay, has been appointed dean of student affairs and academic programme at the new institute.

The first batch has 103 students from different parts of the country, studying in the mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering streams. In the next academic year B.Tech. courses in civil and computer sciences would be included.

The Gujarat government has spent Rs.7 million for upgrading the infrastructure of the engineering college to make it compatible to the IIT standards.

The central government's site selection committee headed by HRD Ministry's Additional Secretary Ashok Thakur is expected to inspect the new site for the proposed permanent campus on August 7.

As many as eight new IITs are being set up in the country during the current academic session to impart high quality technical education.

The new IITs are coming up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. IANS