SETTING LIT NAGPUR FREE

The 81-year-old, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology Nagpur, is all set to become a university. With the change will come 14 new courses, 8 new departments, reforms in curriculum and pedagogy.

- Pritha Roy Choudhury

Funded and conceptualised by Rao Bahadur D Laxminarayan in 1930, Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT) in Nagpur, Maharashtra, will soon be weaned off Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj (RTM) Nagpur University and become a state university, Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra's deputy chief minister, announced in the assembly in March 2023.

With that, LIT will become Laxminarayan Innovation Technological University (LITU). This will be the second institute in the state to be so designated after the College of Engineering (COE), Pune.

LIT had been facing funding and administrative delays and problems with recruitment as a unit of RTM Nagpur University, a behemoth of a public institution with over 500 affiliated colleges. The change in status will enable to swiftly modernise launch new courses, departments and centres, try new ways of teaching, expand and add infrastructure and facilities said its director and alumni.

New courses, departments, centres

The LIT Alumni Association were wondering if the state government could grant autonomous status to the 81-yearold institute. Then, in November 2022, the government of Maharashtra decided to grant autonomous status to institutes more than 50 years-old that were doing really well, have had three cycles of assessment by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and taught over 2,500 students. Several notable alumni and the director, Raju B Mankar, came forward to help the institute frame and submit the proposal which included plans for new programmes, funding, infrastructure development, and pedagogy.