Yielding just a little more to the protesting IIT faculty over and above the recently promised Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS), the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has come out with a third revision to its pay notification order, enlarging the scope of the experience and eligibility required for a professor’s post at IIT. The notification came a day before the faculty members were scheduled to go on a day-long fast in protest against the notified pay order.

The ministry has now said that the 10-year experience required for the professor’s job would include four years of experience at associate professor-level not only in IITs, IIMs, IISc Bangalore and NITIE Mumbai, but also in any Indian or foreign institute of ‘comparable standards’.

The previous notification of the ministry had omitted the mention of foreign institutes, sparking protest among the IIT faculty, which said this amounted to denying a professor’s post to someone who may have taught abroad in prestigious institutes.

“The experience prescribed for the post of professors — a minimum of 10 years’ experience — may be read as ‘a minimum of 10 years’ experience (of) which at least four years should be at the level of associate professor in IITs, IISc Bangalore, IIMs, NITIE Mumbai and IISERs or at an equivalent level in any such other Indian or foreign institutions of comparable standards as may be so decided by the Institute,” the ministry has said in its revised notification issued to directors of all Centrally funded institutes.

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