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IITs to have non-resident students soon New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) IITs have decided to increase thenumber of seats in various courses for admitting "non-residentstudents" with an aim to take their total intake to one lakhby 2020. According to senior officials, in a meeting of the IITCouncil headed by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar today,"in-principle" approval was given to the proposal foradmitting non-resident students. The authorities of different IITs will now undertake anexercise to fix the number of additional students they canaccommodate. "At present, the IITs have around 72,000 students intheir undergraduate, postgraduate or doctorate courses whichare residential. However, it is now planned that students, whowill not stay in hostels, should be admitted to theseinstitutes," an official said. The plan is to increase the number by 10,000 per year sothat the number of IITians touches 1 lakh by 2020, theofficial said, suggesting that ideally there would be anincrease of 4,000 seats in undergraduate courses and 6,000seats in postgraduate and Ph.D seats, an official said. Speaking after the meeting, Javadekar announced that theIIT Council has also approved a proposal to introduce thePrime Minister’s Research Fellowships. The move aims at encouraging IITians passing out ofB.Tech to enroll in Ph.D courses straightaway. Another decision taken by the council is to introduce aninduction course to help new students adjust as they jointhese institutes after a rigorous competitive examination. The IIT Council has also given its nod to a "pilot" runof an aptitude test, the officials said, adding that themodalities will be worked out. They said that this test wouldnot have a bearing on admissions. Another scheme which was approved the Council is’Vishwajeet’ which will help IITs to secure top ranksglobally. On the new education policy, Javadekar said thegovernment has received inputs from various quarters aworkshop would soon be organised in this regard. He saideducation is a subject beyond politics and the government iswilling to listen to all views on the issue. PTI ADSSMN