Convert Nitie into an IIM: Mahindra

Noted industrialist Anand Mahindra and HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh have suggested the upgradation of Powai-based National Institute of Technical and Industrial Engineering (Nitie) to the status of an IIM.

Following up their demand for an IIM for Mumbai, they felt conversion of Nitie would save both time and money and India's financial capital can boast of an IIM sooner than later.

The duo - two of India's corporate honchos and leading members of the Citizens' Action Group - met the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh with their suggestion. "For long, the students of Nitie have been petitioning for the status of IIM, for which they also ran a signature campaign for the same," said Mahindra, incidentally an ex-director of Nitie.

He told DNA that the institute has good infrastructure as well as funds. "Also, its proximity to the Indian Institute of Technology campus is also an advantage," added Mahindra. It is learnt that Singh has promised to look into the issue.

The CAG wants the Centre to expedite the implementation on the report prepared by an expert committee of the finance ministry to turn Mumbai into an international finance centre.

 It wants Singh's intervention for a Constitutional amendment to ensure that the Parents Teachers Association get to vote for the teacher's constituency in the upper house of the state legislature.