ICT Matunga and Pune's COEP Excluded from Central-World Bank MERITE Project
For the first time in 24 years, prominent engineering institutions including the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Matunga, Mumbai, and COEP Technological University in Pune have been excluded from a central government funding initiative implemented in partnership with the World Bank.
The exclusion from the Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE) project marks the third major funding setback for ICT, following its earlier omissions from the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) schemes.
The MERITE project is a Rs 4,200 crore central initiative approved by the government, which includes a Rs 2,100 crore loan assistance component from the World Bank. Scheduled for a five-year period starting in 2025, MERITE succeeds the long-term, multi-phase Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP). The programme is projected to benefit approximately 7.5 lakh students across the country.
Under the previous TEQIP initiative, individual institutes received funding allocations ranging between Rs 18 crore and Rs 25 crore. Both ICT and COEP had been selected for and benefited from funding across all three phases of TEQIP.
Across India, the MERITE project covers 275 beneficiary institutions. Maharashtra accounts for roughly 23 selected engineering and polytechnic institutions, including the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (BATU), Walchand College of Engineering, and Sardar Patel College of Engineering.
A government official noted that unlike other deemed universities, ICT operates as a state-sponsored entity, making its exclusion from the funding scheme unfair. Following their omission from the list of beneficiaries, the affected institutes are preparing to submit a formal representation to the central government seeking inclusion in the project.
