AP will get funds on time because MHRD Secretary is from here: HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said that the government wants to increase expenditure on education and added that Andhra Pradesh will definitely have no problem in this regard. Why? Because *smirk smirk* the MHRD Secretary is from thereabouts. "Our Education Secretary is from Andhra Pradesh so this state should not have any problem getting its funds on time," said Pokhriyal. The minister was addressing the first convocation of the institute where 104 students —103 BTech, one MS — were awarded their degrees. 

Higher Education R Subrahmayam and Dr Audimulapu Suresh, the Education Minister of Andhra Pradesh were also present along with the Director of the campus Dr KN Satyanarayanan at the convocation. Subrahmanyam, a 1985-batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh cadre, was appointed as the new Secretary, Higher Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development last year. 

The minister added that he is proud the way India is developing — on one hand, "Sanskrit is being declared the most technological language," said the minister. "On the other hand, we are developing our technological and research temper."

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' inaugurated Indian Institute of Technology's Tirupati Stage 1A (Transit) Campus on August 13 and also presided over the convocation ceremony of the first batch of students. IIT Tirupati is mentored by IIT Madras and is, reportedly, the first IIT to move into its permanent campus within four years of establishment.

IIT Tirupati falls under the third phase of IITs, announced in 2014 and was one of the first to have its foundation stone laid as early as March 2015. It started functioning with the support and mentorship of IIT Madras from the academic year of 2015-16. The academic programme kick-started in August 2015 BTech programme in the fields of Civil, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. The faculty says that the curriculum has emphasis on both theoretical knowledge and practice-oriented laboratories. Courses are planned to nurture innovation, creativity, quality, teamwork, communication skills, ethics and societal interaction. 

Presently, IIT Tirupati is operating from the temporary campus on Tirupati – Renigunta Road and also the transit campus at Yerpedu. Two boys hostels are now operational for first-year students and the third hostel is almost ready for occupation by senior students. A total of 120 and 60 seater classrooms are also ready for conducting classes for the first-year students. With these arrangements, transit campus operations have started in August 2018. 

The HRD minister had earlier said that the permanent campus of IIT Tirupati (phase-A) would be completed by March 2020. Replying to Vijayasai Reddy during Question Hour of the Parliament, Pokhriyal had said that IIT Tirupati was allocated Rs 1,074 crore, of which Rs 525 crore was sanctioned and Rs 478.36 crore was released.