New Delhi, Jul 9 (IANS): The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Monday announced that six institutes -- three private and three public -- as Institutions of Eminence(IoE), entitling them to more autonomy and grants from the government.

The Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru were the three public institutes announced as IoE. They will get Rs 1,000 crore from the government in the next five years.

From the private sector, BITS Pilani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education and JIO Institute by Reliance Foundation were granted the status.

"This decision is a landmark decision for the following reasons: this was never thought of and tried; it is more than a graded autonomy, it is really full autonomy to the institutes; the institutes can take their own decisions," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted.

As per the University Grants Commission (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017, the Ministry was to select 20 IoEs -- 10 private and 10 public -- and had formed a high-level committee to shortlist the entries solicited from the institutes on the basis of their research calibre and other criteria.

According to a government statement issued earlier, these IoEs will have greater autonomy in that they will be able to admit foreign students up to 30 per cent of the admitted students and recruit foreign faculty up to 25 per cent of the faculty strength.

They can also offer online courses up to 20 per cent of its programmes.