The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2016, by a voice vote. Under the proposed Act, Goa, Jammu, Tirupati, Dharward in Karnataka, Palakkad in Kerala and Bhilai in Chhattisgarh will all get an Indian Institute of Technology, PTI reported.

In response to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's query on ensuring complete autonomy at IITs, Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said his ministry was not part of its Board of Governors that runs the institutes. "We only facilitate in finance, and that is where we will concentrate," he said, adding that they were working on a scheme to fund higher education infrastructure requirements, especially with regard to research infrastructure.

The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on July 25. The Indian School of Mines will be set up in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, as per the Bill. The Cabinet had approved establishing these six new IITS, on May 25. Currently, there are 16 of the institutes in the country, each an autonomous one linked to other IITs only by the board that oversees its administration.