An IIT in New York?

New York: The Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and Noida-based Amity University are among 15 institutions worldwide that have submitted bids to the city of New York to set up a science and engineering campus here under a plan by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to drive local economic growth and create jobs. The city received seven proposals from a total of 17 institutions. Name of the institute selected to set up the engineering and applied sciences campus would be announced in January after an extensive selection process that will choose a project which generates the greatest benefit to the city and its taxpayers, Bloomberg said in a news conference here. [caption id=“attachment_120436” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“New York opens doors to Universities worldwide, all for jobs. Reuters”]  [/caption] The winner of the ‘Applied Sciences NYC’ initiative will get incentives like free city land and as much as $100 million in capital for the project. IIT Mumbai is part of a consortium that includes New York University, University of Toronto, UK’s university of Warwick, City University of New York and Carnegie Mellon. The consortium is proposing to set up a centre for urban science and research in downtown Brooklyn for more than 500 graduate students. Amity University has submitted a proposal to set up a campus in Governor’s Island near here. The other institutes that responded to the Applied Sciences ‘Request for Proposals’ include Steiner Studios, Columbia University, Cornell University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, New York Genome Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Rockefeller University, SUNY Stony Brook and Stanford University. “Universities are always a major magnet for talent and the world’s most dynamic companies always gravitate to places where they can find the best and the brightest,” Bloomberg said. “Along with everything we are doing to diversify and strengthen our economy, a new applied sciences campus has the potential to be a real economic game changer that will create jobs immediately, and for generations,” he added. Bloomberg had in July this year invited proposals from universities, institutions and consortiums to develop and operate a “new or expanded state-of-the-art” campus in the city dedicated to engineering and the applied sciences. The proposals submitted contain plans for new facilities ranging from 400,000 square feet to over two million square feet. The institutions propose private investments of more than $ 800 million in the first phases of their projects and this could be increased to $ 2.5 billion over the long-term. PTI