The government tonight approved setting up of 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) at a cost of Rs 2808.71 crore.

The IIITs will be set up on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the Centre funding 50 per cent of the capital cost, state governments 35 per cent and the rest by the industry.

Each Institute is expected to specialise in application of IT skills in one or more domain areas, an official release said.

In case of Northeastern states, the Centre's share would be 57.5 per cent while the industry's contribution would come down to 7.5 per cent.

The decision to set up IIITs was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Rs 50 crore will also be provided by the Centre for development programme for the faculty of new IIITs as well as existing IIlTs and IISERs," the release said.

During the first four years of setting up each IIIT, the Central government will provide partial support towards the recurring expenditure upto Rs 10 crore for each IIIT depending on actual requirement.

The project will start from the financial year 2011-12 with setting up of 5-10 IIITs depending on the response of state governments and private partners.

Each IIIT shall meet its operating expenditure on its own within five years of commencement out of students fees, research and other internal accruals.

The concerned state government will provide 50-100 acres of land, free of cost, the release said.

The Governing Board of IIITs will be empowered in the matters relating to student intake, fee structure, faculty/non faculty salaries, creation of faculty and non-faculty positions and recruitment norms.

The IIITs will be declared as Institutes of National Importance and as the process would be time consuming, the IIITs may, initially, be registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act 1860.

A tripartite MoU document would be put in place spelling out the role and responsibilities of private partners vis-a-vis that of the government.

The modalities and detailed plan for the faculty development for new IIITs as well as existing IIITs and IISERs would be decided in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, the release said.