Former Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati Professor T. G. Sitharam assumed charge as the Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Prof. Sitharam took over from UGC Chairman Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar, who was holding the additional charge of AICTE since September when the tenure of ex-Chairman Anil D Saharabudhe ended upon attaining the age of 65 years.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry has appointed Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer Director of IIT Guwahati, the institute said in a press release.

Assuming his charge as Chairman of the country's top Technical Education regulatory body, Prof. Sitharam said, “I will work with every stakeholder in Education domain to transform Higher education into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary providing high quality teaching, innovation, entrepreneurship, research, and community engagement hubs,” reported Hindustan Times.

Speaking about building entrepreneurial ecosystem and creating job opportunities for India’s young population, he said, “With more advanced research at all institutions, AICTE can create many Innovations and new start-ups as an excellent job creator.”

Prof Sitharam said he envisions providing transformative education to Indian students to create leaders and innovators, increase the Gross enrollment ratio in higher education to 50% by 2035 through interventions of AICTE.

In his previous roles, Prof. Sitharam worked at institutions like IISc, IIT, CIT, among others.