In order to prepare a trained army of professionals in the field of IT, to combat the growing menace of cyber crimes in the country, the ministry of human resources development (HRD) has decided to establish an institute which would specialise in tackling cyber crimes and strengthen the existing framework of cyber laws.

Informing this, director Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) MD Tiwari said: "A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting held at New Delhi recently which was attended by the directors/representatives of the four existing IIITs of the country and MHRD officials.''

In the meeting a decision was taken to set up an institute which would be built at a cost of Rs 100 crore on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model with IIIT-Allahabad playing the vital role of working out the details of this Institute and its concept.

He said that IIIT-A was chosen for the job because of its proven expertise in the field of cyber law by running a postgraduate programme in cyber law and information security. Moreover, the existence of a Rs 7 crore IT Forensic Lab and leading researches in the field, went in IIIT-A's favour.

He added that as per the decision so far, this IIIT would have industry, state government concerned and the Centre joining hands to bring it into existence. The Industry would contribute Rs 15 crore, while the state government would bear expenses worth Rs 35 crore by ensuring land and other requisite facilities followed by MHRD that would meet the remaining shortfall of Rs 50 crore.

As regards private partnership core group of IIITs directors, three categories including educational institution without R&D institutions, educational institution with R&D institutions and owners of clusters of educational institutions have been identified.

It is worth mentioning that as per the estimation of MHRD, the country needs 2.5 lakh cyber experts and professionals to effectively tackle cyber crimes, he added.