# ICT, COEP excluded from Rs 4,200 crore World Bank education project 2026-08-26T00:37:30+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet For the first time in 24 years, the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Matunga and Pune's COEP Technological University have been excluded from a central government-World Bank funding initiative. The MERITE project, a Rs 4,200 crore scheme with Rs 2,100 crore in World Bank loan assistance, runs from 2025 for five years and is expected to benefit 7.5 lakh students across 275 institutions. Both ICT and COEP had received funding under the earlier TEQIP programme in all its phases. Maharashtra has about 23 engineering institutions in the scheme, including VJTI, BATU and Walchand, but ICT and COEP were omitted. A state official said no explanation was given, and the Centre may have excluded unitary universities, those without affiliated colleges. ICT had recently considered giving up its deemed status to qualify for government funding but dropped the plan after faculty and alumni opposed it. The excluded institutes plan to make a representation to the Centre seeking inclusion. ## Indian Opinion Analysis ICT and COEP were consistent beneficiaries under the three phases of TEQIP, which ran from 2002 to 2021 and disbursed Rs 18 crore to Rs 25 crore per institute in the later phases. The switch to the MERITE framework, which pools central and World Bank funds into a single Rs 4,200 crore pot, allowed the Centre to redefine eligibility criteria without prior consultation with states. Unitary universities, those without affiliated colleges, were silently dropped from the list, a category that includes ICT (deemed university since 2008) and COEP (technical university since 2022). Maharashtra now has only about 23 of the 275 national beneficiaries, mostly affiliating universities. The excluded institutes will submit a representation to the ministry of education, the ministry's response will determine whether the cuts are final or a mid-course revision is possible before the first disbursement in 2025. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Leads with exclusion as a setback, foregrounds institute and official criticism without government defence This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: COEP, ICT, Maharashtra, Ministry of Education, World Bank Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/ict-coep-excluded-from-rs-4200-crore-world-bank-education-project/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/ict-coep-excluded-from-rs-4200-crore-world-bank-education-project/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/