The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in Mysore, set up over 50 years ago to promote Indian languages, is to be upgraded to a central university.

The education ministry last week formed an 11-member committee to study and suggest the governance structure, requirement of funds and the broad objectives of the proposed Bharatiya Bhasha Vishwavidyalaya (BBV). The proposed BBV will have a new Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation.

The committee headed by retired Gujarat-cadre IAS officer N. Gopalaswami has been given three months to submit a report. The other members include University Grants Commission chairman D.P. Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya vice-chancellor Rajnish Shukla, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University vice-chancellor Ramesh Kumar Pandey and Hari Singh Gaur University chancellor Balwant Shantilal Jani.

The CIIL, set up in 1969, has been functioning as a registered society.

It trains schoolteachers in second languages, helps in research on Indian languages and also in the translation of books written in different Indian languages.

However, the education ministry has been receiving complaints about poor performance.

For example, the CIIL has produced only 20 books on the grammar of different minor Indian languages in the past 50 years.

It has translated another 20-odd books into English from different languages.

Former CIIL directors D.G. Rao and Awdesh Kumar Mishra welcomed the government’s decision.

“The CIIL was unable to offer degrees and diplomas. It will be able to offer such courses and undertake wider research after it becomes a university,” Prof. Rao said.

He said the CIIL had seven centres across the country. Under the guidance of expert bodies when it becomes a university, they would do intensive research, Rao hoped.

“The output from the CIIL has been low. Governments in the past have also thought about converting CIIL into a central university. Once done, the university will have a better system of checks and balances. Currently, accountability is low at the CIIL,” Mishra said.

A faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University found problem with the composition of the 11-member committee. At least nine members are vice-chancellors or former VCs or faculty members from literature subjects or retired bureaucrat.

“Ideally, the committee to examine the proposed BBV should have linguists as its members. This committee is heavily loaded with non-linguists,” he said.

An email sent to the education ministry asking why there was such a poor representation of linguists in the panel did not yield a response.