All India Council for Technical Education

• The All India Council for Technical Education (aicte) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education.


•  Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body, which was given statutory status by an Act of Parliament in 1987, the aicte is responsible for proper planning and coordinated development of the technical education and management education system in India.


• It is assisted by 10 Statutory Boards of Studies, namely, UG Studies in Eng. & Tech., PG and Research in Eng. and Tech., Management Studies, Vocational Education, Technical Education, Pharmaceutical Education, Architecture, Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Information Technology, Town and Country Planning.


• The aicte has its new headquarters building in Delhi on the Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, 110 067, which has the offices of the chairman, vice-chairman and the member secretary, plus it has regional offices at Kanpur, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Mumbai, Bhopal, Vadodara, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.


• In its 25 April 2013 judgment, the Supreme Court said "as per provisions of the aicte Act and University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, the council has no authority which empowers it to issue or enforce any sanctions on colleges affiliated with the universities as its role is to provide only guidance and recommendations." Subsequently, aicte was getting approval from the Supreme court to regulate technical colleges on a year to year basis till January 2016, when aicte got blanket approval for publishing the Approval Process Handbook and approve technical colleges including management for the session 2016-17 and in all future sessions.