New Delhi, July 25: IIT Delhi plans to launch a dual-degree programme incorporating a BTech and an MBA course from next year to enable its engineering students to acquire management lessons in five years instead of six.

The IITs in Kharagpur and Roorkee too had started similar dual-degree programmes but had to scrap them in the face of infrastructure and scheduling problems. IIT Kharagpur plans to revive the course.

IIT Delhi will also start a Bachelor of Design course on product-design technology.

Sources at the institute said the dual-degree programme would be offered to BTech students in their second year. The IITs have been offering MBA courses separately.

"Many students sign up for management courses after getting their BTech degree. The dual-degree programme will save them a year," a senior teacher told The Telegraph.

IIT BTech students now have to take up a few elective papers from the humanities and/or management streams. Those opting for the dual-degree programme can only have management papers as their elective subjects from the second year.

By the time they finish their four-year BTech course, they will have completed half the MBA course, needing one more year to cover the rest and earn both degrees. The proposal will soon be taken to the institute's senate, the teacher said.

IIT Kharagpur was the first IIT to launch a dual-degree programme about eight years ago.

Kalyan Kumar Guin, head of the Vinod Gupta School of Management at the institute, said the course was dropped three years ago because of difficulties in scheduling the classes and other academic activities.

"The student response was very good. We are planning to revive it," Guin said.

He added that the students who had graduated with the dual degree had secured good placements with private companies in the areas of techno-management.

Zillur Rahman, head of management studies at IIT Roorkee, said his institute's Saharanpur campus used to offer the dual-degree programme but discontinued it last year.

"Managing the programme on the Saharanpur campus, which is 40km from the main campus, was a problem," he said.

Former IIT Guwahati director Gautam Barua said the IIMs' management courses were far more popular than the MBA courses at the IITs.

"I doubt these dual-degree courses will receive a good response from the BTech students. It's general graduates from other institutions who mostly fill the MBA seats at the IITs," Barua said.

IIT Delhi's proposed Bachelor of Design course will be modelled on a course offered by IIT Guwahati.

A BTech in mechanical engineering now includes a paper on product design. The proposed course will deal with the subject in detail, covering areas like animation and graphics too.

The Guwahati institute's Bachelor of Design course trains students on designing automobiles, electronic devices and mobile phones, among other things, Barua said.

Happiness 'science'

IIT Kharagpur is planning a "centre for the science of happiness" to promote "positivity" for fostering a meaningful life, the Lok Sabha was told today, PTI reported.

Junior human resource development minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said a former student of the institute, Satinder Singh Rekhi, had come up with the proposal.

He said the centre would aim at fostering a meaningful life, happiness, well-being and holistic self-development by combining disciplines ranging from psychology and management to engineering.

A team of teachers has been identified to develop the courses and programmes of the proposed centre, he said in a written reply.

IIT Kharagpur has said the centre would offer training programmes and certificate courses for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

"Rekhi has agreed to set up a seed endowment fund and has transferred an initial amount of Rs 60 lakh to plan the centre," Pandey said.

Recently, the Madhya Pradesh government set up a "ministry of happiness" to measure the "happiness quotient" of the state's people.