New Delhi, Aug. 6: The cabinet today approved a long-pending pay hike for faculty at central technical education institutions like the IITs, IIMs and the National Institutes of Technology, six months after a government panel recommended a salary raise.

Government officials were tight-lipped about the exact increments in salary hikes, which are still to be notified, but sources confirmed that the new pay structure is focused drawing luring fresh PhD graduates to teaching.

The sources confirmed the new regime would retain differences in pay structure between the IITs and the NITs — despite demands from the latter that their salaries be brought at par with the IITs.

Faculty at the IITs, IIMs and the NITs will also continue to receive salaries higher than their counterparts at identical posts in central universities, the sources added.

The approval came on a day the faculty across the IITs wore black badges to work in protest against the delay in implementing the promised hike in their pays.

Last year, after the government implemented the Sixth Pay Commission, it had set up a panel under former Indian Institute of Science director Goverdhan Mehta to suggest pay hikes for teachers at central technical education institutions.

The panel submitted its recommendations in February this year.