IISERs will have their own aptitute test on July 18 2010

(Thanks to the Suryanarayanan’s comment number 147 in http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/285).

The IISER admission site at http://www.iiser-admissions.in/ says that there will be three ways to get admission in the IISERs: (i) KVPY (ii) IIT JEE and (iii) Direct.

But by "Direct" they mean through an aptitude test that will be held on July 18 2010. They say:

Direct Admission is open to applicants who have Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and/or Biology in their class 12 board examination. Aptitude Assessment consists of a written test. It will have multiple choice questions on Physics Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology based on CBSE syllabus up to class 12.

The NISER NEST exam will be on June 6th. Details at http://www.nestexam.in/index1.php.

IISERs and NISER should have co-ordinated to have a single test. It does not make sense to have separate tests for admission into similar programs. Such lack of co-ordination is what forces the government to interfere and dictate its ideas.

Add comment March 15th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Education issues debated in Odisha Assembly: Naming of National/innovation University; Government taking over of the medical college in Kalahandi

Tathya.in reports that this time nice debates are going on in the Odisha assembly.Following are some Samaja reports on debates relevant to education.

Add comment March 14th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

DST funded Innovative Summer program in Science for +2 students at Sambalpur University

Kudos to the people at Sambalpur University (The VC and the others) for organizing this program. After this they should pursue the establishment of a UM-DAE CBS (Center for Excellence in Basic Sciences) type of institute associated with Sambalpur University. The current VC has the vision and ability to make it happen. Note that the VC has initiated and obtained approval and promise for funding for a IIIT type of institute at Sambalpur University and he is also pursuing a sports institute at Sambalpur University. Having these institutes will pave the way for Sambalpur University to become an elite university in the country. In this regard, there is a recent proposal to create an IVY-league type of elite league of central universities in India. Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India on that.

An Ivy League similar to the ones in countries like US and Germany comprising topmost universities of the country will be formed within two years, announced Kapil Sibal, Union human resource development minister here on Saturday.

… Addressing the media after the VCs’ meet, Sibal said the universities in the Ivy League will be given complete autonomy without any government control in developing the staff, faculty, students and research and development.

… Sibal said that central universities will be allowed to decide on their faculty and staff strength from the coming academic year. “Based on their budgetary allocations, the universities will be allowed to decide the number of faculty positions they need,” he said.

He also said that credit transfer system will be in place from the coming academic year so that the students from one university will be allowed to attend the courses of other universities.

Add comment March 14th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Rourkelacity.com: CM favorable towards ESIC Medical College in Rourkela

Following is an excerpt from http://www.rourkelacity.com/top-news/naveen-patnaik-assured-and-indicates-green-signal-for-esic-medical-college-at-rourkela/.

Today under the leadership of Dr. Prafulla Majhi ( MLA , Talsara Constituency, Sundargarh ) about 6 MLAs from Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar met the Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik and appraised him about the discontent among the civil society and people at Rourkela and Sundargarh on the on going issue of locating the ESIC Medical College. After giving a calm hearing to the MLAs , Naveen Patnaik said, being ESIC Medical College is a central Govt. project, the State Govt. doesn’t have any problem if the ESIC Corporation decides this to be at Rourkela. The state will facilitate accordingly and allocate the land. He further assured about checking the status of the project and do his best for Rourkela and its people. At the same time 20 representatives of people from the above districts, also handed over a memorandum for setting up ESIC Medical College and Hospital at Rourkela to the Chief Minister which he gladly accepted.

I hope this solves all the technical issues and the ESIC hospital and medical college is quickly established in Rourkela.

Assuming the above happens Rourkela would have a very good momentum towards becoming a Tier II city in India. Some of the other things that are happening in parallel are: (i) Faster progress with respect to BPUT (ii) Good progress on Hi-Tech Medical college (iii) Proposal for a metropolitan university in Rourkela and much more. In terms of knowledge infrastructure Rourkela would then have:

• One institute of National importance: NIT
• Two Universities: BPUT and Metropolitan University
• Two medical Colleges: Hi-Tech and ESI
• Two existing engineering colleges (Padmanava and Purushottam) and one more in pipeline (Rourkela Institute of Technology)
• Good management institutes in RIMS Rourkela and IIPM Kansbahal.

I hope now Rourkela will have the momentum and its people will take their own initiatives so that steps such as the ones we earlier mentioned in  http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3480 will be taken and  Rourkela will march towards becoming a Tier II city of India.

Among people driven initiatives the first one to be taken is to push SAIL to create a medical college and an engineering college in Rourkela and approaching top institutions in Odisha and India to open a campus in Rourkela.

3 comments March 13th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

CSIR center to come up in Koraput via the CSIR-800 Programme

Following is an excerpt from a report in expressbuzz.com.

Koraput will soon be connected to the nationwide network of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories as it is chosen as an extension centre to have a pool of master trainers to train grassroots-level people in applied technologies in various fields.

The extension centre would be presently promoted by the State Government with an initial investment or Rs 30-40 lakh on a 25-acre land. However, it would soon have a full-fledged CSIR centre of Rs 40-50 crore investment with master trainers in agriculture, food and rural technologies, environment, biodiversity and food processing and for this a detailed proposal had already been submitted to the central authorities.

It would have active support from Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar, Central Foodcraft Technology Research Institute, Mysore, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, and Central Salt and Marine Research Institute, Bhavnagar.

According to IMMT Director Prof. Barada Kanta Mishra, the centre, to be built under `CSIR-800 Programme’ would also help in creating employment opportunity for the backward region in the southern part of Orissa which has seen a series of extremist activities recently.

It would also work as an interface to transfer laboratory-based knowledge to the rural people.

Add comment March 10th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Odisha should learn from Andhra Pradesh on how to go about creating knowledge hubs

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… Reddy mooted a proposal to IIM-A and IIM-B in 2008, requesting them to set up an “extended campus” in the state. IIM-A is learnt to have been offered nearly 150 acres at a nominal cost and a Rs 100-crore interest-free loan.

… Meanwhile, the Bangalore-located Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is said to be considering over a similar invitation from Andhra Pradesh.

We have received the proposal from the Andhra Pradesh government and we are in talks for the next step forward,” IISc Registrar Mohan Das said. According to sources, the institute has been shown four or five land parcels and is keen on a 1,000-acre plot that is on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border.

IMT’s plans on track
Incidentally, the Ghaziabad-based Institute of Management Technology (IMT) has accepted the state government’s invitation and is in an advanced stage of setting up its campus in Hyderabad — its third in the country. “We are about to begin construction on a 30-acre plot in Hyderabad. It has been over a year since the state government offered us the land. We hope the new campus will be operational by 2011,” IMT Ghaziabad Director Anwar Ali said.

 

Odisha should take similar proactive steps and invite campuses of IIM Calcutta, ISI Calcutta, ISB Hyderabad, BITS Pilani and other premiere institutions. Similarly, residents of particular locations in Odisha should take proactive steps such as getting together and offering land for establishment of branch campuses of existing successful institutions inside and outside Odisha.

1 comment March 9th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Progress report and current thinking on the proposed AIIMS-like institutes

Update:Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59525.

LOK SABHA

The Government has approved setting up of six AIIMS-like institutions in the States of Bihar (Patna), Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Orissa (Bhubaneswar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh) under the first phase of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). It is also proposed to set up two more institutions, one each in the State of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the second phase of PMSSY.

Each institution will have a 960 bedded hospital (500 beds for the medial college hospital; 300 beds for Specialty/Super Specialty; 100 beds for ICU/Accident trauma; 30 beds for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and 30 beds for Ayush ) intended to provide healthcare facilities in 42 specialty/super-specialty disciplines.

Bids for construction of hospital and medical college complex for the six AIIMS-like institutions in the first phase are under process. The timeline for completion of these works is the second half of 2012.

This information was given by Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in written reply to a question raised in Lok Sabha today.

Following are excerpts from a report in Indian Express.

… The AIIMS at Bhopal is likely to cost Rs 849.46 crore, Bhubaneswar Rs 820.49 crore, Jodhpur Rs 777.64 crore, Patna Rs 858.43 crore, Raipur Rs 803.84 crore and Rishikesh Rs 820.15 crore.

… the officials suggested that certain operations of these new institutes should be outsourced through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Such operations include outsourcing routine/housekeeping services, hospital information system to a professionally managed agency and outsourcing of nursing orderlies and ward boys and other staff. “This strategy the health ministry officials argued would ensure minimal Group C & D employees,” a Plan panel source said. Nearly 95 per cent of the construction work for residential complexes for Jodhpur and Raipur Institutes has been completed, 45 per cent work has been completed for Patna and Rishikesh, while the construction for Bhopal and Bhubaneswar is gradually picking up,” he said. So far about 152 bids have been received including 57 for hospitals and 95 for medical colleges and hostels. “The technical and financial evaluation would be completed by March 30 and work is likely to commence by June 10,” the source said, quoting health ministry officials.

Add comment March 9th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Status of AIIMS-like institutes; Progress very slow in Bhubaneswar

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59071.

1 comment March 5th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

132 Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery (ANM) Schools and 137 General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) Schools across India including Odisha

Following from PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=58927.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved, in order to meet the shortage of nurses, setting up of 132 Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery (ANM) Schools under the Scheme of Upgradation / Strengthening of Nursing Services (Human Resource for Health) in the high focus states like Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North Eastern States, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other districts in the country preferably which do not have Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery schools. 

The schools will be opened in these states at a total cost of Rs.660 crore with a cost sharing pattern of 85:15 between the Central Government and the States. The expenditure on the part of Central Government would be Rs.561 crore and the States will contribute Rs.99 crore. 

The effective implementation of the Scheme is expected to increase the availability of trained nursing manpower and to improve the quality of nursing education in the backward and special category States of the country. This would also facilitate improvement in the quality of nursing services in the Hospitals.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved establishment of 137 General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) Schools under the Scheme of Upgradation / Strengthening of Nursing Services (Human Resource for Health) in the high focus states like Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North Eastern States, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other districts in the country preferably which do not have General Nursing and Midwifery schools. 

The schools will be opened in these states at a total cost of Rs.1370 crore with a cost sharing pattern of 85:15 between the Central Government and States. The expenditure on the part of Central Government would be Rs.1164.50 crore and the states are to contribute Rs.205.50 crore.

Add comment March 4th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Hi-Tech advertises for its Rourkela Medical College: Dharitri, Samaja

The ad says they are expecting it to start in 2010-11. Perhaps someone from Rourkela can tell us how far the construction has progressed. Any photos would be appreciated.

5 comments March 3rd, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

300 page 6.2 MB UGC Report of the HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA Issues Related to Expansion, Inclusiveness, Quality and Finance.

The link is http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/report/12.pdf. This was published in November 2008 with 500 printed copies. Its been recently put in the UGC website at number 12 in the page http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/.

This 300 page document has all kinds of data on higher education in India and is a must read for anyone interested in higher education vis-a-vis India.

An Expressbuzz report by Sanjeev Patro tries to distill out some data with respect to Odisha from the above document. It is a good start and it made me look for the original document (Thanks), but I think a more careful analysis is needed.

Add comment March 1st, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

22 new Polytechs, 91 new ITIs and 415 new Skill Development Centers to come up in Odisha

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard on the 22 new polytechs.

… These polytechnics would come up in those districts which are not yet served by the government polytechnics. The districts include Boudh Gajapati, Nabarangpur, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Kandhamal, Mayurbhanj and Balasore to name a few.

… It may be noted that 13 government engineering schools and polytechnics are already functioning in Orissa under the state industries department.

… A single patch of land spread over 10 acres has already been identified by the state government in each of the districts.

Out of Rs 12.3 crore sanctioned for each polytechnic, Rs eight crore will be spent on civil works and Rs 4.3 crore will be spent on equipment, machinery, furniture and learning resource material.

With the opening of these 22 polytechnics, every district in the state will have at least government polytechnic providing quality education.

Following is excerpt from a different report in Business Standard on the 91 new ITIs and 415 new Skill Development Centers (SDCs).

The Ministry of Labour and Employment of the Government of India has decided to set up 91 new ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) and 415 Skill Development Centres (SDCs) in Orissa on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

While the Orissa government would provide basic infrastructural support for these ITIs and SDCs including free land with proper power, water and road connectivity, the Centre would provide Viability Gap Funding.

The proposed ITI s would have a strength of 250 trainees per shift running about 10 demand driven trades. An estimated Rs six crore would be spent towards infrastructural development on each of these ITI s.

The proposed SDCs would be smaller centres of vocational training with seating capacity of about 300 persons per shift per annum to meet the skill training needs of the locals.

About Rs 50 lakh would be invested on equipment and machineries for these SDCs.

Expressions of Interest would be invited from the training providers to operationalize these proposed ITI s and SDCs on the PPP mode.

… About 3-5 acres of land need to be identified for the establishment of ITI s at the unrepresented block headquarters while 500 sq m of land is needed for setting up the SDC at the gram panchayat headquarters.

Moreover, the Government of India has decided to upgrade 1396 government ITI s across the country on the PPP mode through an interest free loan of Rs 2.5 crore.

Nine ITI s in the state at Puri, Cuttack, Chhatrapur, Umerkote, Barbil, Dhenkanal, Barbil, Baripada, Baripada and Malkangiri are covered under this initiative.

Add comment February 26th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

15 crores in the Union Budget for converting BESU to IIEST

Item 69 of the MHRD Department of Higher Education budget has 15 crores for IIEST. The explanation later says the following:

69. Setting up of Indian institute of Engineering, Science & Technology (IIEST): A State University, namely, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur is proposed to be converted into a Central Government Institute, namely, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).

Odisha must continue to push the conversion of VSSUT Burla to an IIEST.

7 comments February 26th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

CIPET adds two exclusive R & D hubs: One of them, Laboratory for Advance Research in Polymeric Materials (LARPM), established in Bhubaneswar

The advertisement http://www.cipet.gov.in/pdfs/advt.2010.pdf mentions that CIPET is upgrading its centers to High Learning Centers to impart B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.D programs with exclusive R & D hubs ARSTPS & LARPM. (Note: I think LARPM was the first R & D hub to be created by CIPET and was mentioned in a Jan 2009 PIB report. But both were also mentioned in a May 2008 Economic Times article.)

As per http://www.cipet.gov.in/research.html:

Technology innovation through dedicated research work by a Core team has been the philosophy of CIPET, which led to the establishment of 02 R&D centres – Laboratory for Advance Research in polymeric Materials (LARPM) & Advance Research School for Technology & Product simulation (ARSTPS) at CIPET Bhubaneswar & Chennai respectively. …

The vision for these R&D Centres have been conceived with objectives of transforming CIPET as a Global research Centre on Polymeric Materials as well as a Resource centre for newer concept development & conversion of concept into reality by Product development on commercial scales. Technology transfer, creation of Intellectual Property (IP), knowledge base with validated documentation would be the key aspects of functioning of R&D entities.

The significance of LARPM & ARSTPS is evident from the fact that they will be chaired by Director General and functioning independently under the Technology & Business development department of Corporate Office. The targets for both R&D centres have been set to pursue the objectives in mission mode. The experienced & competent faculties have been drawn from the existing pool of CIPET along with newly inducted researchers.

Operating model of LARPM & ARSTPS would be influenced with 03 “Rs”- Relevance to industry needs, Result-oriented output, Resourceful base to operate as ‘Centre of excellence”. It is worth mentioning that LARPM has already been sanctioned 03 sponsored projects from Funding agencies of Govt. of India. Similarly, ARSTPS has already initiated industry sponsored projects for Automotive, Medical & Aerospace Industries.

The identified focus areas of LARPM & ARSTPS are as follows:

	LARPM   ARSTPS
	Biopolymers   Innovative Product Design for Medical, Automobile, Aerospace and Packaging Industries
	Polymer Composites & Nanocomposites   Product and Tool Design Conceptualization (modeling, analysis, process optimization & simulation approach )
	Functional Plastics, Carbon nanotubes   E- Manufacturing of Prototypes.
	Polymer Membranes, Conducting polymers   Reverse Engineering for metal and conventional material substitution.
	Development & Characterization of Engg. Polymers, Blends/Alloys   -
	Fuel Cells

The home page of LARPM is http://cipet.gov.in/cipetr&d/. As per http://cipet.gov.in/pdfs/research.pdf there are already 5 students pursuing Ph.D at LARPM. Following are concept drawings of their upcoming building.

The 2010-2011 admission ad shows the B.tech and M.tech programs that will be offered in 2010-2011. The program that will be offered at CIPET Bhubaneswar are:

• B.Tech in Plastics Engineering/Technology (Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Chennai , Lucknow, Haldia – proposed)
• B.Tech in Manufacturing Engineering & Technology – proposed (Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Lucknow)
• M.Tech in Plastics Engineering/Technology (Bhubaneswar, Chennai , Lucknow, Hajipur)
• M.Tech in Polymer Nano Technology (LARPM – Bhubaneswar)
• M.Sc M.Tech in Material Science &  Engineering (Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Lucknow).

The only program not listed to be offered at Bhubaneswar, but offered elsewhere, is

• M.Engg in CAD CAM (ARSTPS – Chennai)

Besides the above; all the 15 CIPET centers offer the following diplomas and PG Diplomas:

• Diploma in Plastic mould technology (3 yrs)
• Diploma in Plastics technology (3 yrs)
• PG Diploma in plastic mould design (1 yrs)
• PG Diploma in plastic processing & testing (1.5 yrs)

Finally, the Mancheswar branch of CIPET offers the following programs:

• ITI-Fitter, ITI-Electrician, ITI-IT&ESM and ITI-Welder
• and various short term courses and CAD/CAM courses.

From the above it looks like CIPET Chennai and Bhubaneswar are among the leaders.  However neither Odisha nor Tamil Nadu have a NIPER. (The original NIPER is near Mohali and Chandigarh.  As part of the 11th plan, new NIPERs were made in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Hajipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Rae Bareli.) I hope Odisha pursues and gets one during the next five year plan.

Add comment February 20th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Center willing to have Odisha’s third CIPET campus in Balasore

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

Patnaik said that the Union secretary also said the Centre is willing to set up a branch of the CIPET (Cental Institute of Plastic Engineering Tehncology) at Balasore in the state. For the institute, the state government has agreed to provide 15 acres of land, he disclosed.

The information regarding the other two Odisha campuses of CIPET are in the following web sites.

• Main Campus in Patia, Bhubaneswar
• Campus II at Mancheswar Industrial Estate

The proposed 3rd campus in Balasore is mainly due to the efforts of Central Minister and Balasore MP Srikant Jena. The other campuses of CIPET in the rest of India are shown in this map.

1 comment February 20th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

VSSUT Burla marching foward; campus to be known as Siddhi Vihar

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

… Since both large and medium scale industries are coming in good numbers all over the State and particularly surrounding this technical university, more job-oriented courses will be opened soon to create employment avenues for the students. The new courses will be water resources management, industrial power control and electric drives, material technology, manufacturing system engineering etc, informed Tripathy.

He also informed that all the vacancies in teaching and non-teaching posts would be filled up soon to convert this age-old institution to a full-fledged university.

… Tripathy informed that efforts are being made to give the entire campus a total new look by naming the campus as ‘Siddhi Vihar’ and the hostels after the Saptarshi Mandal.

… students of the university have stood first in the Robotic event at IIT Kharagpur recently. At the same time, it had successfully organised Samavesh-2010 with 2500 engineering students belonging to different engineering colleges all over the State. “There is possibility of getting Rs.10-20 crore aid from the World Bank for research activities,” Swain informed.

2 comments February 19th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Sahyog Foundation plans a medicity (with a medical college) in Jagatpur and a medical college in Keonjhar

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Sahyog Foundation, a city-based non-profit organization, would invest Rs 1100 crore in setting up a medicity spread over 300 acres at Jagatpur near Cuttack as well as a medical college and hospital at Keonjhar.

The amount will be raised by the foundation through a mix of debt and contributions from the promoters and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

The Keonjhar project which is being taken up on the public private partnership (PPP) mode at an investment of Rs 200 crore will have a medical college with an intake of 50 seats to begin with and a 300-bed hospital.

Debasis Sahoo, director, Sahyog Foundation said, “We will sign the MoU … with the Orissa government for setting up the medical college and hospital at Keonjhar by the end of this month. Apart from alloting 20 acres of land free of cost, the state government has also given us an incentive grant of Rs 10 crore for the project.”

Construction work on the proposed medical college and hospital at Keonjhar is set to take off in April this year and the first batch of students for the MBBS course will be admitted in 2011.

“While the hospital at Keonjhar will offer treatment in various super specialties, the focus will be on malaria ad tuberculosis. Seventy per cent of the beds in this hospital will be reserved for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families.”

… The medical college and hospital at Keonjhar will offer direct employment opportunities to 3000 people.

For its Rs 900-crore medicity project at Jagatpur, Sahyog Foundation has started the process of land acquisition. The medicity project is expected to be operational by 2014.

Besides a 150-seater medical college and a 700-bed hospital, the medicity will have a homeopathic college, an Ayurvedic college and other public amenities like a shopping mall, gymnasium, swimming pool and food court.

…  Apart from generating around 5000 direct jobs, the medicity will also create indirect employment for 150000 people.

Similar news was reported earlier (for example here) but the numbers in those early reports did not make sense.

Similarly there have been news reports (see here and here) about a US based group called Euthenic Group consortium that wants to set up a 1000 bed super speciality hospital in Orissa. However, after seeing the webpage of Euthenic Group (see http://euthenicgroup.com/) I don’t have a good feeling on this. Also I don’t understand what is meant when expressbuzz says the following:

After completion of the project, it will be handed over to the State Government. The hospital will be the property of the State Government. 

It does not quite make financial sense that this group will make an hospital and then hand it over to the state government at the end of the completion of project. May be by  "at the completion of project"  they mean after a long long time; say 30 years. 

Add comment February 18th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

US based North South foundation offers scholarships to students in India

Following is from the page http://www.northsouth.org/st/scholarships/scholarships.asp.

The North South Foundation provides scholarships to needy children who display academic excellence in India. The Foundation has distributed more than 2,000 scholarships to students who need financial support to pursue their quest for knowledge in engineering, medicine, polytechinc, science and other fields.

The scholarship is an annual award and not a one-time payment. The student is eligible for the scholarship until graduation as long as the high academic standards are maintained. The Foundation funds these scholarships by raising donations in the US. The local chapters located in various states in India do the commendable job of advertising to invite applications from students, screening these applications and selecting the most needy group of students who eventually become NSF scholarship recipients.

Currently there are nine chapters in the following cities: Bangalore, Bhavnagar, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Kolkata and Pune.

The contacts are given in the page http://www.northsouth.org/st/scholarships/contacts_india.asp. The Odisha related contacts are a s follows:

.

2 comments February 16th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Prof. Amiya Kumar Pattanayak appointed VC of Utkal University of Culture

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Prof. Amiya Kumar Pattanayak has been appointed as the new vice-chancellor of the Utkal University of Culture. …

Born in 1949, Prof Pattanayak started his academic journey in 1972. He holds a Ph.D in history and was professor in Berhampur University during 1994-2008. He was Registrar of Berhampur University, served as a warden, was also the Director of Distant Education Centre, Director of College Developmental Council and Director’s Women Studies Research Centre.

Prof Pattanayak has written six books, edited 12 books, has sixty-five research publications. 15 scholars have been awarded Ph.D under his guidance. Nine are continuing research under him at present. He has produced 37 M.Phil. scholars.

2 comments February 16th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral

Telegraph lists the 44 deemed universities that were in the middle tier – found wanting but given 3 years to fix issues

Thanks to Rahul Barik for the pointer. The Telgraph article is at http://telegraphindia.com/1100214/jsp/nation/story_12104169.jsp. Following is the graphics from that web site.

Add comment February 14th, 2010 Author : Chitta Baral