Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=64351.
The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal for formation of societies for each of the six AIIMS-like institutions being set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). These societies will be functional till the AIIMS-like institutions are brought under an Act of Parliament.
Creating legal entities in the form of a society for these institutions will facilitate greater autonomy and faster execution of the projects and will expedite release of funds from the Government. Each of these institutions will be registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Each society will have a two-tier Organization and Management structure. The Governing Council under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare would have appropriate representation from concerned Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and other related organizations. This will be the apex body deciding all policy matters.
There will also be a Board of Governors with Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) as chairperson with appropriate representation of State Governments. Persons with special knowledge in the field of science and medicine will be nominated by the Governing Council.
Background:
The Union Cabinet approved the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in March, 2006 with the objective of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country. Under Phase-I of PMSSY, six AIIMS-like institutions are being set up, one each in the States of Bihar (Patna), Chattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Orissa (Bhubaneshwar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh) at an estimated cost of Rs. 840 crore per institution including nursing colleges. The formation of societies will give these institutions a governance structure, which is not there at present.
Related links from the past:
August 9th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with two city-based institutes for analysing the origin and progression of stress and metabolic syndrome (SMS) and its links with diabetes.
The NISER signed an MoU with the Kanungo Institute of Diabetes Specialities (KIDS) to carry out a collaborative project on clinical, behavioural and epidemiological data on SMS and diabetes yesterday.
It also roped in the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) to use the KIDS’ expertise in genomic studies, laboratory facilities and library for research.
… Chairman and managing director of KIDS Dr Alok Kanungo said: “While India has the highest prevalent diabetes – about 20 per cent of the total diabetic population in the world, there are 40 lakh diabetics in the state. As per statistics released by the state health department, the number of patients has been increased upto 5 lakh in the past five years.”
… “Currently more than 20 per cent of the adult population are suffering from stress related diseases due to change in lifestyle. This also leads to the pre-diabetes stage. However, we are yet to get the Indian database either on SMS or pre-diabetes. This collaboration is expected to let us know the role of Indian genetics in diabetes,” he added.
“The KIDS has a state-of-the-art super speciality diabetes centre with latest infrastructure,” he said.
“Our focus area of research will be SMS leading to diabetes and other physiological abnormalities at molecular level. The clinical, behavioural, epidemiological and susceptibility aspects of the patients of the KIDS will be studied to understand the link in Indian genetic perspective. The research is based on the private public entrepreneurship model of the NISER,” said Palok Aich, the chairperson of School of Biological Sciences, NISER.
“The ILS, being a leading centre of studies in genetics, will help our students and researchers regarding infrastructure and library use,” he said.
This is really great. Once the AIIMS-like institution gets operational it will further increase such collaboration the Biology, Life science and Human Health areas.These kind of collaborations is one of the motivation behind having clusters of institutions nearby. Their impact gets multiplied and the overall impact becomes many times the sum of their individual impact. However, Odisha needs multiple such clusters. Hence my suggestions on several tiers of clusters. See http://www.orissa2020.org/home/area-wise-plan.
Some past relevant articles:
August 9th, 2010
Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=64336. The part relevant to Dhenkanal has been put in a different colour.
Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Smt. Ambika Soni has said that under the new initiatives taken to position IIMC as an apex institution for providing quality education in the field on Media and entertainment, the endeavour was to establish facilities, curriculum and courses at par with Global Standards. A roadmap to initiate the process had already begun wherein classes at the four Regional Centres at J&K, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram would commence from the next academic session at the facilities being provided by the State Governments. For this purpose, under the 12th Plan, funds would be provided to establish the full fledged facilities at the four Regional Centres. The Minister stated this while delivering her address at the 43rd Convocation of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication here today.
Elaborating on the details of the up-gradation being undertaken at Delhi and Dhenkenal, the Minister said that an up-gradation of the One-Year PG Diploma Course to Two-Year Advanced PG Diploma Course would be undertaken along-with seeking equivalence to Masters Degree for the Two-Year PG Diploma Courses from Ministry of Human Resources Development. As a new initiative, introduction of at least two new Two-Year PG Diploma Courses (one each in Development Journalism and Corporate Communication & Media Management) would be undertaken. For the infrastructural development, expansion of the existing buildings at Delhi and Dhenkanal and construction of new buildings for accommodating two batches of students at a time would be undertaken along-with procurement of latest technical equipment and filling up all vacancies in the teaching as well as non-teaching category. The Minister added that these initiatives would not only provide quality manpower to the industry, the training imparted would also ensure availability of skills, talent and professionalism with proper grooming at the inception level.
Smt. Soni further said that the growth of the media and entertainment industry had been one of the success stories of the Indian Economy. The growth of the media and entertainment industry was expected to grow provisionally at Rs.652billion in 2010, culminating to Rs.1091 billion in 2014. The CAGR was for the period was expected to be around 13%. This growth rate was due to the development in regional markets as well as different media formats. This growth, the Minister added could be sustained only if talented and skilled persons added value to the sector through their professional inputs. Hence ,capacity building was a major challenge for any Government. As a consequence, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had also undertaken specific measures to look into the needs of the Human Resources and skill upgradation in the film and animation sector.
The Minister further added that apart from IIMC, efforts were being made to reposition the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune as a world class Institute by upgrading and modernising its infrastructure and facilities. A Detailed Project Report was being finalised. An outlay of Rs.52 crore has been proposed for this scheme during the 11th Five Year Plan. Similarly, in order to look into the growing demand of trained professionals in the sphere of Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects, it has been decided that a specialized National Centre for Animation, Gaming and Visual effects will be set up to provide training and upgrading skills. For this scheme also, a DPR is under preparation. For the animation sector,Smt.Soni said, the ministry was open to the idea of developing a Public Private Partnership model with interested stakeholders.
A total number of 259 students were awarded diploma for courses in Hindi & English Journalism, Advertising & PR, Radio & Television and Oriya Journalism. 44 students of IIMC, Dhenkanal were given diplomas in English Journalism.
August 7th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.
Meet Kamalakshya Mahatab, the genius and product of the IMA has B.Sc(Hons) in Mathematics & Computing programme which is designed to orient students to pursue mathematics as a research career.
He completed the B.SC.(Hons) in 2010 at IMA and see the results of his.
Appeared in IIT JAM and stood first to qualify for Indian Statistical Institute.
Faced the All India Examination for Integrated Ph.D program at TIFR Centre Bangalore and stood first.
He qualified join the integrated Ph.D Program of Indian Institute of Science, Banglore.
Again he has qualified for the integrated Ph.D programme of Institute Mathematical Sciences Chennai.
He also qualified to join the integrated Ph.D programme TIFR, Mumbai.
Out of these six options he is opting join the TIFR, Mumbai.
From the first batch in the year 2009, eight students took admission in this batch.
02 qualified in the IIT JAM, 02 qualified for Central University Hyderabad, 03 joined Utkal University .
One of the boys who qualified in the IIT JAM joined as integrated Ph.D Programme.
… The Student who was second in 2003, RMTS, Himalaya N. Senapati, went on to represent India in Astronomy Olympiad at Semiz, Crimea, Ukraine and earned a silver medal.
Professor Pattanayak has mentored nearly 60 plus scholars of various background, who are doing Ph.Ds in various IITs, Math institutes of India at this time.
… Interestingly nearly 15 of Ph.D students are SC/ST students – who are supposed to be weak in Math.
… One of his mentored student, Abhilash Mishra of Sambalpur is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, who has come back to support the program both financially and physically, by teaching students.
The other of the 08 students of 2009 batch is Deepak Kumar Sahu, who is from Nuapada district, is actually in a job in Pune which pays him 9.5 lakhs per annum.
He has personally mentored many math Olympiad students since 1988 and Somani Pattnayak last year was selected directly by MIT, USA.
Interestingly she spents most of her winter vacation last year in Math Camps in IMA …
Related pointers from the past:
August 4th, 2010
It seems like Vedanta University is seriously considering to move to a location in the Southern states. (For those who may not know much about Vedanta University; it is a university proposed by London based industrialist Anil Agarwal who has pledged $1 Billion = 5000 crores of his own money towards this university which will have an overall budget of 15,000 crores. Note that the budgte of a new IIT is about 800 crores, a new AIIMS is about 850 crores, a new IIM is 215 cores, a new IISER is 500 crores. So just the 5000 crore is greater than having 2 IITs, 2 AIIMS, 2 IIMs and 2 IISERs. See http://vedanta.edu.in/ for more details.)
Following are some excerpts from recent news items:
(i)
http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2010_07_24_The_Learning_Curve.html
“Agarwal’s other project in Orissa — Vedanta University — seems to be going nowhere. It appears it would take years before the first brick is laid on his most ambitious, and grandest, education project…. Agarwal, founder of London-based Vedanta Group, turned heads in 2006 when he said he would set up an 8,000-acre, $3-billion university under the aegis of Vedanta Foundation (which later changed its name to Anil Agarwal Foundation or AAF) in the state’s coastal town of Puri. He also offered $1 billion from his personal funds. Agarwal’s holding in his companies is worth more than $10 billion (as on 31 March 2010). …
Two states have extended an invitation; a decision is likely to be taken on a new site in two months,” says Ajit Kumar Samal, in-charge of the university project. He, however, refuses to divulge more details. Experts say the alternatives to Orissa could be Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which have good educational infrastructure.
(ii) http://sify.com/finance/vedanta-may-shift-varsity-to-southern-states-news-default-kgobu9ifgjb.html
The Anil Agarwal Foundation’s plan to set up a Rs 15,000- crore varsity in Puri (Orissa), called Vedanta University, has come a cropper. The management is now in talks with two southern states for alternative land to set up the varsity.
Although there has been opposition from inside Orissa mainly because some people are against Vedanta due to its Kalahandi operations and partly because some people are against the huge land requirement for this university, the last straw seems to be the action taken by the Minister of Environment in Delhi Mr. Jairam Ramesh. His action stopped the construction that was about to happen. See http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/env-crz-vedanta.pdf.
After granting conditional clearance, it has now put on hold the clearance. Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindustan Times:
While the environment aspects of a mine is understandable, using environment as an issue to stop a university looks somewhat fishy. Especially, consider the following:
(i) The same Jairam Ramesh and his ministry has this week granted environmental permission to construct the Polavurum dam in Andhra Pradesh against the objections of the Orissa and Chhatisgrah government. See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Environment-ministry-clears-Andhra-project/articleshow/6233874.cms .
Even Times of India is surprised with this. It wrote: "Oddly, while the ministry had set up separate committees to investigate the settlement of rights under the Forest Rights Act in other high profile cases such as Vedanta and Posco which propose to displace far lesser people, in the Polavaram case the ministry has decided to accept the state government’s compliance report on face value. The mega-project is expected to submerge 276 villages displacing upwards of two lakh people by some estimates. "
(ii) In the past IIT Madras was built on the land of Guindy National Park. Following is from IIT Madras’s web page at http://www.iitm.ac.in/biodiversity
The IIT Madras Campus was carved out of a natural forest that formed part of the Guindy National Park.
(iii) IIT Bombay is in close proximity to the Sanjay Gandhi national park
Jairam Ramesh’s bias against Orissa was earlier evident when in 2007 when he questioned how an IIT would benefit Orissa. See http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/286 .
I worry that Mr. Ramesh may be scheming to take the 15,000 crore Vedanta University to the south. He is originally from Karantak and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh. Regardless, losing this would be a great loss for Orissa.
I know oppositions in Orissa have raised many questions about Vedanta University. I have tried to answer their criticisms and questions. See http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1696
My basic point is that this university with a budget of 15,000 crores out of which 5,000 crore is personal money pledged by Anil Agarwal (who has a net worth of several billion pounds, thus making this believable) can completely change the situation of Orissa and make the Bhubaneswar-Puri area a viable competitor to Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad in terms of being a knowledge hub. This is a once in a century type of opportunity and letting it go would be foolish for generations to come.
Sorry for being so long, but this is a complex issue and I had to explain the background. We need to do something about this so that Vedanta University is established in Orissa, if not Puri, somewhere else in Orissa is fine too. If we let it go to some other state generations of Oriyas will repent for having lost this opportunity.
What can we do?
To start with please consider sending a version of the following letter (make changes to your liking).
To: pmosb@pmo.nic.in, kapil@kapilsibal.com, kapilsibal@hotmail.com, sam.pitroda@c-sam.com, s.pitroda@nic.in, jairam@sansad.nic.in, jairam@jairam-ramesh.com, secy.dhe@nic.in , skumar-mail@nic.in
Cc: cmo@ori.nic.in, bmahtab@sansad.nic.in, jayarampangi@gmail.com, pyarimohan@yahoo.co.uk, office.bjpanda@gmail.com, k.mangala@sansad.nic.in, mohan.jena@sansad.nic.in, rb.pradhan@sansad.nic.in, sushila.tiriya@sansad.nic.in, pyarimohanap@sansad.nic.in
Bcc: ajit.samal@vedanta.co.in, brajakmishra@gmail.com, Itishree.Devi@vedanta.co.in, cv.krishnan@vedanta.edu.in
SUBJECT: Please stop putting hurdles on the Vedanta University project and facilitate its establishment
Dear Esteemed Prime Minister Dr. Singh:
I am very concerned that various bureaucratic hurdles have been put by your environment ministry on the Vedanta University Project (in Puri, Odisha), which is the only current initiative that has a decent chance of becoming the first (and perhaps the only for several decades) world class university of India.
I have no association with Vedanta University except that I would like India and Odisha to have world class universities and I see the best hope of that happening soon through the establishment of Vedanta University. I am making this clarification of not having any association with Vedanta University because in India many people are afraid of speaking out in favor of industrial houses lest they be branded as being bought out by these houses.
The annual expenditure of typical state university [1] in the USA is 1.785 Billion USD, which comes to 8211 crores of INR at One USD=46 INR rate. Even taking the purchasing power index according to which 1 USD has the purchasing power of Rs 17, 1.785 Billion USD comes to about 3000 crores of INR using the purchasing power parity (PPP) numbers. Among other universities, Harvard with 20,000 students has an expenditure of 3.756 Billion USD [2] which comes to 6385 crores INR using PPP. Stanford’s budget for 18,500 students is 3.65 Billion USD [3]. In comparison, the 2010-11 budget for IISc Bangalore is 221 Crores INR and the total budget for the seven older IITs is 1600 crores.
The only Indian institution that ranks very high (at number 15) in global rankings [4] is the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad. According to a Times of India report [5]: "Indian School of Business (ISB) pays over Rs 20 lakh to its Assistant Professors (APs). Against this, an IIM-Ahmedabad AP gets only Rs 5.5 lakh as starting pay annually."
Based on the above two numbers one can guess estimate that a university in India aspiring to be world class would need to have an annual budget of 1000-1500 crores INR. I am not sure what budget estimates have been made for the innovation universities. The closest number that I came across was the estimate (in 2008) of 720 crores [6] over a nine year period.
The Vedanta University as planned has an overall budget of 15,000 crores with 5,000 crores being pledged from personal funds of the Anil Agarwal foundation. So the scale is way beyond what is mentioned with respect to the other institutions and universities in India.
As per [6,7,8,9] the budget towards making a new IIT is 760 crores, a new IIM is 210 crores, a central university is 300 crores, a central university with a medical school is 720 crores, an IISER is 500 crores and an AIIMS is 850 crores. These all add up to 3340 crores which is much less than the 5000 crores Mr. Anil Agarwal has pledged to contribute personally (through the Anil Agarwal foundation) towards Vedanta University. In addition the 15,000 crore overall budget and the plan for Vedanta University [10] which includes a township of 500,0000 and research institutes and centers a la Stanford Research Institute suggest a way to get enough income to match the annual expenses needed to operate a truly world class university. Thus when Vedanta University website talks about being world class [10], the numbers seem to add up.
I am not sure if the proposed innovation universities will be able to pay about 4 times the salary that is paid to faculty at IIMs and IITs. That is what ISB Hyderabad, the only globally top ranked institute is paying. That is what Vedanta University with its planned budget could possibly pay.
Under the above circumstances, Vedanta University seems to me as having the best chance to be India’s first comprehensive world class university.
While the honorable HRD Minister has been visiting around the world to get help in establishing innovation universities, does it make sense to create unreasonable hurdles (as the environment ministry seems to be doing) to the only one foundation that seems to have a real plan [10] and that has pledged money to back up that plan to create a truly world class university.
India’s laws and its constitution are sacrosanct. But as everyone knows one can use laws to create hurdles and one can also facilitate the establishment of one of a kind potentially real world class university while making sure that those laws are in compliance. It is my sincere opinion that the environment ministry is creating hurdles instead of just making sure that the laws are followed. Also, it is unfortunate that the HRD ministry has not taken notice of Vedanta
University and has not facilitated the creation of this potentially world class university. Please note that, as per [11] "the IIT Madras Campus was carved out of a natural forest that formed part of the Guindy National Park."
In any western country a foundation with a $1 Billion donation towards a new university would have been given red carpet treatment. In India, the HRD ministry does not even notice it and the Environment ministry is bordering on harassing the project. No wonder we do not have any world class university yet.
I know that there are various people and organizations that are opposed to the Vedanta University. Many of them because they have issues with the Vedanta company. Also, most of them do not have a grasp of what a world-class university is, and some with political objectives have even floated malicious rumors. Many of those objections have been addressed in great length at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1696.
I sincerely request that you urgently have a meeting with the HRD ministry, the environment ministry and the government of Orissa and facilitate the establishment of Vedanta University with full compliance of the laws of the land. In addition, please help Vedanta University to immediately start graduate programs in 2-3 areas of need while the various issues are expediently sorted out with your help.
Finally, Vedanta University was in the process of constructing the buildings for a top-notch medical school which would have been part of it. The environment ministry has stopped that. How much sense does it make to stop construction of a medical school in a state (Orissa) that lacks adequate medical facilities and that is at the bottom of many health parameters?
Please allow the medical school construction to resume at the earliest as by stopping the construction of a medical school, your environment ministry is playing with lives.
[1] http://budget.asu.edu/all-funds-budget-0
[2] http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_Harvard_Fact_Book_2009-10_FINAL.pdf
[3] http://www.stanford.edu/dept/businessaffairs/cgi-bin/downloadpdf_v3.php?file=BudBk_2010-11_sec1.pdf
[4] http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/indian-school-of-business
[5] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/ahmedabad/IIM-A-dons-want-Harvard-like-status/articleshow/4974404.cms
[6] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=37684
[7] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=12975
[8] http://www.financialexpress.com/news/aiims-to-start-functioning-in-jodhpur-in-23-yrs-azad/517370/
[9] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=29814
[10] http://vedanta.edu.in/
[11] http://www.iitm.ac.in/biodiversity
sincerely
July 31st, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in c2clive.
Addressing academics at IIT-Madras Research Park, Mr. Willetts said eight U.K. universities – Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Essex, Birmingham, Newcastle, Exeter and the Open University – are eager to forge links during the design and eventual creation of the new Innovation Universities.
“We are keen to identify 14 British universities that can work alongside from the beginning. After talks with Kapil Sibal, I will go back to Britain to identify the 14 British universities to match up with the universities here,” the British Minister said.
I think the idea of each of the 14 innovation universities having a partner from UK is a great idea. Similar partnership from universities in US, other parts of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and top universities in the East (Japan, S. Korea, Singapore and Hongkong) would be great.
July 29th, 2010
Following is from a report in Times of India.
The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) will soon start a research programme on subjects significant for the state’s development such as mineral resources and marine biology.
… Kakodkar said, "NISER is going to be the dream institution of our vision. Research and innovation must go hand in hand. Research on one side would facilitate growth of knowledge and bring about innovation while on the other hand the innovations would make the societies prosper and evolve. NISER has started establishing linkages with institutes in the neighbourhood."
NISER is planning to start integrated PhD programme where students will be selected after their BSc degree. The institute has signed an MoU with the Institute of Life Science (ILS), Bhubaneswar, to establish collaboration of research and educational programmes, exchange and complement facilities available in both institutions. The collaboration would also allow PhD students of ILS to take pre-PhD course work at NISER and take up joint research on subjects of mutual interest.
Similarly, NISER has also decided to tie up with the city-based Kanungo Institute of Diabetes Specialties (KIDS) to do research in areas such as correlating stress and diabetes, correlating stress, behaviour and other metabolic syndromes. The KIDS clinicians and researchers would collaborate with NISER researchers in areas of mutual interest by using each other’s facilities.
Director of NISER T K Chandrasekhar said the institute was getting a large number of applications for pure science courses. "This year, about 15,000 students applied for the integrated MSc course. As many as 9000 appeared in the National Eligibility Selection Test (NEST) for the 60 seats in the course," he added.
Out of the 60 undergraduate students that have been admitted to this fourth batch 9 have Odia sounding names which makes it about 15%. Similarly out of 23 Ph.D students that have been selected this year 9 have Odia sounding names.
NISER Bhubaneswar, which started classes in 2007, and hired its first regular faculty (other than the Director who joined in late 2008) in mid 2009 now has 61 faculty out of which 42 are regular faculty and 19 are visiting faculty. The school wise break-up is as follows: Biological Sciences (12 regular + 3 visiting), Chemical Sciences (12+5), Mathematical Sciences (5+2), Physical Sciences(13+5), Others (0+4). All the faculty have very strong research records.
In comparison the faculty numbers in the IISERs (as of today and not counting faculty who will join after July 2010) are: Kolkata – started classes in 2006 (62 regular), Pune – started classes in 2006 (47 regular+4 visiting), Mohali – started classes in 2007 (33 regular +1 visiting), Bhopal – started classes in 2008 (30 regular + 2 visiting) , and Thiruvananthapuram – started classes in 2008 (20 regular + 2 visiting).
Related Links:
July 29th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in sify.com.
… The schools proposed to be set up by the fledgling IIT include the School of Metallurgical and Minerals Engineering; School of Ocean and Environmental Sciences & Climate Change; School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and the School of Design and Creative Arts. An academic advisory committee has already been constituted and it will soon submit a detailed project report to the Union ministry of human resource development on the establishment of such schools.
"These specialised schools, which will run with corporate partnerships with our strong focus on climate change research, are what we feel will differentiate IIT-Bhubaneswar from the other IITs in the country," says Madhusudhan Chakraborty, director of IIT-BBS. He adds that the time-frame for setting up these schools and the expenditure involved would be known only after the submission of the detailed project report.
IIT-BBS is in talks with some corporate houses with the objective of running the proposed schools in sync with industry requirements. It has already entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the MGM Group for the establishment of a Chair Professor of eminence at the School of Metallurgical and Minerals Engineering. …
Meanwhile, IIT-BBS has started PhD programmes from the academic session 2009-10 with the focus areas for research being climate change, alternative energy, manufacturing and mineral development.
It is offering a seed funding of Rs 5 lakh to each of the faculty members to boost research. "The seed funding is expected to give a big boost to research at IIT-Bhubaneswar. The institute has also started consultancy in a small way", says Chakraborty.
IIT-BBS … has 45 full-time faculty members besides visiting faculty. …
Chakraborty hopes to have a pool of 2,500 students and 250 faculty members. In the next 15 years, he expects a student intake of 10,000 and faculty strength of 1,000. IIT-BBS also expects to receive a funding of Rs 60 crore from the Government in the current financial year.
July 27th, 2010
Last month there was an article in Business Standard about the difficulty Vedanta University is facing and its consideration of shifting to the southern states. See http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4767.
Today I was pointed to a new article in Business World. Following are some excerpts.
Agarwal’s other project in Orissa — Vedanta University — seems to be going nowhere. It appears it would take years before the first brick is laid on his most ambitious, and grandest, education project.
Agarwal, founder of London-based Vedanta Group, turned heads in 2006 when he said he would set up an 8,000-acre, $3-billion university under the aegis of Vedanta Foundation (which later changed its name to Anil Agarwal Foundation or AAF) in the state’s coastal town of Puri. He also offered $1 billion from his personal funds. Agarwal’s holding in his companies is worth more than $10 billion (as on 31 March 2010).
However, as with most projects requiring land acquisition, the university project, too, got mired in controversy. On 17 March, Orissa Lok Pal Justice P.K. Patra recommended a vigilance probe against AAF’s land deals. In May, the environment and forests ministry withheld clearance for the university, citing “irregularities, illegal, unethical and unlawful deeds”.
With the odds stacked against it, AAF is weighing other options. “Two states have extended an invitation; a decision is likely to be taken on a new site in two months,” says Ajit Kumar Samal, in-charge of the university project. He, however, refuses to divulge more details. Experts say the alternatives to Orissa could be Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which have good educational infrastructure. “Any place near Hyderabad or Chennai would be a good location,” says Narayanan Ramaswamy, head of education practice at consultancy firm KPMG.
The more important question, though, is: is a large university of this kind feasible in India?
Too Ambitious?
Vedanta’s justification for requiring so much land is simple — to build an institution on the lines of Stanford and Harvard. The 8,180-acre Stanford University was established in 1891. Harvard, set up in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the US, and has about 5,000 acres. But both were set up when land was not a precious commodity. Besides, the US is a far bigger country than India, and can afford to have universities of such scale.
I was also told that in a CNBC TV show (mentioned here, but no video there yet) Mr. Anil Agarwal said that they are looking for land for Vedanta University in some southern states.
July 25th, 2010
Following is from a report in tathya.in.
Vedanta Aluminium will set up first ever science college at Lanjigarh of Kalahandi District in Orissa.
The full session will begin from the academic year 2011-12.
The college will impart graduate level studies in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Zoology, Botany and Environment Science.
This will be funded by the Lanjigarh Project Area Development Foundation (LPADF) – the special purpose vehicle formed for as per the advice of the Supreme Court.
In the last Lanjigarh Project Area Development Foundation (LPADF) meeting, it has been decided to open a graduate science college at Lanjigarh to provide opportunities to large no of students of the block as well as nearby area like Muniguda, Ambodola and Biswanathpur area; as no such college is available within 50 KM radius of Lanjigarh.
The opening of the science college will fulfill the demand of local residents, who are demanding the science college for a long time.
Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Vedanta Aluminium Limited, Lanjigarh and Director of LPADF said, “It is the long due for the people of Lanjigarh.
… Vedanta Aluminium Limited has proactively agreed to provide land for the college.
DAV College Trust and Management society has also agreed to be the partner of the project by providing best education practice for the pupils of Kalahandi.
A letter of confirmation to the effect has already been submitted to Collector of Kalahandi.
DAV College Trust and Management is a premier education society in the country and has already set up more than hundred colleges across India.
In Lanjigarh, DAV College Trust and Management society has jointly set up an international school, which has been operating for the last four years and is one of the most modern schools within Kalahandi and Rayagada district .
July 23rd, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.
… As per the first draft of the Bill circulated by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to the heads of all higher educational institutions like Central universities, Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology, and members of the task force on the National Commission for Higher Education and Research, each University for Innovation will have to establish a University Endowment Fund but will have the freedom to receive donations, contributions from alumni and other incomes as long as 80 per cent of annual income is used for development of research infrastructure. Each university will be a not-for-profit legal entity and no part of the surplus revenue will be invested for any other purpose except growth and development of the university.
… The Innovation Universities are primarily intended to be private institutions. However, the HRD Ministry can also make grants to develop them, in which case the President would be the Visitor and the government would have a larger role to play in their functioning.
Each university will have an independent Board of Governors that will be empowered to discharge all functions by enacting statutes to provide for its administration, management and operations. The Board will delegate its powers to the Academic Board headed by the Vice-Chancellor that will perform financial, management and administrative functions including appointments and collaborations, the Board of Studies that will specify programmes of study to be offered, Faculty of Knowledge Manpower Assessment to study and assess through research trends in emerging fields of knowledge of relevance, and the Research Council that will interface with the research funding organisations, industry and civil society.
Intellectual property
In the case of a publicly-funded university, any new knowledge created from research that leads to an intellectual property will have to be reported to the government for retaining title. The Centre may refuse title on the grounds of public interest or exceptional circumstances, or national security. The Central government will protect, maintain and utilise the publicly funded intellectual property for which the title vests with it and it can give directions for prohibiting or restricting the publication of information to any person or entity which it considers necessary in the interest of the country. The income or royalties arising out of publicly funded intellectual property will be shared by the University for Innovation with the intellectual property creator in accordance with the provision.
The establishment of 14 Universities for Innovation is expected to set benchmarks for excellence for other institutions of higher learning through “path-breaking research and promoting synergies between teaching and research.” Each such university will stand for “humanism, tolerance, reason and adventure of ideas and search for truth.” It is expected to attempt to provide a path for humankind free from deprivation and seek to understand and appreciate nature and its laws for the well-being of the people. Further, these institutions will seek to “provide society with competent men and women to meet the knowledge needs of the country and perform service to the nation and to humanity and cultivating the right moral and intellectual values.”
I am trying to get hold of the draft law, but have not been successful yet.
July 22nd, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Indian Express.
… Sibal had written to the PM seeking his intervention on three stuck schemes including the proposal to set up 20 new IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) on PPP basis, which was shot down by the Finance Ministry earlier this month. Of the other two stuck projects, one is meant to finance state universities and colleges, and the second is a Rs 2,000-crore scheme to set up 2,500 vocational schools across the country.
The PMO has now asked the Planning Commission to re-examine the projects.
Sibal is learnt to have brought to the PM’s notice how these projects were key to increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education. India is looking at a GER target of 20 per cent by 2020 against a dismal 12 per cent at present.
… the ministry’s proposal — shared with all state governments last year — to incentivise states for setting up new universities and colleges has also hit a roadblock. The proposal is to provide Central assistance to state governments to the tune of 1/3rd of the capital cost for setting up of new universities and colleges and also for expansion of existing institutes. The state governments will be required to bear 2/3rd of the capital cost and recurring expenditure. In fact, states have already been asked to identify land and suitable locations for these new institutions and also prepare detailed project reports.
July 21st, 2010
