Odisha HRD

Getting a national institute to the Sambalpur area; upgrading VSSUT to an IIEST

I think the best possibility is to work on upgrading VSSUT, Burla (formerly, UCE Burla) to an IIEST.  UCE Burla alumni is fully supportive of this. In general, such a proposal has and will continue to have support from all circles of Odisha. Also, the CM has in the past written to Delhi about upgrading this.

To do this first  the state government needs to be pushed to give a one time allocation of a significant amount (say 100 crores) to improve the infrastructure. In addition the faculty size needs to be increased to be at the level of the colleges mentioned below. Simultaneously there should be a campaign to convince the central government to upgrade it to an IIEST.

The Congress MP from Sambalpur should do all he can for this.

For some background on IIESTs see http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/QResult15.aspx?qref=89897. Following are screen capture of that page.

4 comments August 18th, 2010

Samaja op-ed advocating a Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries University

The op-ed below advocates carving out a Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fishering University out of OUAT. It also mentions the following:

• A private organization is also planning a Veterinary University.
• OUAT management board has decided to establish the states second Veterinary and Animal husbandry college at Chipilima, near Sambalpur.
• It also has decided to establish a Diary Science College in Baripada.

Related postings from the past:

• January 2, 2009: Initial news on a Veterinary University.
• April 4th 2010: Number of seats in various OUAT Colleges.
• December 30 2009: College of Agriculture starts class in Bhawanipatna.
• June 23rd 2009: OUAT also offers MCA, MBA (Agri-business management), and MSc in Bioinformatics and Microbiology.
• May 11th 2009: OUAT plans a new college of Forestry.
• Nov 10th 2007: Horticulture college planned in Chipilima.

3 comments August 9th, 2010

Proposed XIMB campuses in Balangir and Sambalpur to have 120 seats each

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

Minister said to provide qualitative education on Management, XIMB has been roped in to set up its campus at Balangir to start a Post Graduate Program in General Management with specialization in Banking and Finance Service.

Intake will be 60 students in this discipline and equal number of students in Rural Management Program, for which XIMB will be given Rs.10 crore grant.

Similarly XIMB will open another branch at Sambalpur for General Management with specialization in Human Resource Development Program with intake capacity of 120 students, said the Minister.

54 comments July 18th, 2010

M.Tech programs offered by Engineering Colleges, other institutions and universities in Odisha

Following is extracted from multiple sources including http://www.aicte-india.org/excel/29jun/ORISSA.html. 

The * implies that I am not sure of the number. The number I have in that case may be a few years old. The above adds up to 1830+372* seats total. Out of which 1112+318* seats are in the greater Bhubaneswar (including Dhenkanal) area.

My guess is that majority of these M.Tech’s (at least 50-60%) would go into teaching. This should definitely help the faculty quality of the engineering colleges and programs in Odisha. In a few years IIT Bhubaneswar is going to start M.Tech. That would help the situation further.

1 comment July 16th, 2010

Sambalpur University on the path of progress: Samaja op-ed

2 comments July 14th, 2010

13 more industries sign MOU with Odisha government for establishing ITCs

Earlier in http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4700 we reported about 8 companies signing MOU with Odisha government to establish ITCs. Those companies were: Orissa Power Generation Corporation (Hemagiri), Tata Power Ltd (Banki), Emami Paper Mills (Balgopalpur), RSB Metaltech (P) Ltd (Kalyansinghpur), Surrendra Mining Industries Ltd (Bonei), Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd (Teleibani), Uttam Utkal Steels (Jhumpura), Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd (Lakhanpur).

New reports mention 13 additional companies signing similar MOUs. Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

The companies which signed MoUs on Friday include Action Ispat and Power Private Limited, Adhunik Metaliks Limited, Crackers India (Alloys) Limited, MGM Steels Limited, Posco India Limited, Rungta Mines Limited, SSL Energy Limited, CESC Limited, KVK Nilachal Power Limited, GMR Kamalanga Energy Limited, VISA Power Limited, Essar Steel Orissa Limited and Mahanadi Aban Power Co Limited.

Action Ispat will set up an ITC at Kirimira block of Jharsuguda district while Adhunik Metaliks will have its centre at Koida in Sundergarh district.

Similarly, Crackers India will establish its two ITCs at Kalampur in Kalahandi districts and Champua block in Keonjhar district.

MGM Steels has proposed to set up its ITC at Odapada in Dhenkanal district while Posco’s centre will come up at Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur district.

The Rungta Mines ITC will be set up at Dhenkanala, SSL ITC at Kholikote in Ganjam district, CESC ITC at Dampara in Cuttack district, KVK Nilachal ITC at Krushnaprasad in Puri district, GMR Kamalanga ITC at Bheden in Bargarh district, VISA Power ITC at Bhapur in Nayagarh district and ESSAR Steel at Telkoi in Keonjhar district.

Mahanadi Aban Power Co Limited would set up two ITCs at Binika in Sonepur district and Banarpal in Angul district.

Add comment July 10th, 2010

XIMB to get government support of 20 crores for its campuses in Balangir and Sambalpur

Update: Following are excerpts from a report in Telegraph.

“It (the additional centre) will either be in Sambalpur or Bolangir. We might even open centres in both cities. This will depend on where the state government provides land. Once that is over, we will sign a memorandum of understanding with the state government,” said XIMB director Father P.T. Joseph.

… “We are just waiting for Naveen Patnaik’s approval. We can start work on the new centre as soon as we receive his approval,” he said.

… “The management college will come as succour to students aspiring for quality higher education in the neglected areas of western Orissa. Centres of XIMB will come up at both Bolangir and Sambalpur. We are in the process of finalising the land plots. The state government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the project,” said Singh Deo.

Update: Following is from Samaja.

Following is from tathya.in.

… XIMB will open two Centers in Balangir and Sambalpur in Western Odisha to provide Higher Education in Management.

… Both for Balangir and Sambalpur Centers of XIMB, the State Government will provide Rs.20 crore grant from the kitty of Western Odisha Development Council (WODC), said sources. 

The proposal was sent to the Chief Minister by Ananga Udaya Singh Deo, Minister Planning & Coordination and Public Enterprises.

… Chief Minister Mr.Patnaik, who is eager for balanced growth of the entire state, favored the idea and has approved the proposal, said a senior mandarin in the Department of Planning & Coordination. 

Chief Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra has also favored the idea of supporting XIMB as the top notch B-School is opening its branches at Balangir and Sambalpur.

This is really a good development.  There are several other developments which together provide several lessons.

• Silicon started in Bhubaneswar and last year it opened a branch in Sambalpur. Its branch in Sambalpur was funded by a Silicon Valley group which is now planning to pump 150-300 crores to develop Silicon University which will benefit both its Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur operations.
• GIET Gunupur is the first of the Gandhi institutions and the group now has many  colleges including ones in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Rayagada.
• IIT Bhubaneswar will have an additional marine campus in a location away from Bhbaneswar.
• Hi-Tech sarted its first medical college in Bhubaneswar. It is now making a medical college in Rourkela.

There are two lessons one can draw from this.

1. Private institutions of education are playing and will continue to play important role in the state and people wanting to develop their area should themselves get involved in establishing institutions. This is in addition to pursuing the government which every citizen has the right to pursue.
2. Development in the state will spread from one area to other. The key is to let development happen without delay. The more it is delayed in one location, it will result in more delay in the rest of the places. For example, a successful Vedanta University in a location would lead to additional branches in other locations. The key is to let the first campus be operational at the earliest.

16 comments July 7th, 2010

Odisha plans a power management institute along the lines of NPTI and PMI

From http://www.npti.in/about.html:

National Power Training Institute (NPTI) has been set up by the Government of India under the Ministry of Power, to function as the National Apex Body for Human Resources Development of Indian Power Sector. The Corporate Office of NPTI is located at NPTI Complex, Sector-33, Faridabad -121 003 (Haryana). It operates on an all India basis through its Institutes in the different regions/power zones of the country viz.. Neyveli. Durgapur, New Delhi, Nagpur, Guwahati, Faridabad and Bangalore.

From http://pmintpc.com/interface/about_us_overview.shtml:

The Power Management Institute (PMI) was set up by NTPC in recognition of the vital role that management development has to play, in the context of the challenges associated with the growth of the Indian Power Sector. The Institute is involved in the training and development of middle and senior level personnel not only from the power sector but from organizations outside the sector also.

… The institute’s integrated campus at Noida boasts of modern infrastructure and facilities.

Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard report in sify.com.

Keeping in view the huge manpower requirement for the upcoming power plants of the independent power producers (IPPs) in Orissa, the state government is mulling to set up a Power Management Institute on the lines of the National Power Training Institute (NPTI).

All the IPPs have assured their support to the state government for this institute. To implement the project, the state government would form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with IPPs as stake holders.

The location, investment, intake capacity and other relevant details are yet to be worked out as things are at a preliminary stage.P K Jena, the state energy secretary, said, "The state government is planning to set up a power management institute on the lines of NPTI. The proposed institute is still at a conceptual stage and a concept note is being prepared by the state government in this connection."

"The power management institute will offer diploma as well as degree courses in engineering. The institute will primarily focus on various areas pertaining to the power sector", he added.

The objective behind setting up this institute is to prepare skilled and semi-skilled manpower for the upcoming power projects.It may be noted that as many as 27 IPPs have inked MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government. All these 27 IPPs have a cumulative generation capacity of 32,420 MW.These power projects are set to generate around 50,000 direct jobs besides creating indirect employment for 150,000 people.

The page http://www.orissa.gov.in/energy/Mou-IPP/MoU_IPP1.htm lists 21 of the 27 MOUs that have been signed. We reproduce that list below.

2 comments June 20th, 2010

VSSUT Burla (Sambalpur) benefits from being a unitary university: able to declare results in 17 days

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Vir Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) declared the results of all its semesters for the year 2010 on Sunday, just 17 days after completion of the examinations, claimed to be the quickest time for any technical university across the country. The results are also available on www.vssut.ac.in, the university’s website.

Vice-Chancellor Deba Kumar Tripathy thanked all the teachers for their sincere efforts in making this feasible and said this would help the students, especially the final year students, continue their future plans and pursue higher studies.

It is a matter of pride for the teachers and the students of the VSSUT since the Vice-Chancellor, who also was the Odisha-JEE chairman for this year, proved the worth of the Unitary University status given to this college in the recent past and also stood up to its expectations of conducting the JEE as well its own exams as smoothly as it could have been, admitted the students. It is a fact that the VSSUT conducted its all end-semester exams and published its results before the BPUT exams.

9 comments May 31st, 2010

SUIIT admission announcement: Ad in Dharitri

• Main Link: http://www.suniv.ac.in/suiit.pdf
• Prospectus: http://www.suniv.ac.in/SUIIT-Prospectus%2010.pdf
• Application form: http://www.suniv.ac.in/SUIIT-App.%20Form.pdf

2 comments May 3rd, 2010

Sambalpur University starts M.Tech in Food science & technology; ad for the other post graduate programs

Update:SUIIT now has a web page at http://suniv.ac.in/SUIIT.html. Thanks to kddf for the pointer.

1 comment April 30th, 2010

Comparing Maharashtra and Odisha in terms of engineering seats

The Maharashtra numbers are from http://www.dte.org.in/degree/statistics/regionwisetotal.asp?inst_type=ENGINEERING. For Odisha I calculated the numbers using 2009 AICTE data. (Thanks to Bagdu for inspiring us to make this comparison.)

Couple of points to note from the above:

• The number of B.Engg seats in Bhubaneswar is not bad in comparison with the much larger cities of Mumbai and Pune.
• The other three metropolitan areas of Odisha mentioned above need to get to the level of at least 5000 seats (if not 10,000 seats) to make them attractive to IT companies.
• The increasing M.Tech seats will help improve the quality of faculty in the engineering colleges.

4 comments April 22nd, 2010

IIT act to be ammended to include medicine; Despite objections by the Health Ministry IIT Kharagpur to start medical school in collaboration with Indian Railways

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state for HRD D Purandeshwari said the ministry has decided to amend the IIT Act, the law that governs IITs, to include medical science. The health ministry had said that IITs should not be allowed to start conventional courses in medicine.

The amendment, Purandeshwari said, would help IITs to offer programmes bringing together the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering. Referring to the health ministry’s objection, she said, "However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all the developed and most of the developing countries are seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate `medicine’ in the IIT Act."

Purandeswari said the programme would bring the two important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

… IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in this regard and plans to start a medical college in collaboration with Indian Railways. At a meeting of experts in the health ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.

There are several lessons that Odisha can draw from this.

• As Purna Mishra suggested in a comment, VSSUT and the VSS Medical College in Burla should combine to form a single university.
• NIT Rourkela and IIT Bhubaneswar should consider adding a medical college as part of the institute; NIT could include the proposed ESI medical college and IIT could include the proposed Railways medical college.

Add comment April 22nd, 2010

Some engineering colleges that are in the pipeline

Although last year several engineering colleges in Odisha could not fill their seats, there seems to be several new engineering colleges in the pipeline for this year. The list for the eastern region is here and here. From those lists my guess is that the following are engineering colleges that are being made in Odisha.

• Bhadrak Academy of Technology, Kantabada, Bhubaneswar (by the same people as Bhadrak Institute of Engineering and Technology)
• Bhubaneswar Institute of Industrial Technology
• Capital Engineering College
• Dadhichi College of Engineering
• Hirakud Institute of Engineering & Technology
• Ideal Institute of Engineering (?)
• International Institute of Engineering Technology, Bhubaneswar
• Radhakrishna Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar
• Rayagada Institute of Technology & Management
• Satyananda Institute of Engineering & Technology
• Udaynath College of Science & Technology

There are many other names in the list; but I am not sure if they are in Odisha, West Bengal or Assam. I am pretty sure that the above (except the one marked with a ?) are in Odisha.

1 comment April 21st, 2010

Current status of Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT) Baragarh

It was established in 2008 with the first batch entering in 2008-09. It is the 5th IIHT of the country. (There are now 8 of them.) It now has  a website at http://iihtbargarh.webs.com/. The following information is from that site.

Its current full time faculty and technical staff are:

1. MUKHTAR AHMAD,    Director, B.Sc., B.Text.(t.c.) Kanpur university

2. Y.K.Suryavanshi, Senior Lecturer in textile design, B.Tech. ,Bangalore university, M.Tech. Chennai

3. Jitender Tak, Senior Lecturer in textile chemistry, B.Tech. from Bhilwara(raj.)

4. Siddharth Singh, Sr. Lecturer in text. designs, B.Tech. Kanpur & M.Tech.Delhi

5. Bishu Mondal,  Art Designer, BFA

6. Sandeep Kumar, Instructor cum Demonstrator, Diploma in Handloom Technology from IIHT, Varanas

Its part time faculty for 2009-10 are:

• Mrs. Krishna Dutta                      – Engg. Physics
• Shri Suraj Prakash Bank          - Engg. Chemistry & Pollution, Control in Textile Industry
• Shri C.R.Sahu                              - English I &II
• Shri R.C.Tosh                              – F.S.&C.A. I & II
• Shri Soumyajeet Mishra           – Engg. Drawing & Material Sc. & Engineering
• Shri Rajender Sikandar            - T.D.C. – II
• Shri Dileswar Karmi                  – Engg. Mathemetics & Computer Applications and I.T.
• Shri H.K.Biswal                          – Chemistry Practice
• Shri Bhaskar Bhue                   – Physical Education Instructor

The main course currently being offered there is a 3 yr Diploma in Handloom Technology. There are currently 30 seats in this program with 13 seats for students from Orissa. This is the main course that is offered in the various IIHTs. The IIHTs in Salem and Varanasi are the only ones that offer a post diploma in textile processing.

It is presently functioning in the campus of Panchayat College, Bargarh (a 50 yrs. old college in the district). It is about 4 Kms. from the Railway station, 3 kms. from private B.S. & 2 kms. from Govt. bus stand. The road called as ‘college road’ links the campus with other parts of the town.

Permanent campus of the institute is coming up 8 kms. away from the town on Bhatli road in a 33.02 acres land provided by the Orissa Govt.

The plan of the permanent campus is given below.

Add comment April 17th, 2010

Faculty positions available at SUIIT (Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology)

SUIIT (Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology), a constituent autonomous institute of Sambalpur University is established in the same line as IIITs to offer courses in IT related areas and to have world-class research institute in IT at Sambalpur. SUIIT will offer BTech(CSE), BTech(ECE), MSc(CS), MTech(CS) and MSc(Electronics) from this academic year (2010-11). The institute will also be taking up several research projects in the area of societal applications of IT. SUIIT is looking for faculty in area of Computer Science, Electronics, Mathematics, Physics. Persons having PhD degree from reputed institutions, good publications and interested in research career in IT are requested to apply for the position. The qualification, salary, selection process and facilities are similar to that of similar nationally reputed institutions of IT such as IIITs.

Interested persons are requested to send their cvs to SUIIT c/o VC’s Secretariat, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Sambalpur, 768019. www.suniv.ac.in phone 0663-2430158

9 comments April 10th, 2010

Number of seats in various colleges of OUAT (Orissa University of Agricultute and Technology): from Samaja

1 comment April 4th, 2010

New dynamic VCs lead the Sambalpur region towards a knowledge hub

UCE Burla becoming VSSUT and the hiring of dynamic vice Chancellors at VSSUT (Prof. D K Tripathy from IIT Kharagpur) as well as at Sambalpur University (Prof. Arun Pujari from the University of Hyderabad) has given a huge momentum in making the Sambalpur area a knowledge hub and together with similar progress at Rourkela a western knowledge corridor is now in the making. In this write-up we will focus on the greater Sambalpur area ranging from Bargarh in the west of Sambalpur to Jharsuguda and Sundergarh in the north and north east.

• Universities: Two exists; 2 more in the making
  • There are two universities with dynamic leadership at their helm: VSSUT and Sambalpur University
  • Sambalpur University has received approval and funding for a SU-IIT (Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology) and is pursuing a sports institute.
  • VSSUT has significant expansion plans.
  • There is a proposal to upgrade GM college to a unitary university.
  • The health minister had announced to upgrade VSS Medical College to a university.
  • Branch of OUAT in Chipilima.
• Engineering Colleges: Besides VSSUT, there are five more engineering colleges in the area. 2 in Baragarh, 1 in Jharsuguda, 1 in Sundergarh and 1 in Sason (Silicon West).
• Management Institute: XIMB plans a campus in this area.
• Centrally funded Institutes: IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) in Baragarh.
• Research Institute: CIFT Burla.
• Other Colleges: Panchayat College Baragarh, NSCB College Sambalpur, Govt. Womens College Sambalpur, Govt. College Sundergarh and Govt. Womens College Sundergarh.
• Demography: See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/2715
• Infrastructure:
  • Rail Connectivity: See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/2005
  • Airport: Jharsuguda airport is under construction.

The above gives the current status of this area. In addition to the efforts mentioned above, following should also be pursued.

• The VSSUT must be upgraded to a national level institute such as an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
• An STP must be established in Sambalpur.
• Operationalization of Jharsuguda airport must be expedited.
• One of the central government departments such as CSIR, DAE, Sc & Tech, etc. needs to open a research center here.
• The Orissa government should push to upgrade the VSS Medical College to the AIIMS level.
• Establishment of private medical colleges in this area must be encouraged.
• The OUAT college in Chipilima needs to upgraded and expanded
• A regional university (similar to the old regional engineering colleges, with 50-50 partnership between the state and the central govt.) should be established in Jharsuguda. (This could be part of the 12th five year plan starting from 2012.)
• A state university should be established in Jharsuguda during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
• A state university should be established in Baragarh during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
• Considering the rapid industrialization of the area, the Govt. Engineering School in Jharsuguda should be upgraded to an engineering college, perhaps as a constituent college of VSSUT.

NOTE on Comments: Only constructive comments will be allowed. Please do not submit comments that advocate separatism, conspiracy theories, shifting, badmouthing, etc.

Add comment March 14th, 2010

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.

1 comment March 14th, 2010

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.

11 comments February 26th, 2010