The following were obtained from various sources. I don’t vouch for their 100% correctness. Please use them at your own risk.
September 2nd, 2010
Their web page is http://www.cesinter.com/. From the flash presentation I got the following pictures.
.jpg)
In the above picture they wrote Bhubaneswar by mistake instead of Thiruvanthapuram. They are also the architect for IISER Thiruvanthapuram.
The correct picture for NISER Bhubaneswar is the following obtained from http://www.cesinter.com/arch_home/arc_proj32.asp?x=Architecture&y=Showcase%20Projects.
One may compare the design with the picture of NISER building plan pictures. They match.
Note that in http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100715/jsp/orissa/story_12682813.jsp it is mentioned that this company has also been hired for IIT Bhubaneswar.
August 27th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu:
… IIT-Bhubaneswar director Madhusudan Chakroborty said “besides setting up state-of-the-art laboratories, students are being encouraged to involve themselves in product design competition.”
While student whose design would be adjudged as the best would get Rs. 10,000 prize, second best design would get Rs.7,000, Professor Chakraborty said. In fact top 10 designs will be provided fabrication support for shaping the product, he said.
“We want IIT-Bhubaneswar to excel in product design and creation especially in auto and manufacturing sector,” the director said.
The institute is now working on multi-million pound plans to set-up laboratories such as Materials and Tomography. It may also think of procuring rapid prototyping, which is used for automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. Rapid prototyping is needed for the unique materials and tomography laboratory, which is being dubbed as unique.
Prof. Chakraborty, who just spent a month at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) of United Kingdom-based Warwick University working with its technology specialists, said the institute was looking at a long-term collaboration with the university.
… IIT, Bhubaneswar director said the institute is trying to establish long-term tie-up with industries which could work with its students in institute’s facility centre.
The institute proposed to set up a school of design and creative arts, besides their main focus on environment and climate science which is an important issue for the region often battered by natural disasters, Mr. Chakraborty said.
… The institute has been provided with 936 acres of land near Jatni, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Contour survey of the land has been completed while master plan for construction is ready. The construction would start in December 2010.
See also:
- News from Warwick.
- Telegraph.
-
WMG, University of Warwick will help IIT-Bhubaneswar set up high-end research laboratories on its main campus. IIT-Kharagpur, the mentoring institute of IIT-Bhubaneswar, recently entered into a joint venture with the university in this regard.
“WMG will help us set up its research laboratories here,” said IIT-Bhubaneswar director M. Chakraborty, who is back after spending a month at WMG.
The director, in association with technology specialists there, held discussions and planned on the superspeciality laboratories.
“We will work together towards setting up of high-end laboratories for materials and tomography processes as for example,” said the director, who has been appointed a visiting professor at WMG.
… “We wish to draw on WMG’s successful record procedures of engaging with the local industry,” he said, adding that during his visit to the UK he worked with WMG director Lord Kumar Bhattacharya and other people on industry-academia relationships and development of some new education modules.
A team of WMG research staff and industrialists will shortly be visiting IIT-Bhubaneswar to explore opportunities for the partnership. Experts from mineral and materials technology, e -security design disciplines and those who will foster good industry–academia relationship will comprise the team, he said. IIT-Bhubaneswar has already appointed an architect — the first among the new IITs to do so.
“Consulting Engineering Services India Private Limited has been roped in for the purpose. The master plan is ready. We plan to start from November,” he said.
- Excerpt from Warwick VC’s statement: WMG’s technology specialists have advised on IIT Bhubaneshwar’s multi-million pound plans to set up laboratories in materials and tomography and a dozen WMG research staff and allied industrialists will now visit India in November to continue to build the overall partnership with Kharagpur and Bhubaneshwar.
August 27th, 2010
The following is from http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/admin/notice_board/1282304362WebAdvt-2010.pdf.
IIT Bhubaneswar invites applications for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor (on contractual basis) in the following five Schools:
Schools (Disciplines): School of Mechanical Sciences (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Materials), School of Electrical Sciences (Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering), School of Infrastructure (Civil Engineering), School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Bioscience) and School of HSS & Management (English, Economics, Philosophy and Psychology).
MINIMUM QUALIFICATION
Ph.D. with first class or equivalent in the preceding degree in appropriate branch with a very good academic record throughout and evidence of ability to pursue independent high quality research.
EXPERIENCE
Professor: A minimum of 10 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 4 years should be at the level of Associate Professor in IITs, IISc Bangalore, IIMs, NITIE Mumbai and IISERs or at an equivalent level in any such other Indian or foreign institutions of comparable standards.
Associate Professor: At least 6 years teaching / research / industrial experience of which at least 3 years should be at the level of Assistant Professor, Senior Scientific Officer / Senior Design Engineer.
Assistant Professor: At least 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience excluding, however, the experience gained while pursuing Ph.D.
Assistant Professor (on contractual basis): May have less than 3 years teaching / research / industrial experience.
SCALE OF PAY:
(Position; Pay Band; Minimum Pay In the Payband; Academic Grade Pay)
- Professor; PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs. 48000; Rs. 10500
- Associate Professor; PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs. 42800; Rs. 9500
- Assistant Professor; PB3: Rs. 15600 – Rs. 39100 ; Rs. 30000; Rs. 8000 (On completion of 3 Yrs of service shall move to PB4: Rs. 37400 – Rs. 67000; Rs 9000)
- Assistant Professor (on contractual basis); PB3: Rs. 15600 – Rs. 39100; Rs. 20140;
- With less than or equal to one year experience: Rs. 6000
- With more than one year experience: Rs. 7000
- In the above cases experience will be counted excluding that gained while pursuing Ph.D.
In addition to above pay, allowances as admissible to Central Government employees are applicable.
OTHER INCENTIVES
1. A cumulative Professional Development Allowance of Rs. 3 lakhs for every block period of 3 years on reimbursement basis to meet the expenses for attending international/national conferences, paying membership fees of professional bodies, covering book grant, paying telephone charges and meeting contingent expenses etc. as per Institute guidelines.
2. Initial seed grant up to Rs.5 lakhs for initiating research project in a chosen area.
3. Reimbursement of relocation charges at the time of joining up to a ceiling of Rs. 90,000/- as per Institute norm.
4. Honorarium of Rs. 15,000/- per month to the faculty members who have obtained Bhatnagar Award OR are Fellows of at least two National Academies. A faculty member is entitled for only one honorarium.
NOTES
• Reservation for SC/ST/OBC/PH as per Government of India rules.
• Minimum requirement of experience may be relaxed in respect of outstanding candidates.
• Mere eligibility will not vest any right on any candidate for being called for interview. The decision of the Institute in all matters of selection will be final.
• The Institute reserves the right to call only the requisite number of candidates for interview after shortlisting in terms of the candidates’ qualification, suitability and experience.
• For the post of Assistant Professor the candidates should be preferably below 35 years of age
• Canvassing in any manner would entail disqualification of the candidature.
NO INTERIM ENQUIRIES WILL BE ENTERTAINED.
HOW TO APPLY
Candidates possessing the requisite qualification and experience may submit their application in the prescribed form either in hard-copy or by e-mail to the Assistant Registrar (A&E), Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Samantapuri, Bhubaneswar – 751013 (email: faculty.app@iitbbs.ac.in).
Application form can be downloaded from the Institute website (www.iitbbs.ac.in or www.iitbbs.gov.in).
Applicants desiring to apply for more than one School should send separate application for
each School.
The candidates applying from Government Organizations or Public Sector Undertaking should have their applications duly forwarded by their present employer.
The candidates may apply any time throughout the year. The Institute will consider the applications at any date in the year received up to that date depending on its requirements and/or the quality of the applications.
First round of selection process will start after 20th September, 2010.
Registrar
Advt. No : R/5/2010 Dated 20.08.2010
August 21st, 2010
|
RESEARCH SCIENCE PARK IN IIT BHUBANESWAR .
|
| 2199 |
SHRI PYARIMOHAN MOHAPATRA |
| Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to satate :- |
|
(a) whether the proposed Research/Science Park in IIT, Bhubaneswar campus has been approved;
(b) if not, the reasons therefor;
(c) whether there is a proposal to take up construction of the main campus of IIT and the
Research/Science Park simultaneously; and
(d) if not, whether Government will consider it for harmonious development of the Institution?
|
| |
|
| ANSWER |
| |
|
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a) to (d): No, Sir. The proposal for setting up of a Research Park at Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT), Bhubaneswar could be considered only after the setting up of the main campus of the Institute. |
August 19th, 2010
(Thanks to Abi for the pointer.)
The web page for this program is http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ug/index.htm. Following are some excerpts from its main page.
The Indian Institute of Science, a leading institution of higher learning with a strong tradition of research for over a century, is opening its portals to undergraduate students by launching a four-year Bachelor of Science (BS) Programme. The programme is designed as a balanced blend of core science and interdisciplinary topics, to serve as a launching pad for research and doctoral studies in cutting-edge areas in science and technology. The graduates will also be ready for attractive career opportunities in academia and industry.
Major Disciplines offered: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Materials, Mathematics and Physics.
Students majoring in any of the above disciplines will also take courses in engineering, humanities, and inter-disciplinary areas for a well-rounded learning experience.
The inaugural batch will begin classes from August 2011 and graduate in July 2015.
Admissions will be based on national examinations such as KVPY and through other channels to be announced soon.
Eligibility: 12th Standard or equivalent with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics as main subject.
Applications will be accepted from January 1, 2011 till March 31, 2011.
August 19th, 2010
I noticed that the fact that NISER currently has 43 regular faculty and 18 visiting faculty is not by accident or not because the institute is new and it needs visiting faculty to help in teaching, but is because NISER is designed to have additional 40% faculty as visiting faculty.
This comes out clearly in the design specs for the academic campus. For example, in http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1820 it is clearly stated that there will be offices for 250 faculty and additional 100 visiting faculty. This is in addition to having space for 150 post-doctoral fellows. (IISERs talk about 200 faculty and do not mention visiting faculty.)
This feature of having about additional 40% visiting faculty is more of a feature of DAE institutes like TIFR and is in contrast to most MHRD institutions. For example, the IISERs do not have that many visiting faculty.
Having such a high percentage of visiting faculty will enrich NISER’s environment and will be one of its signature distinguishing features. It will also help in faculty recruitment in that it can take in some highly regarded prospective faculty immediately as visiting faculty while they go through the formal approval process of a regular faculty position.
NISER has not yet advertised or highlighted about this feature of having such a high percent of visiting faculty positions. It should. Also, it should spread the word about its visiting positions widely to attract visitors from all over the world.
Another design feature of NISER vis-a-vis IISERs is its lower faculty student ratio. Its target is to have 250 regular faculty plus 100 visiting faculty and 1750 students (including 150 post-docs); making it a target ratio of 1:7 (if one just counts the regular faculty). In comparison IISERs are designed to have 200 faculty and 2055 students (including post-docs); making it a target ratio of 1:10.
While NISER’s target faculty-student ratio is 1:7, its current regular-faculty-student ratio is about 1:4.6. That means NISER is ahead in its faculty recruiting. For this all kudos go to the NISER director Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar.
August 16th, 2010
Following is an item from the Biology Journal Club of NISER.
| Title : |
Chilika lake |
| Speaker : |
Dr. Ajit Pattanaik |
| Date/Time : |
2010-08-13 14:00 Hrs |
| Abstract : |
Faculties from School of Biology, NISER are interested to carry out certain research projects which can fit well with the Chilika-development projects. These include identifying new organisms, novel compounds and toxins from plants as well as from animals from Chilika lake and more. Dr. Ajit Pattanaik, Director, Chilika Development Authority has accepted our invitation and agreed to com to NISER with his team of experts and scientists. He will deliver a talk and after his presentation, scientists from NISER will discuss with Dr. Pattanaik and his team. All possible avenues of collaboration between NISER and CDA will be discussed which will have mutual interest and benefit to all. |
August 11th, 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
Earlier we reported on the shortage of Math Ph.D’s in India. Slowly the Bhubaneswar area is emerging as a center for Mathematics starting from mentoring at the high school level (at IMA) to pursuing Ph.D at NISER, IIT, Utkal and Ravenshaw. There is also a good chance that one of the proposed 10 science magnet high schools will be established in this area. (The top Math center in India is Chennai which has IIT Madras, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Chennai Mathematical Institute.) Below we list Math faculty (mostly with Ph.Ds) in institutes and universities in the Bhubaneswar area.
| NISER Bhubaneswar |
|
IIT Bhubaneswar |
IMA Bhubaneswar |
Varadharajan Muruganandam, Associate Professor, Ph.D IIT Kanpur
|
1 |
Sabyasachi Pani, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur |
Swadhinananda Pattanayak, Ph.D, Director and Professor |
Binod Kumar Sahoo, Assistant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
2 |
Akshay Kumar Ojha, Assistant Professor, Ph.D Utkal
|
Mahendra Nath Mishra, Ph.D, Professor in Statistics |
Brundaban Sahu, Assistant Professor, Ph.D Harish-Chandra Research Institute
|
3 |
Abhijit Datta Banik, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur
|
Shishir Kumar Sahoo, Ph.D, Registrar and Reader |
Deepak K. Dalai, Assistant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
4 |
Tarakanth Nayak, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Guwahati
|
Seshadev Pradhan, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur |
Kamal Lochan Patra, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kanpur
|
5 |
|
Sasmita Barik, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Guwahati |
Sanjay Parui, Asssitant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
6 |
|
Jugal Mohapatra, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Guwahati (?) |
Narahari Parhi, Ph.D, Visiting Professor
|
7 |
|
G. Das, Ph.D, Guest Faculty, formerly from Utkal University |
P. C. Das, Ph.D, Visiting Professor, Formerly at IIT Kanpur
|
8 |
|
J. Sarangi, Ph.D, Guest Faculty |
| |
9 |
|
A. N. Mohapatra ??, Ph.D Sambalpur |
| |
10 |
|
Sraban Mohanty ??, Ph.D IIT Guwahati |
| Utkal University, Mathematics Dept. |
|
Utkal University, Statistics Dept. |
Ravenshaw University, Mathematics and Statistics Departments |
| Salila Dutta, Ph.D, Reader & HOD |
1 |
G. Mishra, Ph.D, Professor & HOD |
Swapan kumar Ghosh, Ph.D. Reader |
| S. Padhy, Ph.D, Professor |
2 |
L. N. Sahoo, Ph.D, Professor |
Nityananda Senapati, Ph.D. Reader |
| B. K. Nayak, Ph.D, Professor |
3 |
P. K. Tripathy, Ph.D, Reader |
Rajani Ballav Dash, Ph.D. Reader |
| J. Patel, Ph.D, Professor |
4 |
K. B. Panda, Ph.D, Reader |
Hadibandhu Pattanayak, Ph.D. Reader |
| Mrs. N. Das, Ph.D, Reader |
5 |
R. K. Sahoo, Ph.D, Lecturer |
Mrs. Minakshi Dash, M.Sc. Reader |
| |
6 |
|
Mrs. Minati Samal, M.Sc. Reader |
| |
7 |
|
Sarat Ch. Senapati, M.Phil. Sr. Lecturer, Statistics |
| |
8 |
|
Mrs. Swarnalata Mishra, M.Phil, Sr. Lecturer, Statistics |
| Others |
|
Others |
Others |
| Rupaj K Nayak, Ph.D Utkal, Senior Lecturer at IIIT, Bhubaneswar |
1 |
S. P. Mohanty, Ph.D. Utkal, HOD at CET Bhubaneswar. |
|
Related pointers from the past:
August 4th, 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
MGM Minerals Ltd, Bhubaneswar has paid Rs 1.5 crores to create a Chair "Professor of Eminence" in Minerals and Metallurgical Engineering for 5 years. According the Director of IIT Bhubaneswar: "This is historic for IIT Bhubaneswar."
July 23rd, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a 2005 report in Hindu.
Toshali Plaza mansion, constructed by the Orissa Housing Development Corporation in 1998 over an area of 3.19 lakh square feet at a cost of Rs 15.65 crore, resembles a deserted palace in a posh locality of Bhubaneswar. The unoccupied mansion has more than 2 lakh square feet of office space.
A page linked from the IIT Bhubaneswar home page (click on Facilities) mentions that some classes will be held in Toshali Plaza this year and the boys hostel will be 5 minutes from it.
The tender at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/pdf/tender/RFP_Toshali_Satellite.pdf for installing networking and wi-fi in Toshali Bhawan (earlier called as Toshali Plaza) refers to it as a satellite campus. It also gives the floor diagram of the first four floors.
Finally the article http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4801 on progress of the new IITs says the following:
IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre.
Does this mean that IIT Bhubaneswar has bought or taken a very long term lease on Toshali Bhawan? That is my guess.
I guess they are or will be renovating it and it will look much prettier than the above picture. However, the picture gives an idea on how big that complex is. 3.19 lakh sq feet is huge. That is 29,636 sq meter. As a comparison the size of the planned academic township of NISER Bhubaneswar is 65,000 sq meter. Similarly the size of the planned academic complex of IISER Pune is 34000 sq meters. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will have plenty of space to grow and hire more faculty until its main campus is ready in Argul.
Toshali Bhawan is also located centrally in Bhubaneswar; only about 2 kms from the Bhubaneswar station. It is four hundred meters from the Forum mall (the first mall of Bhubaneswar; with a Pizza Hut and many other eating places) and fairly close (about 3 kms) to the SBI colony where some of the student and the faculty housing are.
If indeed IIT Bhubaneswar was able to buy this huge complex, besides the current Director (Prof. Chakraborty) and Registrar (Mr. Ray) one must also thank Prof. Damodar Acharya who most likely (my speculation) saved IIT Bhubaneswar tons of money by having the first year classes in Kharagpur at almost zero cost to IIT Bhubaneswar. Also, the second year classes were partly held in the IIT Kharagpur extension center in Bhubaneswar, possibly at a low rent.Those savings may have played a big role in this purchase. All those savings plus the projected rental cost until the main campus is ready probably covers the cost of buying and renovating Toshali Bhawan. Kudos to IIT Bhubaneswar Director and Registrar for this financial and real estate masterstroke.
Down the road, after IIT Bhubaneswar has its main campus ready, this satellite campus in the middle of the city would be very useful in being the venue for offering graduate courses and short courses.
June 26th, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in sify.com.
- IIT Mandi: … nestled in the lowermost climatic zone of the serene Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh.The institute plans to involve its research scholars in teaching to enhance its faculty strength. It will launch doctoral programmes this August and plans to request the ministry to fund research scholars who will be involved with teaching at the institute."… At present, recruitment of full-time faculty is underway. Nine faculty members have accepted the offers. Additional 10-12 faculty members are expected to do so shortly. …" says S P Gupta … has received 513 acres of land for its main campus …
- IIT Hyderabad: … is banking on its faculty members to consolidate its research activities. According to U B Desai, director of IIT-H, faculty members have not only begun receiving research grants from DST, MCIT/DIT and other organisations, but have also begun publishing research papers in international journals. … 100 for M Tech programmes and 50 for PhD. Moreover, as against a full-time faculty strength of just over 40 last year, IIT-H is expecting the number to go up to 50 faculty members in its 10 departments. … "About 531 acres of land has been given by the state of Andhra Pradesh. While master planning of the new campus is done, we have called for expression of interest by architects. The new campus should be ready in about two years."
- IIT Indore: … expects its permanent campus to be ready by the end of 2011. "At present, the need for independent infrastructure, including lab facilities, is an issue. However, it does not imply that we will compromise on quality" … The institute does not plan to start the MTech programme at least for the next three years. As for faculty, the current capacity is 26 while the required capacity is 30 per year at all IITs.
- IIT Rajasthan: Apart from its B Tech programme getting its third batch since inception, IIT Rajasthan is also initiating PhD programmes for the first time from this year. Running from MBM Engineering College in Jodhpur, IIT Rajasthan has also been provided 300-odd PWD quarters for offering residential facilities to faculty members, staff and students alike. While IIT Rajasthan has been able to admit 120 students per batch so far, with its own campus coming up on a sprawling 900 acre land, the institute expects the numbers to rise.
- IIT Gandhinagar: … currently functioning from a makeshift campus at Vishwakarma Engineering College near Ahmedabad, saw the latter’s students protesting to shift the temporary campus of IIT-Gn from their college premises. The Gujarat government has now zeroed in on a 385-acre plot for the purpose of building the campus for IIT Gandhinagar.
- IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre. We have also selected project management consultants who will design our permanent campus and we expect the construction to begin by the end of this year and to be completed by 2014," says BK Rai, registrar at IIT Bhubaneswar. The institute has been allotted 936 acres of land by the Orissa government for its permanent campus designed to have a self contained campus for 10,000 students and 1100 faculty and an estimated amount of Rs 780 crore will be spent in next few years to develop this institute. A science park will be part of this institution. IIT Bhubaneswar will also the first IIT to set up a separate marine campus in 2011 for conducting interdisciplinary research in rising sea levels, ecology, disaster management, marine ecosystems, fishery development, and other areas.
- IIT Ropar: … has 10 PhD candidates at present and will add another 15 by January next year. IIT Ropar currently runs BTech and PhD courses. As it faces hostel accommodation constraints, the institute is "not ready" to start MTech courses in the immediate future. This year, 25 faculty members will be joining the institute by July adding strength to the institute which has 27 faculty members at present. …At present, the IIT is functioning from its Ropar-based transit campus, which was earlier The Polytechnic College for Women. The Government of Punjab has provided 500 acres of land near the banks of Sutlej river which is expected to be ready by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2013.
- IIT Patna: The institute has recruited 47 faculty so far and has 240 students including 11 PhD students till date. As it readies to welcome its third batch of students, IIT-P has new building ready on the premises of the New Government Polytechnic, from where the institute is currently functioning. As for the labs, IIT-P has hired the building of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Patna.
The current faculty strength of IIT Bhubaneswar is 40. (It was 16 as per its webpage in October 24, 2009 and 37 on April 26, 2010.) I am not sure how many new ones are expected to join in Fall 2010. While browsing the websites of the various websites some things jumped out. (i) IIT Ropar has a large number of faculty with foreign Ph.Ds. (ii) IIT Hyderabad is recruiting faculty in departments other than basic sciences, Humanities and the three disciplines in which it offers B.Tech. It is offering M.Tech programs in these additional departments. (iii) IIT Patna has hired the maximum number of faculty (47) closely followed by IIT Hyderabad (45) and IIT Bhubaneswar (40).
June 21st, 2010
Update:The expanded ads are now in the NISER web site. See the links below.
One thing to note is that NISER is likely to implement the PRIS (Performance related incentive scheme) of DAE under which there is provision for monthly incentive of 20% of basic salary. This is already implemented in some DAE institutions. See for example http://www.saha.ac.in/cs/adm.cs/ADM/PRIS.pdf.
The expanded version of this ad is not yet in NISER website. The ad from last year is at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2009/new-faculty.php and gives an idea of how much the initial salaries will be. following is an excerpt.
ASST. PROFESSOR : Pay Band Rs 15,600 – 39,100 + Grade Pay 7,600
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 29,920 + 22% D.A at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 44,438/- per month.
READER (F) – Pay Band Rs 37,400 – 67,000 + Grade Pay 8,700
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 46,100 + 22% DA at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 67,414/- per month.
Currently NISER has the following numbers of faculty in the various disciplines:
This adds up to a total of 37 permanent and 21 visiting faculty.
As a comparison IIT Bhubaneswar currently has 37 permanent faculty and 4 visiting faculty with the following break-up.
June 1st, 2010
Prof. Jalote is the Director of IIIT Delhi and is on leave from IIT Delhi. Previously he taught at IIT Kanpur and University of Maryland. Prof. Singh is a professor at Auburn University, Alabama. Both are alumni of IITs. Following are excerpts from their article in Economic Times.
… The difficulty of cracking these tests have led to the booming coaching industry — it seems the vast majority of students appearing in these exams undergo some form of coaching for them. This impact of coaching has been decried by many. In academic circles, it is a common complain that coaching is allowing even average students to crack the exams, and how exams ought to be changed so that deserving students can clear even without coaching.
It should be clearly understood that the success of coaching is not due to the nature of the exams, but due to the low acceptance ratio in these exams. With these low accept rates, it is irrelevant whether the nature of exam is such that coaching will help or not.
… Anybody who thinks that coaching can be made redundant by reforming the admission tests is living in a state of denial.
There is another aspect of coaching that deserves attention. Coaching is big business: by some accounts, coaching for IITs is bigger than IITs themselves in terms of turnover. Consequently, it is able to attract good teachers by offering high salaries. One hears about IIT/IIM grads teaching in these coaching institutes, but one cannot come across an IIT/IIM graduate as a teacher in a school — even elite schools do not have this distinction. So, in many coaching centres, the quality of education is superior to that of schools, particularly with respect to the entrance test subjects. As the business success depends on how well they help the students do in the entrance exams, their teaching, as measured with respect to success in these exams, continues to improve and they take great care to improve it.
So, we have the following situation. Coaching institutes will continue to thrive as long as the accept ratio remains small. And coaching business will ensure that its teachers and teaching processes are well-equipped to impart training to students to do better at the competitive exam.
This situation, undesirable thought it is, can, however, be converted into an opportunity to improve education. As coaching institutes focus on the entrance tests and the syllabus for them, it provides a power to these exams in that whatever they put as syllabus or as expected knowledge, the coaching institutes will ensure that students get good at that. Even for those students who do not undergo coaching, these exams are highly influential — students learn/ study for these exams with a mission and dedication that they don’t show for anything else.
IF THESE large exams were to be oriented such that preparation for them will make the foundations for the key subjects much stronger and will force the students to really understand the subjects better, the coaching industry will ensure that this knowledge is imparted to students. That is, the syllabus and expectation is potentially a strong force on what students learn in the 2-3 years they prepare for the entrance exams, through coaching or on their own.
If this learning can be strengthened, then even if the students do not get through in these exams — which the vast majority will not — the preparation for them will give them strong foundations in some key subjects. This can be leveraged by other institutions.
… So, instead of fighting coaching by making exams like JEE harder and more theoretical every year, such large exams can leverage the competition for the larger good of improving the education and preparedness of students.
If these exams are thought of as a potential tool in the armory of the country for fighting the poor education standards, rather than just for admitting students into these institutes, then they can favourably impact the lakhs of students who attend JEE, and not just of the selected few thousands who actually enter the IITs, whose skills will be upgraded anyway to top levels by the top quality education that they will be provided. By doing so, institutions like the IITs and the entrance exams they have, will be making a solid contribution to improving the workforce in the country , as they have done in creating the top-level manpower.
I agree with the main point in the above mentioned article. Earlier I wrote my views on coaching at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4178.
However, there is an issue with respect to many students not being able to afford coaching. Couple of things that the governments may do are:
- Provide coaching in some government schools such as Navodaya Vidyalayas.
- Provide other avenues for good coaching such as attempts to replicate the Super 30 in Bihar by other governments.
- Bring coaching classes and the +2 level under the ambit of RTE and require that certain percentage of the students there are from poorer background.
- Provide scholarships to poor students to be able to afford good coaching.
May 16th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in pagalguy.com.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management is starting two MBA programs for working executives at it Kolkata and Bhubhaneswar campuses. Working on a 3-year structure that will allow participants to work while they study, the courses are largely targeted towards the local population of each city they shall function in. While the Executive MBA at the Kolkata campus has a general management bent the Knowledge Industries MBA (KIMBA) at the Bhubhaneswar campus would focus on the IT and ITES sectors, explained EMBA coordinator Prof Gautam Sinha.
The intakes for both the programs would be 15 to 30 students each while the minimum eligibility will be three years of work experience and either an engineering education or post-graduate education in commerce, science or economics. More about the application system to the courses on the VGSoM website.
Prima facie, there are few differences between the EMBA and KIMBA except for a couple of core courses. The IT/ITES focused KIMBA has courses such as Technology Management and Services Management, which in the EMBA are replaced by International Management and IT & Business Applications Laboratory. Interestingly, the KIMBA has two courses on Financial Accounting while the EMBA has none. Both courses cost Rs 6 lakhs in fees, including a one-year international immersion program, which according to Prof Sinha may be carried out with one of IIT Kharagpur’s 99 tie-ups with various international institutions.
While both the courses look similar to 3-year part-time MBA courses in structure and content, Prof Sinha argues that several executive MBA courses across the world follow the part-time model. While that may be true, popular executive MBA programs in the USA or Europe wrap up in an year’s time, recognizing that the opportunity cost for working executives to stay away from work is high. To that extent, VGSOM’s Executive programs seem like 3-year part-time MBAs that give you an Executive MBA degree at the end, thus keeping you away from the stigma attached to the ‘part-time’ bit of part-time MBA.
Prof Sinha defends the three-year pattern of VGSOM’s Executive MBAs saying, “One-year or two-year programs are high pressure situations which might not be conducive for people with families.”
The links for the two programs are:
- E-MBA at Kolkata for all industries
- KI-MBA at Bhubaneswar for knowledge industries like Information Technology sector.
Note that earlier IIT Kharagpur also introduced 3 year weekend and after hours M.Tech programs in both cities. See http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4118.
May 12th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in yahoonews.
The super-specialty AIIMS-like hospital, which was initially decided to be set up at Raiganj in North Dinajpur district, could be shifted to IIT-Kharagpur campus for "lack of land" in the north Bengal town.
"The state government had agreed to provide 100 acres land and facilities for electricity, water, sewerage and road connectivity in Raiganj. But the land acquisition by the state government has not yet started," Sube Singh, Deputy Secretary and CPIO of Union Health Ministry wrote in a reply to an RTI application. Union Human Resources Development Ministry suggested that the proposed AIIMS-like institution may be built in the premises of IIT, Kharagpur which could provide the land, he said. "The state government has conveyed its no objection for setting up of the institution in the IIT-Kharagpur premises," Singh stated. The institution would be built at a cost of Rs 823 crore which has been sanctioned by the Centre.
For long IIT Kharagpur has been trying for a medical school. It had faced many hurdles. Being aware of those efforts, MHRD seems to have played a major facilitator’s role above.
If this happens, this will be a major major achievement of Prof. Damodar Acharya, the current director of IIT Kharagpur.
Another point to note is that, one of the main reason this is being considered is because of the availability of land in IIT Kharagpur. All the new IITs and IISERs (except IIT Bhubaneswar) are constraining themselves by currently only allocating the minimal required land. Down the road they will not be in a position to avail of a similar opportunity. Fortunately, Prof. Damodar Acharya as a mentor of IIT Bhubaneswar ensured that the Odisha government allocated a large enough piece of land.
May 7th, 2010
Previous Posts