Following is an excerpt from a report in The Australian.
India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is committing up to 10 billion rupees ($A240 million) to set up a world-class university in either Mumbai or Delhi modelled on top US universities.
… During his January 8 acceptance speech in Mumbai for the Dean’s Medal from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ambani said RIL would invest 5 billion rupees ($A120 million) initially in the Reliance Foundation to set up the new university, with plans to increase its commitment to 10 billion rupees.
He said the multi-disciplinary university would promote education and research across all areas, from science and technology to liberal arts. It would be international in scale, employ best practices and would seek to forge partnerships with highly regarded universities from around the world.
… Ambani’s A$240 million commitment via the Reliance Foundation is likely to be just the starting point for his university project. Ambani’s great advantage is the Reliance track record in handling large projects. The company prides itself on meticulous planning, delivering on time and “flawless execution on a large format.”
January 25th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.
The Reliance Group is setting up a ‘world-class’ university as it seeks to promote education and research in sectors ranging from liberal arts to technology .
… India’s largest business conglomerate has started the process of identifying land for the proposed university , according to persons familiar with the development.
The university, modelled on the lines of American universities such as The University of Pennsylvania, will tie up with foreign universities. “It will be international in scale and in best practices, but with an Indian soul,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Group.
Nita Ambani told ET that the proposed university would be located either outside Mumbai or Delhi. “We are looking for sufficient land to set up a world-class university,” she said.
Mr Ambani made this announcement while making the acceptance speech at Mumbai’s Tident Hotel after receiving the Dean’s medal from the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school. …
The university will initially offer undergraduate courses. It will later offer postgraduate and doctoral courses, Ms Ambani said. India’s big business houses are strengthening their focus on education as it is poised to become a $80-billion opportunity by 2012. Indian spend $50 billion on private education annually, according to a research report by IDFC. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16%, said a CLSA Pacific study.
This is great news for India. I hope things move faster with respect to Vedanta University. Otherwise it will lose its first mover’s advantage. Another thing to note is that some of the people who were/?are? involved in the Vedanta University project also have University of Pennsylvania ties. They are doing a great thing by convincing various billionaires in India to establish universities that aim to be world class.
January 9th, 2010
Following is a lecture announcement in New York for 14th December 2009. It is excerpted from the page http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=1024.
Mon 12.14.2009
CES LUs 1.5; HSW 1.5
When: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM MONDAY, DECEMBER 14
Where: 19 Washington Square North
Speakers:
Adam Gross Design Principal, Ayers Saint Gross
Pawan Agarwal Civil servant in the Indian Government and author of Indian Higher Education, Envisioning the Future
The 21st Century Campus Series
NYU Abu Dhabi joins a small number of complete universities developed in the 21st century. The series will highlight both campus design and the ideas about education these plans embody. We are interested in the communal ideals the campuses stand for, the challenges associated with community building in the 21st century, and the intercultural agenda universities are forging with their host cities and regions. The lectures will take place at 19 Washington Square North, the gateway to NYUAD in New York City.
This series is co-sponsored by the AIA New York Chapter.
CES LUs 1.5; HSW 1.5
Lectures are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.
Please RSVP by email to 19wsn.rsvp@nyu.edu.
This second lecture in the series, on Vedanta University, Orissa India, will feature:
Adam Gross, Design Principal, Ayers Saint Gross, Inc.
Pawan Agarwal, Author of Higher Education in India: The Need for Change (2006)
December 27th, 2009
Following is from a report in Orissadiary.com. (I am copying this verbatim. But please visit the original news site and support its sponsors. The picture is from tathya.in)
Puri: A huge rally supporting the Vedanta University and demanding its immediate establishment has been organized today by the student community of Puri district , here at Puri town. Over 600 students from various colleges of Puri district, under the banner of Youth and Student Forum, Puri (Yuba Chhatra Sangha) came together and staged the rally demanding the establishment of the proposed University. After a peaceful rally, the students submitted a memorandum addressed to the President of India through the Collector, Puri, urging her to take concrete steps for the establishment of the proposed Vedanta University in their region.
The 2 hour peaceful rally started at around 10.30 am from the VIP Road, Puri and ended at the Puri Collector’s office where they handed over the memorandum signed by over 400 students from 8 colleges/educational institutions of Puri district including SCS College, Puri; Suraj Mahal Saha college, Puri; Government Women’s College, Puri; ADM College, Brahmagiri; Delanga College; Sakhigopal College; ITI, Puri, etc. On behalf of the Collector, the Sub-Collector, Puri received the memorandum from the students. Out of the 600 students who actively participated in the rally, 100 were girls.
The President of the youth forum, Mr Bipin Bihari Mishra and its Secretary Mr Atmaram Pandey, have given a detailed report on the need of Vedanta University in the area in the memorandum that was signed by over 400 students from different colleges of the region, clearly mentioning the name of their college, their class and roll number. In the memorandum, the students have spelled out the various reasons for which they demand the early establishment of the Vedanta University. The main reason is that the University will provide opportunity of world class higher education and high end research in several academic
disciplines at one place. Such an educational opportunity would also open up several avenues of employment in the country and abroad. This will be over and above the thousands of employment opportunities that the University itself can provide during its building phase and later on.
“A world-class university with research focus is a much needed thing in the area and Orissa at large. Thousands of people from the area will get direct and indirect employment opportunities with the establishment of this Vedanta University and it will also give opportunity to the students of Puri and Orissa to have world-class higher education at their doorstep. And hence, the government should take concrete steps for its establishment,” the memorandum says. Mr Mishra and Mr Pandey mentioned in the memorandum that even the National Knowledge Commission has recommended the establishment of more multidisciplinary universities like Vedanta University in Orissa and elsewhere in the country.
“While a world-class University is coming up in our area that will change the fate of our students and youth, some people with their vested interests are opposing it with baseless allegations,” they added.
December 6th, 2009
Following is an article written by respected (I respect him a lot) columnist Sharat Kumar Rout. I found it at http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=15350.
Vedanta University in Orissa: A victim of selfish politicking
Sharat Kumar Rout
Recently, the central team of a political party visited the Vedanta University project site near Puri and participated in a meeting of the group opposed to the project. The team leaders flayed the BJD government of Orissa to their hearts’ content and declared their firm opposition to the University project. They criticised the state government vehemently for giving away ‘prime agricultural land’ at ‘throw-away’ prices for the proposed University, expressed ‘shock’ at selling of Lord Jagannath’s land for the same purpose and also questioned the very logic behind establishment of a world class University in the Puri-Konark area. Well, they came, they saw and went away happily, believing perhaps that they conquered too. But, apart from providing some grist for the media mill, the whole exercise has gained nothing for the party concerned. What actually has come to fore is its glaring double standards. Inviting this mega University project to Orissa in 2006 was the decision of the erstwhile coalition Government in which three important Ministers, namely, law, Revenue and Higher Education, were from the said political party. Obviously, departments under these three Ministers played a very proactive role as far as the University MOU and the related matters were concerned. For all one knows, these particular Ministers were the main votaries of the University project. The central team of this party is surely not unaware of this fact. But now, because of the political dynamics before and after the last election, the party is no longer in the Government and so, it has just decided to play the role of the opposition to the hilt! This, among other things, clearly underscores the overly political nature of the opposition to Vedanta University project.
If one closely follows the anti-Vedanta University opponents and their modus operandi, it will be apparent that out of the 18 revenue villages coming within the proposed University site, only one particular group of people belonging to a particular village has been at the forefront. That they were never against the University project at the beginning and have been brainwashed by some local politicians to form an antagonist group, is also common knowledge. But this anti-Vedanta University group and its local political leaders have been emboldened over the last two years, because of the sustained support of different political parties, groups and personalities who, for various reasons, are opposed to the Naveen Pattnaik- led Government of Orissa. These political vested interests have naturally been able to create a whole lot of hype and hoopla about an anti-Vedanta University ‘movement’ and this, in turn, has been occupying so much of media space and time The usual shouting brigade consisting of the foreign-funded NGOs, their high-flying activists and the celebrity ambassadors they manage to rope in, has only made matters worse. Irrespective of the merit or propriety of the project opponents’ remonstrations, they succeed in creating or increasing doubt in public mind. The intelligentsia is also easily swayed by the media hype, more so because, in these stressful times no one practically has the time or inclination to be properly informed or think about any particular issue no matter how important it is for the society or the country at large. The cumulative result is that fear, suspicion or anxiety of the local community, whose life will be affected directly or indirectly by the project, is intensified creating more elbow-room for further politicking and the project work is delayed.
It is not to say that the people of the project area do not have any genuine grievances. But, surely there are ways and means of taking care of the grievances without stopping the project work. Besides, if the compensation package for land acquisition and other benefits to be made available to the land losers as per the R&R policy are dispassionately analysed, one can very well see that the possible pros far outweigh the cons. And, it will also be clear that most of the allegations of the project opponents are unfounded and unreal. It is high time that the intelligentsia, the youth, the student community and especially, the impartial opinion makers, shunned the shenanigans of the self-serving politicians and raised their voice in favour of the early establishment of a world class University in our state. It is learnt that an IIT could not be established in our state in the 60’s, due to the lack of foresight of our political class and the decision makers. Now, after more than four decades, one IIT has come to us. If we let go an opportunity like the Vedanta University now, perhaps we will never get another in the next hundred years.
[Sharat Kumar Rout, columnist, cell No: 9337369448, Maytree Enclave,Naharakanta,Bhubaneswar.]
There is also another recent article by Swati. It is at http://www.merinews.com/article/bjps-dissembling-policy-on-vedanta-raises-eyebrows/15787962.shtml. Although I mostly agree with her point of view, all her write-ups in Merinews have been about Vedanta University.
November 13th, 2009
Update:
HRD Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal spent last several days in the US trying to convince top US universities to collaborate and open branches in India. His talk at MIT is here http://techtv.mit.edu/tags/5218-sibal/videos/4310-mit-india-forum-2009. (Thanks to a commentator at Abi’s blog for the pointer.)
I wish some people of Orissa had not created road block for Vedanta University. If it had made progress as scheduled then it would have put the Bhubaneswar-Puri area in the map of top knowledge centers of India and there would have been a higher chance of some good foreign (especially US) universities thinking about having some operations in Orissa. As it stands now Orissa may lose the window of opportunity it has. Unless Orissa quickly positions itself among the top knowledge centers of India, the top foreign universities will give it a skip and it may again take a long long time for Orissa to catch up.
November 5th, 2009
October 22nd, 2009
The following appeared in Samaja. I wonder if there is some imminent move by Vedanta University project.
I am actually not sure if the above is an article or an ad. I think its an ad.
October 4th, 2009
Finally someone comes out and openly writes in favour of Vedanta University in the local papers. Its high time someone did that.
Given below is the article by retired Utkal University Professor Nabakishore Mahalik on August 27th that the above writer mentions.
September 24th, 2009
Many misguided activists of Orissa and India have tooth and nail opposed any and all operations of Vedanta in Orissa. Their vendetta against Vedanta is so much that they even oppose Vedanta University, regardless of its benefit to people of Orissa.
At a drop of a hat they will mention that Vedanta is blacklisted by the Norway government pension fund; also referred to as the oil fund. But what the activists fail to mention is that the Norway government pension fund also blacklists Boeing, Wal-mart, General Dynamics, Honeywell, etc. All of these are well respected multi-nationals. See the whole list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway#Excluded_companies.
Many activists also often question the credibility of Vedanta and its subsidiary Sterlite. For them here is a quote from an Arizona newspaper.
Arizona joined several other states in supporting an Indian company’s bid for Tucson-based copper producer Asarco LLC, during closing arguments of a bankruptcy hearing in Texas Tuesday.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard S. Schmidt heard the final oral arguments about who should get the local copper producer: Sterlite Industries, the Indian company that has been actively working with Asarco management and workers …
The U.S. government supported Sterlite’s bid, as did the states of Washington, Montana, Texas and Arizona, among others. The United Steelworkers, which represents many of Asarco’s workers, also has supported Sterlite’s bid and threatened to strike if Grupo Mexico gets the company back.
… Grupo Mexico and Sterlite have each offered to fully repay all of Asarco’s creditors, who claim to be owed $3.62 billion. A majority of those creditors, which include several state and federal environmental agencies, say they would prefer Sterlite, according to court records.
Unfortunately, the judge did not recommend Sterlite and it goes to the District Court of Texas for a decision in 4-6 weeks. The main reason behind the judge’s recommendation was that Sterlite was offering less upfront cash. However the fact to note is that Sterlite was backed by the US government and various states as well as the workers of the company and state and federal environment agencies. In fact the workers union support it so much that they are threatening to go on strike if the judge does not favor Sterlite. See http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/sterlite-suffers-setback-on-asarco-bid-but-has-workers-support for more details.
Yet the activists in Orissa and India are misleading the common people there with all kinds of propaganda against Vedanta and Sterlite. So much so that their plans in Lanjigarh, Jharsuguda and Puri have all been delayed. I hope the people of Orissa see and understand what the US and the states of Washinton, Montana, Texas and Arizona are seeing and support Vedanta University. I also hope that they negotate with Sterlite/Vedanta in Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda so that the company establishes branches of Vedanta University and its medical college in or near Lanjigarh as well as Jharsuguda.
Moreover, I hope the people of Lanjigarh learn about this and directly negotiate with Sterlite regarding their concerns and work with them, as the workers of ASARCO in Arizona are doing, rather than getting swayed by the propaganda of the activists who are blinded by their (perceived) supreme court loss and care less about the people and more about their vendetta against Vedanta.
September 8th, 2009
The forum is at http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=443736. Following is a picture of the university part of the masterplan from that forum.
September 7th, 2009
Following is from http://www.jensenpartners.com/projects/vedanta-university-teaching-hospital.
The Vedanta University Teaching Hospital located in the State of Orissa, India, will be the first building of the ambitious Vedanta University Master Plan. As a first building, the hospital’s orientation, program and design represent a signifi¬cant opportunity to launch Vedanta University and provide connectivity between the campus and the community.
The Vedanta Teaching Hospital was programmed initially for 500 acute care beds and 67 intensive care beds (Phase l). In a future phase (Phase2), the bed
count will double.
The Guiding Principles in the development of the Space Program relate program-matically to the idea of creating true synergy between research, teaching and clinical care, as well as creating Centers of Excellence in the areas of Cardiology and Endocrinology. Physically, the Space Program is conceived as highly modu¬lar so as to be able to grow and evolve with ease and flexibility. The Inpatient and Outpatient spaces are conceived as relating programmatically by level.
The architectural and operational framework of the organization’s information technology capability is envisioned as a mission-critical 24/7 operational util¬ity service delivered and managed in a cost-effective manner. In addition, the selection of state-of-the-art medical equipment for both patient care and clinical research will be a critical success factor for the university.
The right side of that page lists other projects handled by Jensen Partners. It includes UCLA and Emory University (Atlanta).
September 6th, 2009
Update: This article in healthcaredesignmagazine.com also mentions the design. Some Chinese sites such this one and this one also mention it. This article at the freelibrary.com shows that Perkin+Wills is one of the top architectural firms in LA county and its 2008 billings included billing Vedanta University Hospital.
Perkins+Will is designing the Vedanta University Medical college and Hospital. The BCDC (Building design+construction) network and World Architecture News have put out some of the initial pictures of the design. Both write the following:
Working together with the Anil Agarwal Foundation, Perkins+Will have developed the master plan for the Medical Precinct of a new teaching hospital in the extremely remote section of Puri, Orissa, India.
Vedanta University Teaching Hospital is part of a very ambitious plan to develop this rural area into a global center of education and healthcare that would be on par with Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. The 500-bed world-class facility, set to open in 2011, would serve as a regional hub for critical medical specialties such as cardiology and diabetes and focus research on prevalent public health issues in the surrounding area. With the heart of the project geared toward giving back to the community, Perkins+Will architects have carefully incorporated the area’s cultural values by working with local materials and artisans to capture India’s modern art trends within the building plans.
Additionally, some of the hospital’s sustainable features will include daylighting, atriums, storm water management and water conservation through site run-off and an onsite sewage treatment plant, use of local materials, landscaping with local plants and green roof.
September 6th, 2009
Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad is ranked 15 in 2009 in Global MBA rankings by Financial Times, UK. It had a ranking of 20 in 2008. At 15 it is ranked higher than business schools at Cambridge, Yale, Oxford, Northwestern, Duke, Michigan, Berkeley, etc. In contrast none of the IIMs appear in the top 100.
While comparing IIMs to ISB, following are two aspects that stand out.
1. The faculty salary: Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India that compares the salary of assistant professors at ISB with that of assistant professors at IIM and Harvard.
The memorandum says an assistant professor (AP) at Harvard gets $140,000 as annual starting pay, equivalent to Rs 23 lakh and Indian School of Business (ISB) pays over Rs 20 lakh to its APs. Against this, an IIM-A AP gets only Rs 5.5 lakh as starting pay annually.
$140,000 at Rs 48.9 per USD is Rs 68.5 lakh. So the mention above that it is equivalent to Rs 23 lakh must be based on purchasing power parity. Lets verify that.
As per this page the nominal GDP of India in 2008 is $1,209.686 Billion and as per this page the PPP GDP of India in 2008 is $3,288.345 Billion. So while 1 USD = Rs 48.9 nominally, using PPP 1 USD has the purchsing power of 48.9/2.71834592 = 17.99. Thus $140K has the purchasing power of 140K*17.99 = 25.18 lakhs.
So ISB’s salary for assistant professors at Rs 20 lakhs/year is about 80% of the salary paid to assistant professors at Harvard taking PPP conversion rate into account.
2. The governance: The following excerpt from Ila Patnaik’s article articulates the impact of governance on ISB’s ranking.
There is only one university in India which has autonomy on budget setting, recruits its own students, has flexible HR policies, etc., and this is the Indian School of Business. It is perhaps logical that, in 2008, ISB was ranked the 20th best MBA programme by The Financial Times, and in 2009 this rank was improved to 15. None of the IIMs feature anywhere. This is a striking contrast between enormous state expenditures on the IIMs failing to yield measurable results when compared with an alternative which has landed India in the top rankings of the world.
The Vedanta University bill allows it to have the governance structure that is mentioned in Ila Patnaik’s article.
In regards to being able to pay world class (purchasing power equivalent) salaries two aspects of Vedanta University will allow that: the initial donation of $1 Billion by Mr. Anil Agarwal (CNBC-TV18 recently interviewed him) and the resources that can be generated from the townships planned around the university.
The large number of students, eventually to reach 100000, will allow Vedanta University to offer some faculty (say Nobel laurates or would be Nobel laurates) more than (in nominal terms, not just PPP) their current salaries and thus lure them to Vedanta University.
September 6th, 2009
Among the local opposition to Vedanta University there are many who are opposed to the whole idea of private higher education institutions. Many others do not get some of the important reasons behind the necessity of Vedanta University. The following excerpts from speeches by the Union HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal and Chair of the National Knowledge Commission Mr. Sam Pitroda explains the important role private higher education institutions like Vedanta University can play and more importantly the country’s need for such institutions.
We start with an excerpt from a report in Telegraph about Mr. Kapil Sibal’s speech.
Inaugurating it at Nishani Mundali in Koraput, Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said the university’s location was the reflection of pro-tribal policy of the Congress-led UPA government.
“This university will definitely help in development of backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region and western Orissa,” said Sibal.
Stating that the Centre was keen to set up international standard educational institutions across the country through public-private partnership, Sibal said companies should come forward to set up such institutes to help students to pursue higher studies in India instead of going abroad.
Following is an excerpt from a report in rediff.com about Mr. Pitroda’s views.
Pitroda emphasizing the lack of capacity when "you really look at higher education overall in India," said that as much as expanding this on the one hand, "on the other hand, the quality of education needs to be improved substantially."
… Pitroda said that these were the three broad categories "under which the Knowledge Commission started looking at recommendations for higher education."
At the macro level, he said, "We have to create more universities," and argued that "the roughly 400 universities that we have is not enough for a country of a billion people. Roughly 8 percent of our eligible children have the opportunity to enter the higher education and that number ought to be closer to 16 or 20 percent."
"So, we need to expand more colleges, more universities, more research programs, more teachers, more facilities, so on and so forth," he added.
Pitroda said in this regard, "The overall expansion requires not only participation from government, but also participation from the private sector …
August 31st, 2009
I was able to obtain the pages of these bills from the site http://www.nsa.org.in/Important%20documents/importantdocument_contents.htm. I have put a local copy of this at http://www.orissalinks.com/000/sri%20sri%20university/ and http://www.orissalinks.com/000/vedanta%20university/. There were some amendments made to both bills; the media mentioned that there were 20 amendments to the Vedanta University bill. We will post them when we get hold of these amendments.
August 14th, 2009
Often people question about why Vedanta University needs 6000 acres. I have given my perspective on this in details in the page http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1696 . The short answer is:
- 6000 acres is not just for the university. It includes several townships.
- The townships are crucial to make Vedanta University competitive with world class universities, some of which have budgets of $3 billion per year.
- The township plan is not something hidden, but clearly mentioned in Vedanta University web pages at http://vedanta.edu.in/ .
In my previous article I made some guess regarding the area of the university. The following page from a draft of the Vedanta University masterplan gives the accurate numbers. If one looks at just university, the land use is actually very good. It uses 780+240 acres for a university planned for 100,000 students.
The developed area in the above plan is only 4300 acres. The following two pages from the 250+ page master plan draft emphasize that the remaining area of about 2000 acres is for greenery.
August 13th, 2009
Following is an excerpt from a report in DeshGujarat.
India’s largest university proposed by Vedanta Resources founder Anil Agarwal is coming up in Orissa, but it was originally planned for Gujarat.
… When asked about his plans to enter Gujarat, if any, Agarwal said, “Gujarat is the most developed. Its amazing how business going on here. While everybody is talking about business in energy, we thought of setting up old time Vaghas based power plant. But I haven’t figured it out. I wanted to set up a university here but then we went to Puri(Orissa). But I will be looking forward for something to start in Gujarat, that’s sure. We have something in silvassa but not in Gujarat.”
This sounds to me like a veiled warning from Mr. Agarwal to people of Orissa. I think he is preparing the ground to move to Gujarat if things get tough in Orissa. If that happens, that would be the missed opportunity of the millenium for Orissa. By saying it was planned for Orissa, he will have a ready made excuse to move to Gujarat.
On another front, Vedanta University received clearance from the environment ministry. Following is an excerpt from a PTI report on this.
A committee of the Environment Ministry has given the green signal to the Vedanta Group to set up its university in over 6,000 acres of land on the Puri-Konark Marine Drive in Orissa, notwithstanding protests from locals and activists.
August 13th, 2009
Following is from a report in Pioneer.
Finally, the Vedanta University Bill has got the approval of the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
With this the authorities would be able to set up a multi-disciplinary varsity on a sprawling 6,000 acre land along the Puri-Konark Marine Drive Road. Chairman of the Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda is likely to be the first VC of the Vedanta University. Besides, at least three Nobel laureates have been roped in to join as faculty, sources said.
Earlier, the Opposition as well as the Treasury bench members frowned upon some of the provisions made in the Varsity Bill. A number of amendments were brought in the existing provision. The proposed varsity would not be able to open off campus or off shore centre in relation to academic programmes of the institution.
Government chief whip Rabi Narayan Pani and Opposition Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan moved two separate amendments for the consideration of the House. Both opposed the provision allowing the varsity to open off campus centres.
“The legislation passed in the State Assembly has its purview in the territory of Orissa. Therefore, it would be illogical to allow the varsity to open off campus centres,” Harichandan said, adding that the varsity should be allowed to open regional campuses inside the State. Harichandan also cited the instance of a Supreme Court judgment striking down the Chhattishgarh Government’s act of allowing a varsity to open off campus.
“We asked the varsity authorities to open regional campuses inside the State. We have also proposed them certain locations in the KBK region, southern and northern Orissa for opening up of the campuses,” Higher Education Minister Debi Mishra said while replying to the amendments brought by the members.
As per the provision, the employees would not be treated as public servants. However, the Government would not interfere in the selection process of the employees. Merit would be given due consideration at the time of admission as its motto is to develop it as a world-class university. But no reservation facilities would be extended to either Oriya students or SC and ST students. Earlier, there was a demand to extend 10 per cent reservation facilities to the SC and ST and Oriya students. But the demand was struck down.
However, financial relaxations would be provided to SC and ST and weaker sections of the society.
Two MLAs would be taken as the members in the Management Board of the University.
If the University authorities don’t go ahead in establishing the university, the land would ultimately come back to the Government. If there is any dissolution of the university, it has to given a notice to the Government and employees and students of the university at least three year in advance.
Higher Education Minister Mishra also maintained that the university was required for the development of education in the State. He also rejected BJP legislature party leader KV Singh Deo’s apprehension that Vedanta might get benefit from the rich sand minerals. “The Centre is empowered to take a decision if any mineral is available in the land,” he said.
Here are some other reports on the topic: Economic Times, Business Standard, tathya.in.
Following are some excerpts from the Business Standard report.
The admissions to the university will be on merit basis. Though there is no reservation in admission and recruitment for the Orissa students, the university authorities will set up knowledge centres in different regions of the state for development of higher education in these areas.
Similarly, there will be concession in the fee structure for the weaker section, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe students of the state. The governing body of the university will comprise of 16 members. They will include two MLAs, one lady from SC or ST community and two nominated members of the government who includes the higher education secretary and an eminent educationist of the state.
If the university authorities choose to close down the institution, they will have to give notice for it three years in advance. In that case, the land acquired for the university from the local people, government and the Lord Jagannath temple will revert back to the original title holders. The land will be transferred to them at the price at which the land was acquired. It may be noted, the project will require 6000 acres of land.
… Meanwhile, the ICFAI University Bill, which was also tabled in the house, was referred to a select committee of the state assembly.
Following is an excerpt from tathya.in.
More than 40 lawmakers participated in the marathon discussion which covered 20 amendments.
Most important is fee relaxation for the poor, SC ST and meritorious students of the state, for which university authorities will formulate a separate policy, announced Mr.Mishra.
Secondly 2 of the lawmakers of Orissa House will find place in the Board of Governors.
Most importantly, if the University fails to come up, the land losers will receive back their land.
Land losers will also get facility to allow their children to read in the University with a liberal fee.
The amendments seem pretty reasonable.
Moreover, I really applaud the democratic process. The Bill was first presented in December 2008 and was tabled. This time it was presented on Saturday the 25th July 2009. There have been discussion on it since then and several hours on the 29th and almost the full day of July 30th was spent on debating and going over the bill clause by clause and making 20 amendments. I applaud the Orissa lawmakers to have done their job diligently. I admire the whole process. I hope the proceedings was recorded in video and would be some day made available to generation of Orissans and Vedanta University alumni.
July 31st, 2009
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