Archive for October 17th, 2007

Key sentences in the CM’s letter to the PM on IIT

I am told by someone who has seen the letter first hand that the letter has the following two key sentences:

  • At the end of the second paragraph where the CM talks about Orissa’s industrialization the sentence  is: "At this juncture, it is essential to catalyse our efforts by grounding of prestigeous central institutes like IIT, IIM, IIIT, etc. in Orissa."
  • The last two sentences of the letter are: "A new IIT in Orissa shall be the flagship project of the State and hence is accorded the top priority by the State Government. I look forward to receiving your support in the above matter."

4 comments October 17th, 2007

NISER ad for teaching assistant in Biology

The following is from http://www.iopb.res.in/niser/NISER-Advt16-10-07.pdf.

National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is looking for bright young people as teaching assistants in biology to help in teaching and carryout supervised research. The candidates are also expected to maintain laboratory and mentor undergraduate students. There will be opportunity to register for Ph.D. degree for those who perform exceptionally. The maximum duration of the position is five years subject to yearly evaluation. The candidates must have a 1st Class M.Sc./M.Phil. degree.

The interested candidates may send an application in plain paper with their ’Resume’ along with two letters of reference from their former teachers/supervisors and a statement of career goal to Director, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar-751 005. 

E-mail: niser@iopb.res.in

 

2 comments October 17th, 2007

Vedanta University has acquired 775 acres of land: Sambada

October 17th, 2007

UCE Burla team’s meeting with the CM and others: a first person report

Following is a first person report from one of the person who was present at the UCE Burla team’s meeting with the CM and others. (After the report, I will have a short analysis.)

It is Chak De hours for us, friends !

First, my thanks to the students who stood up to the task and continued their zero-incident strike for 12 days; they deserve huge ovation.
Second, thanks to CM who found time for us. Let me put in short what happened yesterday in CM’s meeting yesterday.

Govt had lined up Industry Minister Mr Harichandan, Industry Secretary Mr Dalwai, CM’s principal secretary, VC of BPUT and two more gentlemen. We had six students, Principal Dr Sanyal, Dr CR Tripathy and yours faithfully me.

Students first narrated what made them to go for strike. CM asked Industry Secy to respond. Secy said – (a) Society Registration file is with Finance Dept, Finance Minister will sign it tomorrow (16 Oct), then Industry Secy & minister. It is a matter of two or three days’s procedural time. But no hurdles, clearly. (b) BPUT Act shall be amended to disengage UCE from BPUT. It is none of our botheration. UCE will   straightway go ahead to register as society.  Industry Dept shall initiate a resolution in next Assembly. CM interjected to say it comes next month, in November. (c) CM said Govt will pursue the matter with UGC to ensure that we become Deemed University within 3 to 4 months. (but I personally believe it is an inadvertant over-statement by CM as state govt will not have any say in UGC except recommending. college authorities and we alumni have to pursue with UGC ourselves).

After students finished, I made few appeals on behalf of alumni. (a) Being the one and only college from Orissa which has potential to be put
into the league of quality colleges like Bengal Engg College, Jadavpur Univ, Osmania Univ, BHU, BIT or Anna University, state govt needs to go an extra mile beyond just conferring Deemed Univ status. CM nodded. (b) Only infrastructure added after it was built 50 years back by Hirakud Dam Project are a new library and an auditorium. Not only the 50-years-old college needs massive renovation, it also badly needs many more modern infrastructures. CM may plz depute high-level officials along with the Chief Architect of Orissa to campus who will assess the infrastructure, submit a master plan to CM based on which funds could be released over three/four years. CM nodded, asked his Secy to note it. (c) If UCE has to expand, which it will, it neds more land. Before encroached unauthorised by people, Govt may direct the local administration to transfer 300 acres available adjacent to UCE. CM said "he will look into this"  (d) Alumni are rock-solid behind UCE. Alumni have built a Gate and are building an e_Learning Centre. I showed him the photos from the farther corner of the distance. CM asked me to come to him with the photos and had a long close look at both the structures. Jubilee Gate resembles  India Gate, he commented. Said, he is happy that alumni are committed to the alma mater. Meeting ended. All for nearly 30 minutes. Students declared, they had called off the strike.

Later, Secy said CM kept a delegate of investors waiting as he wanted this meeting with UCE first. Some or other in Orissa go on strike everyday, but are rarely invited by CM for a meeting. Govt wants UCE to grow, he said. It seemed so.

How much of the committments shall be kept is to be seen. But, I believe Govt can not go back what they said so emphatically. one thing is sure, we have succeeded to move the wheel. It should move on from now. But, we cannot and will not rest before UCE is indeed conferred "Deemed University" and then an "IIT or IIEST".

One of UCE’s … well-wisher …, Prof Chitta Baral of Arizona University had advised us to demand for "State University" like BESU or Ravenshaw. But, we were cautioned by Industry Secy not to talk of State Univ or IIT in the meeting and we did not. And, rightly so. Thanks to Dr Baral for his passion for UCE.

All the local news papers today have carried the News on front page. It is Chak De UCE, finally.

A proud UCEian.

My Comments:

This is a  good start. Congratulations! I am hopeful that with the CM’s efforts UCE will get the "deemed university" tag quickly. But as mentioned above, it is not enough to be a deemed university. Being a deemed university does not guarantee adequate funding. So everyone must be ready to go to the next step; assuring good funding for UCE Burla. Unlike what is reported in Sambada, NIT Rourkela’s funding did not increase because it became a deemed university. It increased because central government took it over. There are many ways to ensure UCE Burla gets adequate funding. One way is to get the "funded by UGC" tag and become eligible to get UGC funds. Another way is to  get taken over by the central government and/or become an NIT, IIEST or IIT. Another way is to push the state government and Orissa industries to fund UCE Burla at a higher level. Yet another way is to get commitment from industries such as MCL regarding funding some UCE departments.

4 comments October 17th, 2007

RMTS scholar Himalaya Senapati got a silver medal at the International Astronomy Olympiad held in Ukraine

RMTS scholar Himalaya Senapati got a silver medal  at the International  Astronomy Olympiad held  in Crimea. For a sample Astronomy Olympiad question set see this.

October 17th, 2007

Finally the CM writes to the PM again on IIT

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman.

Chief Minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today pressed his demand for having an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and a Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the state by writing a letter to the Prime Minster Dr Manmohan Singh.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Patnaik emphasised on the establishment of high-quality technical and management institutes in order to boost the ongoing rapid industrial development of taking place in Orissa.


 The chief minister informed that huge investments in steel, aluminum and the power sectors have resulted in rapid growth in the industrial scenario of the state. Similarly, huge employment possibility has been generated in the automobile, petrochemicals and the IT sector.

All these require the development of human resources in the state and this prompted the state government to plan for various technical and vocational institutes with the help of private participation, Mr Patnaik added.

 As the Centre has decided to set up eight IITs, five IISERs, 20 IIITs and 30 central universities, the long-pending demands for elite national educational institutes in the state should be addressed, Mr Patnaik maintained in his letter.

It may be noted that the civil society had virtually launched a movement demanding establishment of an IIT in Orissa.

Similar reports also appear in Hindu, Pioneer, New Indian Express, Kalinga Times, etc. Following is Samaja’s take on it.


 

1 comment October 17th, 2007


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