I heard from some sources that IIIT Bhubaneswar has now received AICTE approval to start M.Tech courses. Their ad for admission will come out in a couple of days. They are also in the process of hiring 4 faculty, two of which have Ph.D.
6 comments December 18th, 2007
Action Item: Readers concerned about this may write to the CM at cmo@ori.nic.in to take immediate action and copy to one of the journalists in Orissa (perhaps Braja babu of Tathya.in at brajakmishra@gmail.com)
Following is from http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1455.
Orissa this time also is all set to miss the bus for Higher Education.
While the Higher Education Program for the Eleventh Five Year Plan is being final touches, Orissa is in deep slumber.
And who will be able to wake up a sleeping state, which is at the lowest ebb of the investment plan of the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), asks educationists.
The Eleventh Plan is historical because investment in HRD sector will receive a big jump.
Just follow these numbers:
Currently there are 7 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) s that was made over 60 years; there will 8 more during the 11th Plan.
There are 23 central universities made over 60 years; 30 more will be added during the Plan.
There are no world class universities in India and planners have decided to go for 14.
There are 6 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) s that was made over 60 years; there is a plan to establish 7 more.
There is a plan to set up Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH).
Currently there is a single National Institute of Design that was made in 60 years since Independence; there is a plan to make 4 more during the Plan.
The 11th Plan’s stated goal is to take the higher education enrolment to 15 per cent.
Orissa’s higher education enrolment is at the bottom 6.1 per cent.
So Orissa must be working very hard to take advantage of the 11th plan.
Lo behold ! No home work in sight and this time also the state is going to loose heavily, feel the educationists.
Chitta Baral, Professor in Arizona State University is a worried person.
And Prof. Baral has every reason to worry.
We need a world class university and not a single soul has raised his voice for the same in the Government, lamented Prof.Baral.
This type of institution will have a budget of Rs.1000 crore.
It would be again a pity, if the state is going to lose the same as there is opportunity to make a strong case.
It has the Ravenshaw University which without any affiliate colleges, matches the expected model of a world class university.
But will the State Government make such a case, asks Prof.Baral.
While Orissa is haunted by deaths due to cholera, it will be an appropriate place for setting up an Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH)
Till date the State has made no efforts to get one of the proposed 5-7 IIPHs in Orissa.
So far Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) s are concerned Orissa has not done much beyond the Chief Minister sending a couple of half-baked and impolite letters to the Prime Minister.
On the other hand, many other states have sent more detailed proposals.
Take the case of KBK Central University, in the past Orissa has made a case regarding a Central University in KBK.
However, it has not followed up on it recently.
Is not it time the State Government to follow up on this and makes a case, by pointing to the central universities in the North East, asks he.
It is not too late for many of the above; otherwise Orissa will get the pea nuts and predictably complain about Central apathy against the state.
3 comments December 18th, 2007
The important dates are:
(Note: For the claim of equivalence between NISER and IISERs see the PM’s speech at http://www.iopb.res.in/pmspeech.html. An exact quote is: "NISER will be at par with the IISER being established in other places but will operate under the umbrella of DAE".)
Following is from http://www.iopb.res.in/niser/admission.php.
Admission procedure for Five Year Integrated M.Sc. programme will consist of two components:
Final selection for admission will be made only on the basis of performance in the interview.
Eligibility
(i) Qualification : 60% marks for general category and 55% for SC/ST/PD category in aggregate (or equivalent grade) in Class XII (or equivalent) examination, from any recognized Board in India. Students who have passed the qualifying examination in 2007 or are appearing in 2008 are eligible to apply. Where only Letter grade is available, a certificate from the Board specifying equivalent percentage marks will be required. In the absence of such a certificate the decision of the NISER Admission Committee will be final.
(ii) Age_Limit : Candidates born on or after 01 Oct. 1983 are eligible to apply; this limit is relaxable by 5 years for SC/ST/PD candidates.
Number of Seats and Reservation.
There will be 40 seats in the academic year starting Aug. 2008, with reservation of 15% for SC and 7.5% for ST Categories. An overall reservation of 3% will be applicable for Persons with Disability (PD), as per Government of India norms. The admission will be very selective and only those students who are highly motivated to pursue higher education and research in science and its applications are encouraged to apply.
Obtaining Application forms for admission to NISER.
Application Form and information brochure can be downloaded from http://www.umdaecbs.in or here.
Information Brochure of NEST(2008) : 
pdf | 
doc
Information Brochure of NISER : pdf | doc
Application Form + Admit Card : pdf | doc
Newpaper advertisement : pdf | doc
 |
Application Form (A) and Admit Card (B) together with information brochure can be downloaded from the website: www.iopb.res.in/niser. Alternatively, they can be obtained FREE by sending a self-addressed envelope of size 30cm x 24cm to The Chief Coordinator – NEST-2008, Annabhau Sathe Bhavan, University of Mumbai (Kalina campus), Vidyanagari, Santacruz (E), Mumbai-400 098.
Application Fee
There is a single application fee (even if you are applying to admission to both NISER, Bhubaneswar and UM-DAE CBS, Mumbai) of Rs.500/- (all general category male candidates) and Rs. 250/- (SC/ST/PD and ALL female candidates), to be sent as Demand Draft in favour of "CBS-NEST", payable at Mumbai.
1 comment December 17th, 2007
The New Indian Express reports that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has updated the Oriya syllabus for the class X examination. The CBSE has been updating the Oriya syllabus for the past few years and the results are very encouraging. Oriya is now more popular among the students. Following is an excerpt from the news report.
The revision comes at a time when there has been a renewed interest among the students for the subject, thanks to the Board’s move to engage local experts to frame the syllabus and relax the content.
In fact, the 2006 and 2007 passouts got a feel of the transformation. And the result was encouraging.
‘Most secured marks that were on a par with marks fetched by students in Hindi and Sanskrit,’ said a teacher of a DAV Public School here.
The changes also benefited students of Class XII. Experts said the move helped the pupil bring the languages closer to heart and understand its richness.
December 13th, 2007
Review Report of Read India Campaign in Orissa (Jul – Nov 2007)
Dhanada Mishra
Introduction:
Pratham started its ‘Learning to Read’ and library activities in the slum areas of Cuttack in 2003 and later the direct program was expanded to Jaypore town in Koraput with support of BILT. Later the program was expanded when Pratham Orissa in collaboration with Orissa Primary Education Program Authority (OPEPA) conducted a pilot of ‘Learning to Read’ in 4 blocks of 4 districts namely- Kantamal of Boudh, Tikabali of Kandhamal, Basta of Balasore and Thakurmunda of Mayurbhanj during the period Nov 06 – April 07. The pilot received positive response and now the campaign has moved to 24 out of 30 districts of Orissa. We are covering 181 blocks (roughly half of the state) in these 24 districts. The blocks have been chosen in consultation with OPEPA on the basis of backwardness in terms of various parameters such as out of school children percentage, results etc. as compared to state average.
The campaign was launched on 28th of July with a 2 day state level consultation with various partner organizations. The campaign is 3 months old and community based as the OPEPA partnership to implement it through the school system is yet to be finalized, but likely to take place very soon.
No. of Districts: The campaign will now cover 24 out of 30 districts of Orissa
Target Children: The target group is the children in the age group of 6-14 years.
Learning Goals
The target children should be able to read 6 letter words and simple sentences, passage, short stories without conjoined letters.
Achievements and Shortfalls:
Other Highlights of Achievements:
All in all it has been an exhilarating experience, as we go about taking the campaign forward and reaching out to children far and wide in remote corners of the state. We hope to work closely with OPEPA at the state level and education department officials at all levels and finally primary school teachers to ensure that all of our children are able to read, write and do arithmetic.
1 comment December 13th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a news report in Hindustan Times.
Kerala’s Education Minister M.A. Baby Sunday inaugurated the first phase of Internet broadband connections to 1,200 schools in the state.
The initiative is part of the IT@School project launched by the state government in 2003 for imparting IT education to high school children across the state.
“All the 2,800 high schools in Kerala will be connected through broadband Internet by June as part of the project,” the minister said while inaugurating the first phase from the State Secretariat.
“We are planning to extend the services to upper primary schools (between 5th-7th classes) as well. In the first phase, we will start with 38 schools in this academic secession,” said Baby.
The project is implemented in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), which has endeavoured to give special tariff rates for the 2800 schools in the state.
“The security deposit, modem rental and installation charges has been waived. Each school has also been offered a nominal rate Rs. 5000 per year to avail the services,” said K.S. Sreenivasan, chief general manager of BSNL.
Currently, as part of the project, about 40,000 computers have been put into use at the high schools. More than 60,000 teachers have been trained in IT and nearly 1.6 million students have benefited.
December 11th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.
The State Government will open 933 primary and 708 upper primary schools in the current financial year.
The new schools will be located in areas having no schools as per the national parameters of having one primary school within 1 km radius and an upper primary school within 3 km radius.
… 449 primary schools and 392 upper primary schools had already been operationalised and the remaining schools will function by January-end.
About 300 centres under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has been converted to primary schools while a few primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools.
The Government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 120 crore for the new primary schools and Rs 41 crore for upper primary schools.
Each of of the new schools will be given a financial assistance of Rs 4.80 lakh for infrastructure development.
The funds will be provided to the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA).
The State has 34,953 primary schools, 3,979 upper primary schools and 12,376 nodal schools having both elementary and upper primary classes.
Two teachers will be appointed to each new primary school in the first year while each upper primary school will have three teachers.
While education volunteers working in the EGS centres converted to primary schools will be absorbed, preference will be given to local youth during appointment of teachers in these new schools.
December 11th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.
The Government is required to acquire 1.42 acres of private land for construction of the proposed 200-foot wide road that will connect the AIIMS site to the National Highway No. 5.
… Another 2.25 acres of land of the State Police Academy in Patrapada village will be acquired for the project.
The Chief Secretary directed the Home Department to take necessary action and report compliance.
He also directed the General Administration Department to identify the private land falling under the site earmarked for AIIMS under emergency clause.
The meeting was informed that the Orissa State Cashew Development Corporation had already handed over the required land, coming under its area and construction work of a 40-foot wide alternative road along the AIIMS boundary wall to Patrapada village, to Roads and Buildings Division of the Works Department.
The Khurda Collector further reported that the process had been initiated to dereserve 0.803 acre of gochar land coming under the project site.
The Public Health Department in coordination with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will supply water for the construction works.
A 132-KV double circuit tower existing within the site will be shifted for which the Energy Department will deposit Rs 1.34 crore to the Orissa Power Transmission corporation Limited.
The meeting also decided to take the public-private partnership route for construction of a bus stand, market complex, yatri nivas and other facilities for public convenience.
December 11th, 2007
The following is from http://vedanta.edu.in/news/?p=8.
Subject : Expression of Interest for the planning and design of A 1600 bed teaching Hospital and Medical college
Introduction
In 2006, the Anil Agarwal Foundation entered in to an MOU with the Orissa Government to set up the Vedanta University, a ‘not-for-profit’ initiative along the picturesque Puri- Konark marine drive in Orissa. The University and associated townships are on a 6300 acre campus, master planned by Ayers Saint Gross, the notable university architects and planners from Baltimore, Maryland USA.
The university is planned to have an ultimate strength of 100,000 students of International and Indian backgrounds studying around 95 diverse streams of learning. The university is planned to start intake of its first batch of students in 2009.
As part of the first Phase, we will build about 2.5 million square feet of academic buildings which include Humanities, Science, Engineering, Architecture, Business and Law colleges, the mail University library along with residences for about 3500 students and 700 faculty and staff. In Phase 1, we will also build the hospital with residences for staff, with the Medical College to follow subsequently.
Project
The hospital is envisaged as a 1600 bed teaching hospital which will be build in phases. An initial phase may comprise about 250 to 300 beds. The hospital should have super specialty streams which are needed both in the region and nationally. The hospital will have both paying and nonpaying patients, with the exact mix to be determined by the business model of building a self sustaining hospital.
Keeping all this in mind, we seek experts who can advise us on the way forward to make our Chairman’s vision into reality by helping us
a) Solidify our mission statement and also develop a business model for the same.
b) Provide us with detailed project report and space programs for the hospital and medical college.
c) Review the architectural plan for functionality and adherence to program.
d) Additionally we are seeking hospital design consultants who will develop building concepts and detailed architectural, structural and MEP drawings for tender. This would be a separate component.
Kindly let us know if your are interested in participating in this project. Interested parties may send us details of past performance in similar projects along with a list of key personals by 30th October 2007.
Thanking you
for Anil Agarwal Foundation
C. Joseph
Associate GM (Projects)
PS. Kindly send your reply along with necessary documents to
VU / Hospital / 10 /07
Vedanta University Project
C/o Anil Agarwal Foundation
232, Solitaire park
Andheri -Kurla link road.
Chakala, Andheri East.
Mumbai 400093
Phone +91 22 40058000
Fax +91 22 40058021
www.vedanta.edu.in
December 9th, 2007
2 comments December 9th, 2007
In a recent statement to Outlook (Thanks to Abi for the pointer) Prof. CNR Rao, Chairperson of SAC-PM and responsible for for many good things in Bangalore (including the recent Indian Institute of Nanotechnology), is seemingly critical of the IT industry but what really comes out of the article is that he wants the IT biggies in Banaglore to set up a Harvard/Stanford type private university in Bangalore. Perhaps he has tried to convince them of this earlier, and this public posturing is a last ditch effort in that direction. Following is an excerpt from that article.
IT people have a responsibility that they are yet to fulfil. If they’re making so much money, why shouldn’t they create an outstanding private university equivalent to Stanford or Harvard? Had they done something like that they would have compensated for the other problems they have created. If IT people are making money, what do I get out of it, unless I am employed in Infosys with Narayana Murthy? The trouble is, we have given them a lot, but have got nothing in return.
In this context, it is interesting that the people of Orissa do not quite realize the value of the proposed Vedanta University, whose stated goal is to be a Stanford/Harvard type university and plus it seems to have a sound financial plan behind it that includes a $1 billion pledge by Mr. Anil Agarwal. Because of the roadblock created by some in Orissa, the Vedanta University plan has not moved as fast as they wanted it. If such road blocks and delays continue, and other such plans come up in other parts of India, Vedanta University, and Orissa will lose the first movers’ advantage.
Orissa has a golden opportunity with Vedanta University; I hope they do not mess it up.
December 9th, 2007
December 9th, 2007
Thanks to reader Priyanka (comments 108-109) for the pointer. The following is from http://www.csirhrdg.nic.in/fellowship%20revision.pdf. The amount go up in two stages. From 1st September 2006 the amount for JRF goes up from Rs 8,000/month to Rs 10,000/month and then from 1st April 2007 the amount goes further up to Rs 12,000/month.
60 comments December 8th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Statesman.
The Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu), being renamed as Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST),Shibpur, would enrol students who qualify the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), an all India entrance examination, only.
Among the total enrolled students, 50 per cent would be admitted from the domicile category of AIEEE and the rest will be admitted from the non-domicile category. The Centre will send a letter detailing the admission procedure and the administrative set up to the state government next week. Once the letter reaches the higher education department, Besu would start taking in candidates.
The mode of governance that Besu followed by Besu would be in accordance with the recommendations laid down by the Anandkrishnan Committee. The board of governors will be the highest body in IIEST. It will be constituted by the Centre and will have some officials from the state. The number of state representatives in this body would be mentioned in the Centre’s letter. No Bill would be introduced in the Winter session of the Parliament to upgrade Besu to IIEST.
As Besu is the first institute to be upgraded to IIEST, Centre would not enact a separate IIEST Act. Instead the amendments would be included in the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Act as two separate schedules. Later on when more institutes acquire the IIEST status, a separate IIEST Act would be formulated”, said Prof BN Datta, dean, sponsored research, Besu.On the other hand, Jadavpur University, that had come out of the fold of the proposed IIESTs, is yet to hear anything from the Centre in regard to its letter urging to confer the status of Institute of National Eminence on JU.
9 comments December 8th, 2007
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