Oxford University Press opens its 10th Indian showroom in Bhubaneswar: Sambada
February 22nd, 2008
Archive for February, 2008
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) in UP : Some details
Following are excerpts from a PIB release on this.
In a significant development towards setting up a world- class petroleum technology institute in India, Smt Sonia Gandhi, Member of Parliament and UPA Chairperson laid the foundation stone of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) at Jais, near Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh on 20th February 2008. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas piloted the enactment of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) Act 2007 with a view to incorporate RGIPT as an ‘Institute of National Importance’ under an Act of Parliament having a governance structure as well as legal empowerment to grant degrees in a manner similar to that enjoyed by the IITs.
…The total estimated capital cost of the project is Rs.435 crore which would be met partially through budgetary support of Rs. 285 crore and Rs.150 crore from Oil Industry Development Board. The total estimated recurring expenditure of Rs. 260.58 crore would be met from the accrual of interest on Endowment Fund of Rs. 250 crore to be created with the contribution of Oil Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), student fees, donations and other earnings of the Institute through Research & Development, consultancies, students’ placement fees, etc. The Institute is envisaged to be self sufficient and self-reliant by the year 2015-16.
… The Institute will commence its academic operations by admitting students from the academic year 2008-09. To start with, there will be two undergraduate courses namely B. Tech. in Petroleum Production & Reservoir and B. Tech. in Petroleum Refining and one MBA course on Petroleum Management. The Institute will become fully operational in 2015-16and would have 7 B. Tech, 6 Integrated Masters Degrees, 8 M.Tech/MBA and 12 PGD and Ph.D programmes.
It is proposed that RGIPT would have a high degree of autonomy in terms of its academic, administrative and financial functioning. RGIPT would have legal empowerment in its own right to enable it to grant degrees and other academic distinctions and titles. Furthermore, it is envisaged that RGIPT would enjoy the patronage and support of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India. It is in the interest of the nation that the Government nurture the Institute in its nascent and crucial stage of development to enable the Institute to launch and run its programmes without compromise and set up world-class infrastructure while offering courses of a high standard. According RGIPT the status of the “Institute of National Importance”, is expected to help attract eminent faculty members and meritorious students to the Institute.
208 comments February 20th, 2008
Status of land acquisition for Vedanta University
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
The State Government has so far been provided 1418.10 acre of land to the management of the upcoming Vedanta University near Puri. Out of this 264.27 acre are Government land and the rest 1153.83 acres of land are private land, said Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal.
In response to a question of BJD member Baidhar Mallick, Revenue Minister Samal said 1257 acres of land have been acquired from the 13 mouzas. "Government will acquire another 443.26 acre of government land and 4,288.37 acre of private lands for this purpose," he said. He further informed the House that 707.52 acre of lands and 5545.38 acres of private land private lands are there in the 18 mouza of this area.
February 20th, 2008
IDCO tender out for two OSME (Orissa School of Mining Engineering) buildings costing 3.67 crores each
(Note: IDCO tenders are available at http://www.idcoindia.com/idco/tenders.asp. )
No.HO/SE/0007/08- 2401
Dtd. 08.02.08
Sealed tenders are invited for the works
(i) Construction of Mining & Mineral Deptt. Building ( Block I) for OSME(Degree Stream) at Keonjhar-
Estimated cost Rs. 367.00 lakhs.
(ii) Construction of Electrical & Mechanical Deptt. Building
(Block II) for OSME (Degree Stream) at Keonjhar-
Estimated cost Rs. 367.00 lakhs.
from Special & Super class contractors registered under State PWD/ CPWD/ MES/ Railways including registered vendors of IDCO in the category of Rs.100 to 500 lakhs & above having experience in similar building works. The tender paper will be sold at a cost of Rs. 10,000.00 only from 14.02.08 to 21.02.08 between working hours on working days in the office of the Superintending Engineer, IDCO, IDCO Towers, Bhubaneswar. The completed tender documents should reach Superintending Engineer, IDCO, IDCO Towers, Janpath, Bhubaneswar-22 on or before 29.02.08 by 5.00 P.M. through registered post / speed post only. The technical bid will be opened on 03.03.08 at 11.30 A.M. For details please contact Sri Deepak Ranjan Tripathy, Deputy Manager (Civil) IDCO, IDCO Towers, Janpath, Bhubaneswar-22, Tel.0674-2546894 during office hours or see our website www.idcoindia.com The tender documents can also be down loaded from the above website upto 5 p.m. on 21.02.08.
Sd/-
Superintending Engineer (Civil)
1 comment February 17th, 2008
Tender for construction of housing complex for AIIMS like institute in Bhubaneswar
Latest from http://www.mohfw.nic.in/tenders.html (see also http://mohfw.nic.in/tenders.htm):
Tender for Construction of Housing complex for AIIMS like institutions under PMSSY at BHUBNESHWAR(ORISSA)
Some details about the tender:
- Release label: January 2008
- Tender number: HSCC//BU-/155 D/2008
- Estimated cost: 60 crores
- Completion period of work: 15 months
- Date of issue of tender document: 2/12/08 – 3/3/08 up to 1:00 PM
- Last date of submission at HSCC NOIDA office: 3/4/08 up to 3 PM; opening at 3 PM
- Bid security: 61 lakhs
Earlier links are at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=749.
February 17th, 2008
Dr. K. S. Krishnan research associateship (KSKRA) at DAE labs: ad in Samaja
1 comment February 17th, 2008
All facade and no substance: An English visitor writes about private engineering colleges in Orissa
Following are some excerpts from the article in The Herald, UK.
I found one building particularly attractive: the canteen in the style of a Buddhist temple. But when I went inside to try the fare, I was disappointed: the food was insipid, the interior dreary and the acoustics such that conversation was drowned out by a called order or moving dishes. One of the lecturers said to me: "This is your new college: all facade and no substance."
…
Typically, the colleges provide the education while an external university provides the actual degree. Thirty per cent of the final marks are assigned internally, and this led to a unique experience in my 30-year career in education: watching a colleague choosing numbers at random between 60% and 90%. No assessment was actually carried out.
Some departments ran what the students referred to as an "autograph" system: the lecturers actually prepared an exam paper, to be shown to the university if necessary, but the students gained their marks – usually a minimum of 70% – if they turned up and signed their names. …
Although some lecturers told me the chairman was simply posturing, accompanied by a senior professor, I went round all the classes advising that the days of fake marks were over. I prepared an elaborate set of internal assessment devices that were duly and diligently used by the lecturers. Some students clearly didn’t take my warnings seriously and absenteeism remained at its normal high level. A fair number of students received fail marks.
But what marks were actually sent off to the university by the college? What I do know is that, when the university published the final results, students who had been given 5/30 somehow or other got 20/30.
The colleges are responsible for 30% internal assessment but the remaining 70% is controlled by the external university. However, in Orissa, the "external university" exists in name more than reality and consisted only of a vice-chancellor and a few office staff. Crucially, the externally supervised end-of-semester exams were invigilated by a mixture of college staff and colleagues from other colleges and all of the colleges were in the same boat: they sank or swam together.
The Indian college system is a huge cesspit: bribery is the norm. …
1 comment February 15th, 2008
New CBSE regional offices to open in Bhubaneswar and Patna: Dharitri
Currently the CBSE regional offices are in Chennai, Guwahati, Allahabad, Delhi, Ajmer and Panchkula (Harayana).
February 13th, 2008
Early budget numbers in education
Following is an excerpt from a report in Asian Age.
… the ministry has decided to propose an outlay of nearly Rs 2,522 crores in the 2008-09 Budget to allow institutions to augment their intake capacity if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Centre’s decision to reserve 27 per cent of the seats in Central educational institutions for other backward classes (OBCs). … For 2007-08, the Budget had provided for an allocation of Rs 2,698 crores to help the institutions augment their capacity. The overall outlay for the implementation of quotas during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12), is pegged at Rs 11,728,000 crores.
The ministry has proposed an outlay of no less than Rs 12,800.51 crores for the 2008-09 Budget. Not surprising, given the Centre’s ambitious plans to go in for a huge expansion in technical education during the Eleventh Plan which has proposed an outlay of Rs 84,943 crores for it.
The HRD has proposed an outlay of Rs 1,496.01 crores for "new schemes" in areas of technical education in the 2008-09 Budget. Of this amount, a major portion has been proposed as outlay for the setting up of new polytechnics. The ministry wants nearly Rs 440 crores set aside for the new polytechnics apart from another Rs 101 crores for the strengthening of 400 existing polytechnics. Another Rs 150 crores has been proposed as outlay for the 580 new community polytechnics. …
As for the eight new IITs the UPA government has plans to set up, the HRD ministry has proposed an outlay of Rs 200 crores for them in the forthcoming Budget. As for the existing IITs, the ministry has proposed an outlay of Rs 492 crores. The seven new IIMs also on the anvil in the Eleventh Plan have had an outlay of Rs 50 crores proposed for the 2008-09 Budget, while an outlay of Rs 45 crores is proposed for the existing IIMs. For the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the ministry has proposed an outlay of Rs 70 crores for 2008-09. A substantial amount — Rs 150 crores — is the proposed outlay for increasing the fellowship amount for M.Tech. students.
Other institutions that the Budget will be providing for are the 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) that are in the offing. The ministry has budgeted Rs 50 crores as the outlay for 2008-09. As for the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) coming up in Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram and the new one in Mohali, the ministry has proposed an outlay of Rs 100 crores in the coming Budget.
Yet another area set to get a boost is that of faculty development in technical education with the ministry proposing an outlay of Rs 100 crores for 2008-09.
1 comment February 13th, 2008
Orissa cabinet approves 298.8 acres of free land for NISER
See http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1619.
February 13th, 2008
Gurukula Institute of Technology’s ad in Samaja
It had earlier advertised in 2007. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=335. Perhaps it was not ready then. Lets hope it will start this year.
1 comment February 11th, 2008
National Council of Teacher Education; eastern regional office in Bhubaneswar
Following is from their page http://www.ncte-in.org/theintro.htm.
National Council of Teacher EducationAT A GLANCE
INTRODUCTION
The National Council for Teacher Education, in its previous status since 1973, was an advisory body for the Central and State Governments on all matters pertaining to teacher education, with its Secretariat in the Department of Teacher Education of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Despite its commendable work in the academic fields, it could not perform essential regulatory functions, to ensure maintenance of standards in teacher education and preventing proliferation of substandard teacher education institutions. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action thereunder, envisaged a National Council for Teacher Education with statutory status and necessary resources as a first step for overhauling the system of teacher education. The National Council for Teacher Education as a statutory body came into existence in pursuance of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (No. 73 of 1993) on the 17th August,1995.
OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the NCTE is to achieve planned and coordinated development of the teacher education system throughout the country, the regulation and proper maintenance of Norms and Standards in the teacher education system and for matters connected therewith. The mandate given to the NCTE is very broad and covers the whole gamut of teacher education programmes including research and training of persons for equipping them to teach at pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary stages in schools, and non-formal education, part-time education, adult education and distance (correspondence) education courses.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
NCTE has its headquarder at New Delhi and four Regional Committees at Banglore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur to look after its statutory responsibilities. In order to enable the NCTE to perform the assigned functions including planned and co-ordinated development and initiating innovations in teacher education, the NCTE in Delhi as well as its four Reginal Committees have administrative and academic wings to deal respectively with finance, establishment and legal matters and with research, policy planning, monitoring, curriculum, innovations, co-ordination, library and documentation, inservice programmes. The NCTE Headquarters is headed by the Chairperson, while each Regional Committee is headed by a Regional Director.
30 comments February 10th, 2008
Adam Gross, design principal at the Baltimore architectural firm Ayers Saint Gross, discusses the design of Vedanta University in Maryland Radio
Adam Gross, design principal at the Baltimore architectural firm Ayers Saint Gross, discussed the design of Vedanta University with Tom Hall the Arts and Culture Contributor for Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast and the host of Choral Arts Classics on January 25 2008.
- The mp3 recording of the broadcast (9 minutes, about 9 MB)
Some of the new details about the university that I learned from listening to this broadcast are as follows:
- 2:35: The construction is expected to start in Spring 2008.
- 2:39: First classes are supposed to start in 2009.
- 2:41: First phase they plan to have 3100 students and 400 faculty in next 2 years.
- 2:54: Second phase they plan to have 10,000 students and reach that milestone in another 5 years.
- 3:02: Third phase they plan to have 40,000 students.
- 3:04: In 25 years they plan to reach build out of 100,000 students.
February 10th, 2008
MHRD thinks of offering affordable coaching classes for IIT/IIM etc.
Update: MHRD thinking of SAT/GRE style staggered exams.
This is a good move by MHRD. Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph about this.
Concerned about the proliferation of private tutorial services and the high fees they charge, the human resource development ministry has approved a proposal to introduce the country’s first public-funded training to crack competitive exams.
Initially, the training is likely to cover entrance tests to the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. But the government plans to extend the facility to the civil services entrance exam too, senior officials said.
… The government is, however, anxious to ensure that the “cheaper” option does not end up as a poor man’s coaching class.
Teachers from the country’s top higher education institutions will be invited to form a faculty pool for the facility.
“It will be a broad-based effort involving teachers from universities, IITs and IIMs. The institutions have agreed in principle. The challenge will be to bring teachers on board,” the official said.
Officials conceded that at least initially, the online coaching might not be a substitute for the physical tutorials.
But they hoped the low fees would attract people — rich or poor — to it.
“We hope that soon enough they will realise that they will be prepared best for the competitive exams here,” the official said. … the Planning Commission is learnt to have cleared the proposal as well. … sources said students were likely to charged only a basic registration fee — probably less than Rs 1,000 — which will be used to cover additional emoluments for the faculty.
The faculty will each have a blog restricted to students, who can ask questions and will receive answers within a day.
The teachers’ pool will prepare tests in each subject, which students will take online — like the GRE.
Each student will have an online account — their entry to the coaching class.
Apart from the questions through blogs, live classes can also be held, the official said.
1 comment February 9th, 2008