a group of artists from Balasore has embarked upon a mission to give sand art a fillip in this district.
"Our main aim is to make people more inclined towards sand art and create new artists and train them," said Kesudas, executive director of Baleswari Kala Kendra (BKK), a local organisation working for the development of ancient art form.
"There are number of artists in the district who want to show their talent in sand art. We have decided to give them scope so that they can excel," he added.
With this idea, a platform to showcase talents of local sand artists has been set up in front of the Gopabandhu park near Gandhismruti Bhavan and BKK School of Sand Art has been opened here.
"Local artists have been creating sand art works here daily and teaching other interested artists. Besides, 10 students who have taken admission in the school are being imparted training," said Kesudas.
The following report in Sambada mentions that the 500 acres of Jagannath land that Vedanta University has so far acquired is leading to a corpus fund that will result in 1 crore per year for the Jagannath temple. My understanding is that this land was occupied by various people who did not contribute much to the temple. Thus this seems like a win-win situation. Vedanta University is in the process of acquiring an additional 846 acres land from the temple trust.
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Statesman.
The Jagannath Temple Administration is likely to earn at least Rs 1 crore per annum by way of interest against deposits made by Vedanta group of industries towards the temple land that it has acquired for the proposed world class university.
Company sources here said Vedanta has acquired around 500 acres of land in Nalihana, Gaindala panchayats for its proposed university. The administration of Jagannath Temple revealed that the land acquisition for the university has been conducted as per the norms of Land Acquisition Act-1894 and the company has paid more than the current market price. As of now the administration is getting more than Rs 8 lakh per month as interest from Rs 8.33 crore which has been kept as fixed deposit in the bank, claimed the company sources. The interest calculations work out to Rs 1 crore per annum, they added. While the administration has decided to acquire around 1,346 acres of land registered in the name of Jagannath Temple administration in Nalihana and Gaindala villages for the proposed Vedanta University, the acquisition process of 500 acres of land has been completed. The acquisition process for rest 800 acres of land is on.
Reliable sources said there is a proposal to seek Rs 2 lakh per acre for the land that is yet to be acquired.It may be noted here that prior to the land acquisition for the proposed project, the temple administration used to get virtually nothing from the land holding of the Lord.
Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) here is contemplating to introduce a five-year integrated M Sc programme in computer science.
The course would seek to churn out computer scientists who would use their expertise in providing solutions to a number of fields.
All in all, its scope would go far beyond what is taught at the MCA level today. This should lead to a research programme in computer science in the areas of cryptography, digital image processing and bio-informatics.
Institute director Prof. Swadhin Pattnaik said the integrated programme will help students save one year. Students have to put in additional two years after graduation for pursuing such a programme from other institutes.
The success of the programme would immensely help several sectors recruit highly skilled computer professionals as the country is currently facing crisis for such hands.
Even though a number of technical institutes offer similar programmes today, the product they churn out fail to meet employers’ expectations. IMA, with its level of academic standards, promises to solve this problem.
… The Tata Group is supporting in the development of the infrastructure. However, he ruled out any knowledge of naming the institute after the Tata Group.