Odisha HRD

NASSCOM and MHRD tussle over the 20 new IIITs

Following are excerpts from a report in msn.com.

… Indian IT — which contributed to 5 per cent of India’s GDP — needs 2.3 million skilled staff by 2010, up 300,000 from the 2 million it employs now.

With this need in mind, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in the 11th plan document proposed the 20 IIITs, operated through a public-private partnership.

But the HRD ministry wants control of that partnership.

The ministry’s argument: we’re providing the land, much of the money, (half of the direct) loans and other benefits like tax exemptions.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), the umbrella body for the IT sector, has proposed an independent authority to oversee the 20 IIITs to ensure autonomy, flexibility and transparency.

… “There is a question over who will run these institutes,” a source in the ministry told HT. “We want government representatives on board, as we cannot leave everything in their [industry] control. Obviously, after providing all the benefits the government cannot be pushed aside.”

Nasscom also wants deemed university status for the each institute — the IIIT set up between the Centre, state and the corporate partner.

… The Nasscom report also cautions government against “political expediency”, in fixing IIIT locations. Meaning: set them up near IT parks and companies, not in political constituencies.  ran aground.

September 22nd, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar advertises for faculty positions and for registrar

The following is from http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/bhub_ad.php. (Thanks to Saumya for the tip.)

Advertisement for Faculty Positions and Registrar of IIT Bhubaneswar

• Invitation for Faculty Positions

  Download Application Form PDF / DOC

• Invitation for the post of Registrar

  Download Application Form PDF / DOC

The faculty ad starts as follows:

IIT Bhubaneswar (Orissa) invites applications for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in the following disciplines.
Disciplines : Civil Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Humanities & Social Sciences (Economics, English, Psychology)

This suggests that next year they will admit students in Computer Science, in addition to Civil, Electrical and Mechanical to which they admitted students this year.

5 comments September 18th, 2008

Applying for faculty positions at IIT Bhubaneswar

Update: See http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/bhub_ad.php for the ad.

As per  Prof. Damodar Acharya, the director of IIT Kharagpur, the mentor school for IIT Bhubaneswar, a specific advertisement for faculty positions at IIT Bhubaneswar will be coming out soon.

Until then interested candidates are requested to send their cv to him with a cover letter saying that they would like to apply for IIT Bhubaneswar. His email address is director@iitkgp.ernet.in.

The ad will have additional details. But until the ad for IIT Bhubaneswar comes out the ad for IIT Kharagpur at http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/faculty_top.php may be considered as a rough guideline. The salary scales will be same as that of IIT Kharagpur as well as all the other IITs. 

22 comments September 8th, 2008

Some details on the proposed 20 IIITs across the country

Following are excerpts from a report in livemint.com.

In the new IIITs, the government is actively considering a model where a majority stake goes to the private sector, while reducing the government to a minority shareholder. So, on an equity base of Rs30 crore, the government would get Rs14.90 crore maximum; and industry, Rs15.10 crore minimum.

“This is where the concept of autonomy begins. Even IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and IITs, which are autonomous institutes, can’t decide on fees and number of seats without government approval because they are dependent on it for grants,” said Rajdeep Sahrawat, vice-president of industry lobby group National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), who led the drafting of the detailed project report on IIITs.

The government is also looking at a loan model, prepared by Nasscom, for IIITs to be set up as autonomous bodies, where the government would give loans to the institutes—and not grant funds—to be paid back over 10 years after a five-year moratorium.

The partners in setting up these IIITs would be the HRD ministry, the governments of the respective states where each institute will be established and industry members.

 

The committee member said it is hoping the model has no management quota. “There will be a board of governors that will decide policy matters for the institutes, and have representations from academia, industry and government,” this person said.

To further clip government interference, the board of governors at these IIITs will have just one government representative, based on the policy of “one seat per investor”.

“Each institution should have three-four industry partners, with a pedigree for research. Even the age of the people to be appointed to the governing board can’t exceed 70 years,” the member said.

With a focus on research, the new IIITs will also have a faculty-student ratio of 1:10, as in IITs. While Nasscom’s public-private partnership model for the new IIITs skips any mention of reservations for students from backward classes, a provision for merit-cum-means scholarships for the students is proposed, where an institute is granted subsidy from the government for the scholarships granted.

This, however, continues to be the toughest call for the government. “The industry wants merit to be the sole criteria, but the government would like to push through reservations, as applicable in other educational institutions. However, the IIITs would have some kind of a relaxation of marks for students from certain backward classes,” the member said.

2 comments August 29th, 2008

Lower bound of faculty payscales at IIT/IISER/NISER type institutes after the 6th pay commission

As per http://niser.iopb.res.in/careers/ the salary scale of its faculty will be:

Using the table in http://staffcorner.com/sixpc.php  [alternate1, alternate2] (and assuming Bhubaneswar is a B1 city) the revised salaries will could be as follows: (Thanks to Comment 13 for correcting me.. There is a separate UGC Committee Chaired by Prof. Chadha, which will be looking at faculty salary. In that case the following salaries should perhaps be only considerd as a lower bound.)

• Assistant Professors starting salary (lower bound):
  

  Total Fixed Pay		Rs. 31208
  Dearness Allowance		(@16%)Rs. 4993
  HRA	:	20% ie. 6112
  Transport Allowance	:	Rs. 1968

• Readers starting salary (lower bound):
  

  Total Fixed Pay		Rs. 36911
  Dearness Allowance		(@16%)Rs. 5906
  HRA	:	20% ie. 7229
  Transport Allowance	:	Rs. 1968

• Associate Professors starting salary (lower bound):
  

  Total Fixed Pay		Rs. 41982
  Dearness Allowance		(@16%)Rs. 6717
  HRA	:	20% ie. 8222
  Transport Allowance	:	Rs. 1968

• Professors starting salary (lower bound):
  

  Total Fixed Pay		Rs. 59574
  Dearness Allowance		(@16%)Rs. 9532
  HRA	:	20% ie. 11667
  Transport Allowance	:	Rs. 1968

• Director starting salary (lower bound):
  

  Total Fixed Pay		Rs. 91940
  Dearness Allowance		(@16%)Rs. 14710
  HRA	:	20% ie. 18006
  Transport Allowance	:	Rs. 369

65 comments August 18th, 2008

Prof. Pankaj Jalote will be the founding director of IIIT Delhi

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday formally launched the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and expressed her commitment to make it a world-class institute.

"The government has been giving top priority to promote IT. Setting up of the IIIT in Delhi would give a fillip to acceptability of IT, which has ensured transparency and helped in developing new work culture," Dikshit told a press conference.

… The institute’s board is chaired by Kiran Karnik, a leading IT sector honcho, and it would have Pankaj Jalote, a computer science professor from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, as its founding director.

The board also includes Pheroz Vandrevala, R. Chandrashekar, S. Sadagopan, Ranjit Roy Choudhary and two principal secretaries from the Delhi government.

3 comments August 14th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar location search reaching a conclusion

Following is from Tathya.in.

The Government of Orissa has identified the site at Argul under Jatni tahsil near Bhuabneswar.  The entire area is 891 acres out of which 230 acre is forest land. While there will be delay in forest clearance, the Government of Orissa has opted for free patch of land. So the State Government has decided to earmark 500 acres of clean land for the IIT-Bh. Accordingly the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh to begin construction work in the site.

How ever the experts feel that the entire 891 acres of land, which has been crisscrossed by train lines and black top road have to be given a geometrical shape in keeping the future of the institution in view. Whole area is to be developed as a compact area and infrastructure development has to be taken up immediately, advised an expert. Black top roads are to be rearranged, so that when the IIT is completed than there will be  no through fare. To begin with there is the need of the water supply to be augmented at the first instance. At least 3 million gallon per day (MGD) water is needed and laying pipelines from Naraj will cost around Rs.46 crore. Laying pipelines to Naraj will take at least 2 years, feel the experts. Similarly, power supply to the area through 33 kv line is necessary and drawing the power line will cost Rs.6 crore. So at the first instance Rs.52 crore is needed for the basic infrastructure facilities, said an official.

The State Government earlier located 4 places like Garabandhu (Malipada), Banki (Dampara), Mundali (Ramdaspur) and Argul (Jatni). Out of the 4 places Argul has been chosen keeping in view all the aspects, said an official. How ever it is advisable to step up infrastructure development before handing over it to the Centre, feel an expert.  And the State Government should fund the improvement expenditure, said he.

Following is from Sambada.

August 11th, 2008

News on the other new IITs: IIT Gandhinagar to start Computer Science and Civil Engineering next year

Update2 (Aug 20, 2008): IIT Hyderabad classes to start today – New Indian Express. See also this TOI report.

Update1 (Aug 11, 2008): This Telegraph report talks about IIT Roopnagar (Punjab) and other new IITs.

As we mentioned earlier, registration at IIT Bhubaneswar was held on July 23rd with 104 students and classes started soon after that. Following is what has been reported about the other new IITs.

IIT Gandhinagar:

Following is an excerpt from a news report in ThaiIndian.

The new institute is short of faculty and the recruitment process is on. Until this process is over, seven professors and five research assistants from IIT Bombay have been requisitioned for it.

U.A. Yagnik, who teaches physics at IIT Bombay, has been appointed dean of student affairs and academic programme at the new institute.

The first batch has 103 students from different parts of the country, studying in the mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering streams.

In the next academic year B.Tech. courses in civil and computer sciences would be included.

The Gujarat government has spent Rs.7 million for upgrading the infrastructure of the engineering college to make it compatible to the IIT standards.

The central government’s site selection committee headed by Human Resource Development Ministry’s Additional Secretary Ashok Thakur is expected to inspect the new site for the proposed permanent campus Aug 7. 

IIT Rajasthan:

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

IIT Rajasthan opens with 112 students

the IIT Rajasthan was inaugurated Saturday (August 2nd)  by Minister of State for Higher Education D. Purandeswari.

IIT Patna:

Following is  an excerpt from another report in Economic Times.

Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh is scheduled to inaugurate IIT Patna here on Aug 6. The institute will operate out of a temporary campus this year.

"The formal functioning of IIT Patna is all set to start with classes on Aug 7," said dean of IIT Patna Samrendra Dandpat.

IIT Patna is one of the six new IITs being set up in the country.

Dandpat said here on Saturday that all the 109 selected students would attend classes from next week. "We will register the selected students on Aug 6 and classes will begin from next day," he said.

Dandpat said that preparation for setting up laboratories, hostels and classrooms were in the final stage. " IIT Patna will function from the polytechnic premises here now," he added.

There has not been any recent news on IIT Punjab and IIT Hyderabad, especially when they will start.

1 comment August 2nd, 2008

2008 Open-Close ranks for EE and ME at various IITs, ISM and (I)IT-BHU

The following is excerpted from http://jee.iitr.ernet.in/openclose.htm.

To keep all these in perspective, following links ranks with raw score in the IIT JEE exam. It is from http://jee.iitr.ernet.in/aggregate.htm.

Aggregate Total for every 500th rank in Common Merit List

August 1st, 2008

Nominations invited for new IIT directors

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pragativadi.

The Centre is in the lookout for for the eight new premier institutes of technology (IITs), six of which are set to start in the current academic session and the remaining from 2009-10.

The eight new IITs which are coming up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The Union Cabinet recently approved establishment of eight new IITs with an estimated cost of Rs 6,080 crore.

The government had also approved creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of  establishment of each of the new IITs, besides approving posts of a director and registrar. The directors, as per the public notice issued by the ministry, would be appointed after obtaining the approval of competent authority, based on the recommendations of the search-cum-selection committees.  …

The aspirants for the post of directors can send their applications directly to the ministry, while the eminent persons can also nominate candidates and send their recommendations to the selection committee.
Even bureaucrats and officials of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) with requisite experience and qualification can apply for the post of directors through official channel, the notice said.

July 28th, 2008

104 students get admitted to IIT Bhubaneswar

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Over 100 civil, electrical and mechanical engineering students of IIT Bhubaneswar will start their classes on the IIT Kharagpur campus.

The Bhubaneswar institute is one of the six IITs opening this year, but a site for the institute has not yet been finalised in the Orissa capital.

“The Centre has asked us to do the hand-holding. We will hold their classes on our campus till the IIT Bhubaneswar campus is ready,” said Damodar Acharya, the IIT Kharagpur director who is the acting head of the Bhubaneswar institute.

…  We have the facilities to accommodate all the 104 (Bhubaneswar) students. We did not want to arrange for separate classes or laboratories for them, like the other IITs, as we wanted them to be exposed to the world-class facilities available here,” Acharya told a news conference today.

These students will, however, get their degrees from Bhubaneswar.

“We have chosen a few sites for the IIT,” said Orissa industries minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan.

According to the Centre’s specifications, 600 to 1,000 acres are required to set up an IIT. The site should also be close to an airport, railway station and national highway. Besides, two million gallons of water should be available every day.

Last month, a two-member team from IIT Kharagpur inspected a few sites in and around Bhubaneswar.

A senior official of the Orissa industries department said a 900-acre plot near Banki, 62km from Bhubaneswar airport and close to the Mahanadi, was judged the most suitable site.

Acharya said the government would allot 40 faculty members for the additional students.

On a related note there is an excellent article about recruiting faculty for the new IITs by Prof. Pankaj Jalote of IIT Delhi. Prof. Abinandan adds to it in his blog post.

2 comments July 24th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar first year students status at IIT Kharagpur

As per the details at http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/welcome.php the IIT Bhubaneswar students will be staying mostly in MMM Hall (females in MT Hall). MMM Hall is the largest hostel at IIT Kharagpur and it will also house IIT Kharagpur students.

For classes the 100+ IIT bhubaneswar students will be divided into all the 12 sections; so they will have their section mates as IIT Kharagpur students.

July 22nd, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar first off the block

As the readers know eight new IITs are being established in India. They are: IIT Bhubaneswar (mentored by IIT Kharagpur), IIT Hyderabad (mentored by IIT Madras), IIT Rajasthan (mentored by IIT Kanpur), IIT Bihar (mentored by IIT Guwahati), IIT Punjab (Mentored by IIT Delhi), IIT Gandhinagar (mentored by IIT Bombay),  IIT Himachal Pradesh (mentored by IIT Roorkee) and IIT Indore (mentored by IIT Bombay). Of these the first six will start classes this year.

The following news mentions that of the six that will start classes this year, admission to IIT Bhubaneswar will start on July 23rd and classes will start immediately after that, while admission to the other IITs will start next month. (Note that classes  at IITs start immediately after admission.) Big thanks to the mentor institution IIT Kharagpur for this. This action is in line with our arguments on advantages of IIT Bhubaneswar over the other new IITs. Following is an excerpt on this from a news item in Economic Times.

Admission to the Bhubaneswar IIT, which is among the six new ones to come up this year, will begin on July 23 at the Kharagpur IIT here, sources said.

120 students will get admission to the new IIT this year and Kharagpur IIT director Damodar Acharya will be its coordinator, they said.

Faculty will be exchanged between the two IITs as and when required and all cooperation and academic support will be extended by the Kharagpur IIT, which is the nearest, in the initial stages, the sources said.

Admission to the rest of the five new IITs would begin next month.

Following is an excerpt from Pioneer’s report on this.

"We will ensure that from day one students feel they are studying in an IIT," Professor Acharya said. The IIT Orissa was also registered under the Society Registration Act in the office of IG in Cuttack on Saturday.

1 comment July 19th, 2008

Cabinet approval of the new IITs

Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=40469.

Cabinet has today approved the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and at Indore in Madhya Pradesh at a total cost of Rs. 6080 crores (@ Rs. 760 crores per IIT) for 6 years period, and consequently approval for forming of Societies for creating legal entities for the new IITs. Academic sessions are going to commence in 6 new IITs starting from 23.7.2008. The IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are going to commence their classes for about 120 students each for B.Tech programmes through temporary campuses located near the place where the IIT campus is likely to be built. These 3 IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are going to be mentored by the IITs of Madras, Guwahati and Bombay, respectively. The three IITs of Rajasthan, Punjab and Orissa are going to commence their classes in the campuses of their mentor IITs at IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur, respectively.

The Cabinet has also approved the creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of establishment of each of the new IITs and have also specifically approved the post of a Director in each of the new IITs in the grade of Rs. 26,000 (fixed) and a post of Registrar in the grade of Rs. 16,400-22,400 for each of the new IITs. The Cabinet has also decided to raise the grade of all existing IIT Directors from Rs. 25,000 (fixed) to Rs. 26,000 (fixed).

The balance of two IITs at Indore in Madhya Pradesh and the IIT in Himachal Pradesh are likely to commence their sessions from the next academic year of 2009-10. All the State Governments have identified about 600 acres of land for the location of the new IITs. In case of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, Govt. have accepted the site recommended by the State Govt. and in the rest of the cases, the Site Selection Committee will inspect the offered sites in due course and will give its recommendations to the Ministry.

With a view to ensure good effective coordination as well as maintenance of excellence in the new IITs also, pending selection of regular Directors for the IITs, it has been decided that the Directors of the mentor IITs will work as Directors of the mentored IIT and the Chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the mentor IIT will also be the Chairman of the BoG of the mentored IIT.

With the creation of new IITs, high quality technical education will become accessible to more bright students as now hardly two percent of about three lakhs students who appear in the Joint Entrance Exam of IITs can get admission in them. The new IITs will also facilitate the increased output of high quality Engineering and Science graduates, postgraduates and Ph.D.s; Teachers for Engineering and Science subjects at College/University level and R&D and Intellectual Property generation in Engineering and Science.

Cabinet also approved in principle approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University – a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology and integrating it with the IIT system in the country.

It would also address State/Region specific technology related problems of States/UTs situated in the IITs’ Zones.

July 17th, 2008

Emergency measures for new IITs and new Central Universities

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

A draft Ordinance for 12 new universities and upgrading four  Bilaspur University (Chattisgarh), Garhwal University (Uttarakhand), Goa University and Sagar University (Madhya Pradesh)  is expected to be put up for Union Cabinet approval. This will take the number of central universities to 37.

An Ordinance for the new IITs is also being considered to implement the initiatives that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had formally announced in his Independence Day address in 2007.

The department of higher education had earlier sought Cabinet approval to amend the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, to include the eight new IITs and to form a society under the Societies Act, 1861, to set them up. The plan to form a society is being shelved to hasten the process. With the Banaras Hindu University’s Institute of Technology also slated to be upgraded to an IIT, the number of IITs will increase to 16.

For the new IITs, the government has provided for Rs 2,000 crore in the 11th Plan and, to start with, Rs 50 crore has been allocated in Budget 2008. For the 16 central universities, Rs 2,725 crore has been provided for in the Planm, with Rs 50 crore allocated in the Budget.

1 comment July 14th, 2008

Orissa to push for the centrally funded IIIT to be in Berhampur: Dharitri

This is a very good and sensible decision by the state; hopefully the central govt. will not create issues with it.

July 12th, 2008