Odisha HRD

NISER in Rajya Sabha

Following is from a PIB report about NISER, Bhubaneswar.

In a Writ Petition (C) No. 10836 of 2005, the Government has submitted before the High Court of Orissa that the Government is taking follow up action for implementation of the announcement made by the Prime Minister on 28.8.2006 regarding setting up of a National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar under the Department of Atomic Energy and that it is proposed to start the academic session from August, 2007. Taking cognizance of this, the Orissa High Court has disposed of the Writ Petition with a direction to the Government to ensure that the NISER is established at Bhubaneswar pursuant to the decision of the Government of India.

The Department of Atomic Energy has informed that 300 acres of land has been allotted by the government of Orissa for setting up of NISER. NISER has been registered under the Societies Registration Act and infrastructural facilities are being put in place. In addition, for admission to NISER, an NISER Entrance Screening Test (NEST) followed by interview has been conducted and admission will commence on 10th September, 2007.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shri M.A.A.Fatmi in a written reply to a question raised by Ms. Pramila Bohidar and Shri B.J. Panda in Rajya Sabha today.  

August 29th, 2007

IIIT Bhubaneswar has a web page with ad for hiring and RFP from architects

The web page of IIIT Bhubaneswar is http://iiit-bh.in. It has a detailed advertisement for jobs and an RFP from architects.

1 comment August 29th, 2007

Tathya scrolling text: Ravenshaw University likely to get Central University Status

7 comments August 29th, 2007

Statesman: Orissa needs to set right its technical education

Following are some excerpts from a Statesman article by Jitu Mishra.

Orissa … has now become the most favoured destination for global investors attracting the likes of POSCO, Arcelor Mittal, Sterlite, Vedanta, Tata’s etc.

Backed by its abundant mineral resources it has already signed over 60 MoUs in steel, aluminum, power and other sectors ensuing an investment to the tune of Rs 4 lakh crores.

As stated recently by Industry secretary Mr. Ashok Dalwai, various project proposals including those of POSCO and Arcelor Mittal are at different stages of implementation and the government is hopeful that within the next 8-10 years, these plants would be commissioned.
The problem, however, is the non-availability of enough manpower with the specific skills which will be heavily required by these industries which are both technology and labour intensive, observe educationists and industrial circles here.

Despite some initiatives the state by and large seems completely un-prepared for meeting the demand for the manpower that will be required as these projects roll out.

The question is, how the state, which ranks 2nd in the country in terms of unemployment growth rate (as per NSSO report ’07) and home to around 10 lakh unemployed people, would cope up with the situation.

A glimpse at the projected employment opportunities to be created by of some of these mega projects reflects the huge gap.

According to a Social Cost Benefit Analysis of the proposed 12 MTPA integrated Greenfield Steel Project of POSCO-India, prepared by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the project would create 18,000 direct employment opportunities in iron & steel production sector while simultaneously generating 15,000 employments in iron ore mining sector over a period of 30 years.

The report also says that if all these direct & indirect employment opportunities of the project including the ones that will be generated as linkage effect in the manufacturing, trade, construction, agro-based businesses such as farming, animal husbandry etc., hospitality & services sectors are taken into account the employment effect of the project will be 8.7 lakh person-years over the period of 30 yrs.
Arcelor Mittal which also proposes to set up a steel plant of similar capacity though has assigned MN Dastur & Co. for preparation of the comprehensive study report, the preliminary estimates say that the project would create 20,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
Apart from these two companies, there are several others in the fray and some of them have even started initial or trial production.
If we go by the simple ratio of production output and employment generation put up by NCAER; the crude steel sector would generate 0.692 person-years of employment per Rs 1 lakh of output while iron ore sector would create 0.354 person-years for the same output.
More over, realization of all these projects will stimulate other industries in the state, as a Linkage Effect, which will impact job creation in related sectors.

The ancillary and downstream industries and infrastructure development sector also promise a lot many employment opportunities and scope for entrepreneurship for the unemployed in the state.

Opportunities of such huge number of employment are to benefit both the technical as well as the non-technical workforce, in the state, which is presently characterized by abundant manpower but plagued by the problems of unemployment, underemployment and migration of labour.
Human resource development experts feel that the government should develop an action plan with the help of companies and technical institutions to groom the manpower so that maximum number of talents from Orissa get employment by the time the projects start operating.
As said by Infosys BPO Chairman Mr. Mohandas Pai during his recent visit, Orissa should first put efforts to build a pool of skilled professionals in the state if it wishes to capitalize on the employment opportunities.

The government decision to open a branch of Central Tool Room & Training Centre at Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex, in Jajpur District, POSCO-India’s Human Resource Development Training Centre on 7 acres of land and the Tata Steel’s Technical Training Center at Gopalpur are some noticeable efforts in enhancing the employability of the local people.

But, more & more companies need to be encouraged to set up technical institutes such as ITIs & ITCs to prepare manpower as the annual turn out out of such skilled workforce in the state is 21,912 from out of 24 Govt. & 152 private ITIs & ITCs in the state (As per Govt. of Orissa data for the year 2004-05).

But the fact is that many of them, around two-third pass outs even lack of technical skills, practical exposure as well as domain knowledge and fail to meet the industry standards, as pointed out by a leading automobile manufacturer.

The need of the hour is to improve on the standard of the present technical education in the state and strengthening the industry-institution linkage. Maximum advantage needs to be taken from the Biju Pattnauk National Steel Institute (BPNSI), set up by Ministry of Steel at Puri. Sensing the huge requirement of technical manpower and the urgent need of reviving the technical education, initiatives need to be started immediately to set right the technical education scenario in the state.

3 comments August 29th, 2007

Prof Madhu Mishra takes over as Sambalpur University Vice Chancellor

Update Sept 20 2009: Prof. Mishra did not join. Later Prof. Arun Pujari of University of Hyderbad was appointed and he joined as the VC of Sambalpur University. He is doing a great job.

Following is an excerpt from Pioneer. 

Orissa Governor MC Bhandare on Tuesday appointed Professor Madhu S Mishra as the new vice-chancellor of the Sambalpur University for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Prof Mishra will succeed Prof PC Tripathy, whose two-month extended term shall cease from the date of assumption of office by the new vice-chancellor.

Mishra trained in the disciplines of Economics, Sociology and Development Administration had earlier worked in the Planning Commission, Ford Foundation, Sriram Centre for Industrial Relations and Delhi University. 

Prof. Mishra’s latest position was at IIM Calcutta, where his email is listed as madhu_sm@hotmail.com.

4 comments August 29th, 2007

Rejoinder to “Vedanta University: a flawed pipe dream”

Following is a rejoinder to a recent Hindu article titled "Vedanta University: a flawed pipe dream,"  written by Philip G. Altbach.

While it is possible that Vedanta University, may not turn out as envisioned, it is definitely not a flawed pipe dream. We now show why some of the
arguments given in the above article is flawed.

1. This article talks about $1 billion (the number $3 billion is thrown as an afterthought towards the end of the article) and how it is not a lot money. First, Vedanta University folks have talked about $3 billion, not $1 billion. The $1 billion number is the number that Mr. Agrawal has pledged to contribute; not the number he thinks the university needs. He thinks the later number to be $3 billion. If one wonders where the rest of the $2 billion is supposed to come, then there are two likely sources: (i) the tuition paid by the students and (ii) the use of the real estate in the planned city around the Vedanta University.

Next, lets look at the budget of some of the existing Indian institutions:

• The 7 IITs had a budget of 683.5 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 1553.70 crores (taking into account the expansion plan) for 2007-08.
• The Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore had a budget of 168 crores in 2006-07 and 283 crores for 2007-08.
• The 6 IIMs had a budget of 74 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 144 crores for 2007-08.
• UGC had a budget of 2700.17 crores in 2006-07 and 3763.52 crores in 2007-08. This include funding about 20 central universities (does not include IGNOU)
• IGNOU had a budget of 91 crores in 2006-07 and a budget of 98.2 crores in 2007-08.
• SPA (School of Planning and Architecture) had a budget of 10.20 crores in 2006-07 and 22.30 crores in 2007-08.
• National Institute of Design had a budget of 11.25 crores in 2006-07 and 20.25 crores in 2007-08.
• Indian Statistical Institute had a budget of 59.14 crores in 2006-07 and 73.01 crores in 2007-08.
• AIIMS Delhi had a budget of 490 crores in 2006-07 as well as 2007-08.
• The new IISERs are to be made at a cost of 500 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new IITs are to be made at a cost of 1000 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new central universities are to be made at a cost of 300 crores each (over a period of 5-7 years)
• The new AIIMS-like institutes are to be made at an expense of 322 crores each.

What Vedanta University folks have said is that they will spend $1 billion in the initial phase (i.e. Rs 4000 crores) and $3 billion (Rs 12,000 crores) over the next 10-15 years.

Based on the estimates about Rs 4000 crores can be used to build two new IITs (1000 crore*2) + two new IISERs (500 crores*2) + two new central universities (300 crores*2) + two new IIMs (150 crores estimate) + a new National Institute of Design (100 crores estimate). The recurring cost of these would be at 2006-07 estimates would be 2 IITs (200 crores total), two IISERs (200 crores total), two central universities (200 crores), two IIMs (30 crores), an NID (12 crores) = 650 crores. That is about 650/(8000) = 8.125% of the remaining $2 billion of the Vedanta University estimate which is a fairly small percentage of interest. (The Indian market has been making much more in recent years.)

2. The article says: "No research university in the world has 100,000 students or even anything close."

As per, http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/stuinfo.php#enroll_large following are some large research universities in the US

As per http://www.asu.edu/enroll/news/news2.html ASU will have 90,000 students in its campuses by 2020. (Note that all its campuses are in the Phoenix metro area. It is not like the multi-campus UC system or U of Texas system.)

So Vedanta’s goal of 100,000 students around the same time is not that different.

3. Location: It seems the author does not have much idea about the location. The Vedanta University location is about 30 miles from the outer periphery (read Khurda) of Bhubaneswar metropolitan area (the capital of Orissa) . Bhubaneswar is very well connected with the rest of the country both by train ( BBSR , Khurda Rd Schedules, Puri Schedules) and by plane and it is expected to have international flights within a year or two . The Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has a current population of 1.6 million and at the rate it is growing (both in area and population) it is likely that by 2020 it will be more than 3 million and its periphery would be close to (if not completely engulfing) Vedanta University.

4. India is hungry for good higher education and people are willing to pay for it. May be the example of KIIT, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) will open the eyes of the author. KIIT was started in 1992 by three young people with an initial investment of few thousand rupees. In 15 years it has programs in multiple fields (engineering, management, medical science, Rural management, biotechnology, Social Sciences, Dentistry, Diploma, ITI, international high schoo l) and is a deemed university. The growth and revenue of ICFAI and Amity also illustrates the revenue potential. Although none of the above are research universities, Vedanta University can collect similar revenues and spend a big part of it in research.

So it is not unreasonable that Vedanta University will have enough students paying enough in tuition to sustain it. Moreover, one should not take the real estate aspect of Vedanta University lightly. With 6000 acres, there will be enough land left beyond the core university, to earn a handsome income, which can then be ploughed into Vedanta University’s research programs. Currently, Bhubaneswar is a destination for many IT companies for their development centers. It has the big 4 of India (Wipro, Infosys, TCS and Satyam), IBM and many small and medium sized IT companies. With a top-notch environment the research park around Vedanta university should be able to attract research divisions of international companies.

Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has 26 engineering colleges (at least 5 more will start operating in the coming year) , 7 existing universities, several more in the making, etc. etc. Please see the right column of https://www.orissalinks.com/  to get an idea of the existing and expected educational infrastructure of greater Bhubaneswar.

7 comments August 29th, 2007

Utkal University of Culture’s ad for Ph.D students (from Samaja)

5 comments August 27th, 2007

BPUT, Orissa JEE Cordinators and the responsible Orissa government officials have created a mess

The initial vice chancellor of BPUT was Prof. Damodar Acharya, whose success in having a fixed non-negotiable semester schedule for colleges under BPUT, brought him and BPUT a lot of kudos and he went on to become the AICTE Chair and now the director of IIT Kharagpur. Since then BPUT’s functioning has seen a decline. But this year the functioning of BPUT and Orissa JEE  has reached the lowest point. While  classes have already started for students admitted during the initial counseling phase, the second counseling is yet to start. The lastest news (as of writing this) in the Orissa JEE website says the following:

Due to some unavoidable circumstances
it is not possible to publish the venue and schedule of counselling
for vacant NRI / JEE and AIEEE / AIPMEE / AIPDEE quota seats on 25/08/2007.
However, the same will be published shortly.

Tathya.in has some behind the scene news. I suggest that the students frustrated by this write to the Chief Minister and the Industry Secretary. Ultimately they are the ones responsible for this mess. The Orissa govt. web page is http://orissagov.nic.in/ from where you can find the email addresses of the CM and the industry secretary. BPUT web page is http://www.bput.org/  which has some contact email addresses. Although one can blow off steam by writing in the comments section of this blog, I am not sure if any of the responsible person (CMO, Industry Secretary or BPUT officials) read these pages. May be writing to them directly (in a polite manner) will let them know how their inaction and mishandling is frustrating many students. Writing comments in Tathya.in may have some impact as many of the news items in Tathya.in are picked up by other media. For example, the Tathya.in article about student’s frustration appears in a slightly edited form in Pioneer (the link will disappear in a  day though). Following is a screen copy.

2 comments August 27th, 2007

Contributions of OUAT Scientists to Agriculture: a Samaja article

1 comment August 24th, 2007

Another new engineering college gets AICTE approval

The founders of this new engineering college, TempleCity Institute of Technology and Engineering, includes a founder of KIIT (not Achyuta Samanta) and a US based initial financier of KIIT who is also very well respected in the US Oriya community. At least one (not me) north American based Orissa origin professor is involved in this project. Thus I think this will turn out to be a good college.

August 24th, 2007

Tribal University Bill introduced by Arjun Singh in Rajya Sabha

Following are excerpts from a report in Hindu.

The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Bill to set up a tribal university in Madhya Pradesh was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh.

To be set up an estimated cost of Rs. 60 crore during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the university will have its headquarters in Amarkantak and will be a Central university.

Though headquartered in Amarkantak, it will have a number of regional centres and campuses in the tribal areas, particularly in the Indian heartland.

According to the ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ attached to the Bill, Amarkantak was chosen because there was no Central university specifically catering to the population in the tribal concentrated areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. This is in contrast to the other area of high tribal concentration — the North-East .

While the proposed university is aimed at facilitating and promoting avenues of higher education and research facilities for the tribal population of the country, it will take in students from other sections of society also.

… Besides providing access to higher education to the tribals of Central India in particular, it will promote research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, medicinal systems, customs, and forest-based economic activities.

My observations: The budget sounds too low. With that fixed some of the regional centers and campuses should be in Orissa.

2 comments August 24th, 2007

Children joining special schools under Child Labor Project

The following is from a PIB release.

The number of children who have been withdrawn from hazardous jobs and have been admitted to special schools under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme has more than doubled during the last three years.  Their number has increased from 1,67,825 in 2004-05 to 3,37,269 in 2006-07.  These children in the age group of 9 to 14 years are provided with accelerated bridging education and other benefits like stipend, mid-day meal, vocational training, health check-ups, etc. in special schools for a maximum period of three years to enable them to join regular mainstream education system.

            The state-wise details of the children enrolled in special schools under NCLP is as follows:

Similarly, the number of children enrolled in special schools under the Indo-US (INDUS) Project has also seen an increase during the last three years as follows:

August 24th, 2007

Kerala is given assurance about one of the 8 new IITs.

Following are excerpts from a report in Hindu.

Kerala was on Wednesday assured of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. The assurance was given by the Minister to Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan at a meeting here.

August 23rd, 2007

Proposal for six new NIPERs gets cabinet approval

Following is from a PIB release. (To go through this proposal the original NIPER bill was amended.)

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to the following proposals:

i) Setting up of six National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) at Hyderabad (Andhra pradesh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Hajipur (Bihar) Guwahati (Assam), Raibareilly (U.P.) and Kolkata (West Bengal).

ii) Commencing some courses at four locations of New NIPERs from the current academic session i.e. September, 2007 with the assistance of Mentor Institutes.

iii) Continuation of courses under the present arrangements from the plan budget for two years i.e. 2007-08 and 2008-09 and preparation and preparation and approval of the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) by the Competent Authority.

iv) Appointment of a Consultant of repute to prepare the DPR for each NIPER wherever possible on the Public Private Partnership model.

v) Pending the constitution of board of Governors under the NIPER Act 1998, an Apex Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary (C&PC) to oversee the functioning of these NIPERs may be set up.

This decision will facilitate training of high caliber pharmaceutical experts and award of Masters degrees to cater to the demand of pharmaceuticals industry, academic institutes and the pharmacy profession.

My comments: In a few years, Orissa should try for a NIPER around Paradip which will become a mega petro-chemicals hub.

1 comment August 23rd, 2007

3 months course on Japanese , French, Russian and Chinese offered by OCAC, Bhubaneswar

August 23rd, 2007

Sports schools and institutions

Following is from a PIB release.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) runs 126 National Sports Talent Contest (NSTC) Centres, 10 Special Area Games (SAG) Centres, 57 SAI Training Centres (STC), 18 Army Boys Sports Company Scheme (ABSC) Centre and 10 Centre of Excellence (COX) where sportspersons are given training in different sports disciplines.  State-wise details are at Annexe-I.  Besides, SAI has an Academic Wing at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala.

Funds are not directly allocated to any Centre. They  are released to SAI Regional Centres, which in turn, make  releases to various centres on a need basis.  During the last 3 years, the  following grants were utilized for  SAI Centres:-

Year                       Grant released

                              (Rs. in lakhs)

2004-05                   436.70

2005-06                   499.00                                   

2006-07                                     505.00

The details of the funds given to the NSNIS, Patiala during the last 3 years for operating sports scholarship scheme, rural sports programmme, the North East Sports Festival and Women Sports Festival are as under:

Year                       Grant released

                              (Rs. in lakhs)

2004-05                 987.83             

2005-06               1041.41

2006-07                 731.61

ANNEX-I

This information was given by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister of Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs & Sports and DoNER in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Smt. Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo and Shri Jivabhai Ambalal Patel.

August 23rd, 2007