BIMTECH’s home page is at http://bimtech.ac.in/. In that page they have a link BIMTECH New Campus/ Bhubaneswar Orissa in the "What’s new" part. Following is the content of that document.
BIMTECH is soon going to Bhubaneshwar, the capital of Orissa, which today, is on a fast track o f development because of the proactive developmental policies of the Orissa Government under the leadership of Mr. Navin Patnaik. We have approached the state government for setting up a campus of our institute at Bhubaneshwar. Mr. B K Das, Advisor to the institute, contacted various government agencies in the months of September and October 2009. A formal proposal indicating our long term plans for setting up a state-of-the-art management institute/private university was submitted to the government. We are delighted that the Orissa Government has taken a quick decision and alloted 29.4 acres land located in a prime institutional area called Gothapatna. It is not far away from the city and the airport. The famous caves of Udaigiri and Khandgiri are in the neighbourhood of this location. Gothapatna has already been developed by the Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (IDCO). Three other renowned institutions- Navratna National Aluminium Company (NALCO), India Institute of Information Technology( IIIT) and International Management Institute (IMI, Delhi) have been alloted plots in the neighbourhood. Syt. B K Birla and Dr. (Smt.) Sarala Birla, Founders and Patrons of our institute have taken keen interest in this project. Not only have they granted their permission for this project, but also wished that the campus, with all amenities and facilities, should be ready by June 2012. Dr. H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH alog with Mr B.K.DAS visited Bhubaneshwar on December 5-6, 2009 and met senior officials of the Orissa Government. Dr. Chaturvedi also visited campuses of some reputed educational institutions and spoke to eminent educationists of Orissa. There has been an enthusiastic response to our plans of starting the campus from June 2012.
April 16th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.
The MSC Ed, an integrated six-year course (12 semesters), introduced in 2008 is the right way to master teaching skills. Offering quality teacher education programmes is the Regional Institute of Education that include innovative pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes and relevant research, development and extension activities.
The institute started as Regional College of Education in 1963, changed the name in 1994. It is one of the five such institutions established by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi. The other institutes are located at Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Shilong.
Prior to the six-year course, there was a two-year MSC Ed course for those who had completed BSC Ed, said Regional Institute of Education Principal GT Bhandage. "It had a good response and the students from all over the country would appear for the entrance exam. This course was conceived essentially to meet the demand of the higher secondary level in specific subjects like physics, chemistry and mathematics. Students who have passed out from this course were absorbed by Navodaya and Kendriya Vidyalaya," added Bhandage.
In 2008, MSC Ed course was introduced after completion of II PUC or equivalent. The idea was to catch them young and train them with pedagogic skills and develop adequate content competency crucial to a teacher education programme, said Bhandage.
The six years integrated course is a combination of BSc and MSC. The first four years, students study physics, chemistry and mathematics while in fifth and final year they can choose a specialization subject.
After completion of the course one can get into Higher Secondary Schools or can do research.
… The admissions are made on all India basis through an entrance exam. The selection will be based on the performance in the qualifying exam and entrance exam.
For details log on to www.riemysore.ac.in or call 514515/ 2514095.
RIE Mysore has a website at www.riemysore.ac.in. I have not been able to find a web site for RIE Bhubaneswar. I wonder if RIE Bhubaneswar offers such a course.
Considering the implementation of RTE, there is a big need for more and better trained teachers and educational administrators (headmasters, principals, vice-principals, etc.). To achieve that the government of India should upgrade the RIEs to National Institutes of Education and make them Institutions of National Importance. This will attract the attention of more good students towards a teaching and teaching administration career. The government should incraese the number of seats and number of programs in these institutes and intrdoce programs for creating top-notch Educational administrators.
April 14th, 2010
April 13th, 2010
Update: For some time XIMB has been planning to expand in the Bhubaneswar area. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1679. It is also interested in becoming a private university. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2788. A recent Business Standard report says the following about the campus in the Bhubaneswar area:
XIMB which had kicked off its operations in the city in 1987, aimed to operationalize its second campus in the state by 2012, the year marking the silver jubilee …
… P T Joseph, director, XIMB said, “We will be coming up with two new campuses in the state- one at Bolangir and the other at Khurda. The Orissa government has already alloted us 35 acres of land at Khurda and has agreed to provide 25 acres of land on the outskirts of Bolangir town.”
The XIMB campus at Bolangir will exclusively focus on the Rural Management Programme and will have an intake of 120 students.
“Our campus at Bolangir will be a fully residential facility with a built-up area of 1.55 lakh sq ft and it will only offer the Post Graduate Diploma course in Rural Management. We will phase out the Rural Management programme at our existing campus in Bhubaneswar after the establishment of the Bolangir campus”, Joseph added.
XIMB’s campus will come up about seven km from Bolangir town and the institute wants to offer a rural ambience to the students pursuing the Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management.
XIMB’s campus at Khurda is coming close to the campus of Orissa Engineering College.
It also seems to be making progress in the university front as tathya.in has a headline saying "XIMB University in offing".
See http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=3962 for the news item on this in tathya.in. Following is from Samaja.
April 12th, 2010
Update on April 6 2010: Reader and commentator Debi Prasanna Sarangi sent us the following screen capture that shows Anil Agarwal Foundation (the promoters of Vedanta University) to be a public company. But it does not show when exactly it became a public company. Regardless, an important part of the Honorable Lokpal’s conditions (see the sentence in bold red in the first paragraph below the image) seems to be satisfied now.
Following is an excerpt from an article in Economic Times.
… Acting on a petition filed by Dwaraka Mohan Mishra, a trade union leader, the Lok Pal last week had asked the state government to submit a report within three months after complying with the recommendations given by him in this case. The Lok Pal has also recommended a moratorium on the project till the Anil Agarwal Foundation complies with the legal provisions pointed out by the Ministry of Company Affairs for conversion of its status from private to public company.
Legally the state government could acquire land for the Anil Agarwal Foundation if the Foundation was a public company. This has been the consistent view of the Law Department of Government of Orissa. The then Orissa chief secretary approved the proposal for land acquisition in the instant case on the 12th December 2006. Accordingly lands belonging to private persons as well as to Shri Jagannath Temple were gradually acquired. But no previous sanction of the state government was taken before acquiring the land belonging to Shri Jagannath Temple though previous sanction was mandatory as per Section 16 of Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1954, which has embroiled Anil Agarwal Foundation into fresh trouble, officials said here.
Justice Patra has made it clear that if the Jagannath Temple Act and the Land Acquisition Act have not been complied with, no temple land could be handed over to the Foundation for the proposed University. Besides, he has recommended that the state government should work out a scheme for phase-wise delivery of land required for the university project. He also suggested that the vigilance cell should monitor the progress of the project and see that land is acquired and delivered in a phase-wise manner to the foundation so that it is not misused.
Justice Patra has asked the state government to ensure payment of adequate compensation by the Foundation to those affected by the project.
No matter how important Vedanta University could be or is for Odisha, all applicable laws need to be followed. Thus I agree with the Honorable Lokpal Justice Patra’s recommendations. I also like his constructive approach underlined above.
Following is a report from Sambada that includes a response from the Vedanta University officials on this controversy.
There are various other reports, including by Mr. Prasanna Mishra (whom I respect a lot) and in tathya.in. Mr. Mishra’s report gives a time line and the tathya.in report includes Vedanta University’s clarification. Having gone through all that at this point my thoughts are:
- The Honorable Lokpal probably had the most information; he heard the government officials’ take on the issue and as a retired justice he knows what is legal and what is not and what is important and what is not. So I am supportive of his recommendations.
- However, it seems like (based on the tathya article and the Sambada report) the Honorable Lokpal did not ask Vedanta University for their side of the issue. (I assume that was not a legal requirement.) But it is possible that some of the issues that are raised (such as the status of the Anil Agarwal foundation) are already resolved. (The Sambada and tathya articles suggest that.)
- I am especially thankful to the Honorable Lokpal for his constructive recommendations. Vedanta University is important for Odisha, but so are the people and their sacrifices. So it is important to have Vedanta University in Odisha so as to raise Odisha from the bottom of every parameter and instead make it a knowledge hub of the world and also address the higher education concerns of India; but at the same time it is equally important that the people and their sacrifices do not go to waste and their interests and rights are adequately protected. The Honorable Lokpal’s recommendation, as reported by the Economic Times article, seems to take care of both of the above aspects.
April 5th, 2010
April 4th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar has proposed establishment of Innovative Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) here.
Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Madhusudan Chakraborty who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the Secretariat today along with a team of experts gave this proposal to him.
Chakraborty said school of earth, ocean and environment is being established in Bhubaneswar IIT.
The school will impart teaching on land, water, air and environment and proposed research in the subject.
The IIT is keen on establishment of research institute of this school on climate change, he said.
Prof Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the American University of Massachusetts, said the institute will conduct research on climate change, adding, information on climate will be availed from different sources for research.
Rise in sea level, extreme weather, changing eco-system, air quality and pollution, affect of the changes in the human health, shortage of drinking and energy needs will be dealt with in this advanced research centre, he said.
The institute will also conduct research on the impact of climate change on the ecosystem of Chilika lake. He requested the Chief Minister to provide land with necessary infrastructure for the institute.
A similar center proposed in 2007, called "Center for Climate Change Research" (CCCR), was established at the Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune last year. This center has 20 scientists positions.
March 31st, 2010
The deadline for the coming year is past. But one can get the details for future years from http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/downloads/mtech_new1.pdf. Following is information from that page.
The following two M. Tech programmes will be offered for faculty members of AICTE-recognized programmes of Engineering Colleges:
1. M. Tech in Electrical Engineering
2. M. Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering
The programmes will be offered from January 2010.
Programme Features
The features of these programmes and the mode of delivery are elucidated below.
• Each programme will be of three-year duration.
• These programmes will be offered in the holidays and beyond office hours on weekdays to facilitate the teachers employed in the engineering colleges to attend the classes.
• The programme may be offered during summer vacation.
• Since the potential student base for these programmes exist in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, these programmes will be offered in the Extension Centers of the Institute at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
• A mixed mode of teaching through video-conferencing and face-to-face interaction will be adopted in these programmes.
• A faculty will deliver a lecture at any of the locations (primarily Kharagpur) and the students at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar will be able to attend the lecture and interact with the faculty through video-conferencing.
• The tutorials, seminars, and comprehensive viva-voce examinations will be conducted also in the above-stated mode, as and when required.
• The recorded lectures, tutorials, and interactions will be recorded in the two Extension Centres and will be stored at the library of each extension center. They will be available to the students for study during specified hours.
• Students cannot copy these recorded lectures.
• The recorded lectures, tutorials, and interactions will not be used in subsequent semesters as a substitute for live presentations.
• Laboratory classes will be conducted in one weekend of every month at IIT Kharagpur campus at Kharagpur.
• Laboratory classes may also be conducted at the respective extension centers in virtual mode, depending on the availability of the required facilities.
• Projects and supervisors will be assigned to the students by the Programme Coordinator after the completion of first two semesters.
• Students will carry out their project work at their institutions and have to be in constant touch with their supervisors. The sponsoring organizations are required to provide laboratory facilities to the students to carry out their M.Tech project works.
• There will be two class tests in every subject. The class tests will be conducted at Kharagpur when the students come to the Institute during the last weekend of a month for the laboratory class.
• Mid-Semester and End-semester examinations will be conducted at the respective Extension Centers with faculty members as invigilators.
• Comprehensive Viva-Voce will be conducted through video-conferencing.
Number of Students to be Admitted
• Twenty-five in each programme at each Extension Center.
Programme Fee
• Fee for each programme is Rs.2 lakh for each student to be paid in two instalments – the first instalment of Rs.1 lakh to be paid at the time of admission and the second instalment of Rs.1 lakh to be paid one year after the admission. The programme fee includes the tuition fee and the examination fee.
Eligibility for Admission :
• Faculty members associated with the AICTE-recognized programmes of engineering colleges are eligible for admission into the programmes.
• An applicant must have passed B. Tech in appropriate branch with a minimum of 60% marks in the final qualifying examinations (for SC/ST candidates it is 55%).
Application Fee
• The Application Fee of Rs. 2,000.00 for general candidates and Rs. 1,000.00 for SC/ST candidates should be payable by Demand Draft drawn in favour of ‘IIT Kharagpur’ on any nationalized bank payable at Kharagpur.
Undertaking from the Sponsoring Institution
The sponsoring engineering college must give an undertaking that the college will upgrade its own facility (such as laboratories, computer facilities, and library) to enable the sponsored student to carry out his/her M. Tech thesis work in that college.
Selection of Candidates
The candidates will be asked to appear at a written test and an interview to be held at each Extension Center.
Some time back we had suggested something similar. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/501. Even with the IIT Kharagpur’s program there is need for more such programs. Perhaps IIIT Bhubaneswar and BPUT can make efforts in this direction.
March 29th, 2010
Update2: Excerpts from Expressbuzz.
An MoU was signed between Ravenshaw University Vice- Chancellor Devdas Chotray and AIPH founder secretary Dr Pinaki Panigrahi for the launch of the Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme. Besides imparting comprehensive skills in public health, the course would turn students into experts on occupational and environmental health, public health informatics and clinical and behavioural sciences. With an extensive hands-on experience, they will pass out as professionals ready to shoulder the challenges of the rise of chronic, infectious, occupational and environmental health problems that are vital contributors to high infant and maternal mortality in the State.
The first of its kind programme in Orissa is accreditated by the Council of Education on Public Health (CEPH) under the USA Government. The students would also gain credit points that would facilitate pursuance of higher studies in the US if they so willed.
But, foremost, the programme would churn out the much needed manpower in the State. There are at least 10,000 jobs for public health professionals in the district and block level under the National Rural health Mission. This apart, public health professionals are much sought after by private health sector enterprises, national and international agencies.
Update: Dharitri’s take on this.
The Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhubaneswar has announced a PG Diploma program in Public Health Informatics. This course will start in September 2010. Some details on the course obtained from their page http://www.aiph.ac.in/academics.html is as follows:
Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics (24 Credits, 12 months course begins 1st September, 2010)
The objective of this course is to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in informatics concepts and applications and advance the use of informatics in risk assessment, disease monitoring and disease surveillance. The course provides an opportunity for the students to understand the information system architecture in public health, privacy, confidentiality and security issues related to health information systems. Graduate students from all disciplines are eligible for this course that will be offered online three times a year. The course consists of the following modules:
· Introduction to Public Health Informatics (IPHI) – Basics of public health informatics, core competencies of public health professionals, and systematic review of public health information systems.
· Foundation of Health Information Systems (FHIS) – This course is designed to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in public health standards, databases, privacy, confidentiality and security issues relevant to public health information systems.
· Applications of Public Health Informatics (APHI) – overview of clinical decision support systems, Geographic Information Systems, public health surveillance systems.
· Computer mediated Health Education and Health Promotion (CMHEHP) – Web based approaches to health education and health promotion, role of health literacy and varied learning needs of public health consumers and different stakeholders.
· A 12 credit informatics research project will be required to get the Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics.
The institute seems to have a strong faculty. See http://www.aiph.ac.in/Indian.html.
Surendra K. Mishra, MSc, PGDA, DCS
Health systems, behavioural sciences research and communication, reproductive health
Ashish Joshi, MD, MPH
Public health informatics, health outcomes research, design of multi-component interventions
Niharika Khanna, MD, DCH
HPV epidemiology, cervical cancer, cancer vaccines
Prasanna Nair, MD, MPH
Maternal and child health, epidemiology, HIV/AIDS
P N Padmanabhan, PhD, FAAASc
Nutrition, non-invasive methods for monitoring gastrointestinal health, cancer prevention
Seba Mohapatra, MD
Maternal health, health systems
Pinaki Panigrahi, MD, PhD
Epidemiology, field surveillance, human research protection, clinical trials
P. K. Senapati, MD
Health systems, health care delivery and administration
S. Ramanathan, MPhil
Health economics and finance, reproductive health, gender and equity
Preethy Nayar, MBBS, MPhil, PhD
Health services research & administration, program and policy evaluation
Shireen Rajaram, PhD
Social and behavioral sciences, access to health care, health care disparity
Pritish Nanda, PGDHM, MPH
Health communication, hospital management, social mobilization, program management
E. Venkata Rao, MD
Epidemiology, financial management
U.S.-based faculty teaching at AIPH, Bhubaneswar
Patrik Johansson, MD, MPH.
Health communication, community-based participatory research
Ayman El-Mohandes, MD, MPH
International health, program evaluation
J. Glenn Morris Jr, MD, MPH&TM
Infectious diseases, Cholera, emerging and re-emerging diseases
Ira H. Gewolb, MD
Newborn health, biostatistics
Judith A. Johnson, PhD
Infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance, clinical microbiology
Magda G. Peck, ScD
Leadership development and practice, childhood well being evaluation
Chandran Achutan, PhD
Occupational and environmental health
Hala Azzam, PhD, MPH
Workforce development and training, field assessments, HIV/AIDS
Hrishikesh Chakraborty, DrPH
Biostatistics, epidemiology, cluster randomized trials
James Sherry, MD,PhD
Health policy, international health
Jaime Gofin, MD, PhD
Program evaluation, community-oriented primary care
Li-Wu Chen, MHSA, PhD
Health economics, cost-effectiveness analysis, health care utilization by underserved population
KM Monirul Islam, MBBS, PhD
Epidemiology, international health, development of surveillance system and evaluation
Ge Lin, PhD
GIS and spatial statistics, statistic methods for defining and quantifying their spatial signals
This instiute will add to the public health offerings in India which include various IIPH offerings such as:
- IIPH Delhi: PG Diploma in (a) Clinical Research (b) Public Health Management and (c) Health Economics, Health Care Financing and Health Policy
- IIPH Hyderabad: PG Diploma in (a) Biostatistics and Data Management
- IIPH Gandhinagar: PG Diploma in (a) Public Health Management
The IIPH in Bhubaneswar (different from the AIPH) is also scheduled to start in July 2010. The AIPH and IIPH in Bhubaneswar will make Bhubaneswar a strong public health education destination. I hope both will spread their wings across Odisha so that some of the current public health issues of interior Odisha are adequately addressed. I am told AIPH is already doing that and has research projects involving interior and tribal Odisha.
Pioneer reports today that AIPH has signed an MOU with Ravenshaw University. This is a great partnership and beneficial to both.
March 27th, 2010
The web site of this event is http://www.almafiesta.com/. Their blog is at http://almafiesta.com/blog/. Following are some planned highlights of this festival.
We start with the most important one:
Alma Fiesta, IIT Bhubaneswar and Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust Presents
Perspective: The Social Case Study Competition
Problem Statement:
Politics in India continues to be a murky and tabooed business which is being rarely taken up by the youth of present generation. Youth owns the key to dynamic thinking and action and thus are the indispensable part of a country’s politics. Present your views highlighting the current scenario of the youth participation in politics, the plan to increase this participation and also the plan to bring out the transparencies in the work of a politician.
Method of Submission: The participants are required to submit online their aforesaid visionary plan in form of a presentation in .pdf format by 25 March 2010 before 11.55 PM. The selected participants will present their plan before judge and audience on 27 March 2010. The presentations can be mailed to submissions@almafiesta.com before the deadline. No registration fees are required for submitting your presentations. So pen down your ideas and get the title of ‘SNSMT-IIT BBS Social Change maker of 2010’ along with various exciting prizes. For any queries contact: Mudit Sharma mudit@almafiesta.com +91 93385 75352.
Following are the rest of the events.
- Topsy Turvy : Inter College Group Dance Competition
Topsy Turvy, Put your best foot forward, because Topsy Turvy inter-college dance competition is sure to excite everyone to put on their dancing shoes. Be a part of our fiesta and drink in from the excitement.
- Face Off
Imagination is reality; dreams, thoughts and delusions are no less real than the "outside" world. Reality is a consensus, the same consensus the audience accepts when they enter a theatre to see a play and, for a time, pretend that what they are seeing is real. FACE OFF, an intercollegiate stage play event, is one of those platforms to experience the "reality”. So come, witness the reality on the stage and the director’s mind at work behind the scenes.
- N-Circled
Give the audience a hint of a scene, no more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the Street Play meaning: when it becomes a social cause. So be there to be a part of a social causes @ N-CIRCLED – an intercollegiate street play competition.
- EUPHONY
In the Iron Maiden edition of the Dream Theatre pluck the MetallicaStrings to elevate from the System of a Down and let the world Parikrama around you to attain Nirvana. If music is your passion and life then euphony, an inter college band competition for both eastern and western genres, is the right chance to test your ardor. The vim and vigour of music bands will be at its peak and the spirit of music is going to fill the entire ambience with a tone of mesmerisation.
- TRACK THE TRACK
Music is the harmony between melody, rhythm and expressions and thus for a song to touch the soul one needs to properly ‘Track the Track’. This sing-along karaoke event is a unique opportunity for the music enthusiasts to show up their talent. So hit the music loud and prove your mettle.
- ANTAKSHARI
A contest for the movie track fanatics who are experts in the lyrics. A common, Classic game yet can be mind-boggling at times. To triumph in the event means to be quick and sharp enough to get the right song. It is time to fine tune your musical knowledge and portray it to the world.
- Decoding Shakespeare
- Gone in 60 seconds
- Lit-Spree
- IIT Bhubaneswar Youth Quiz
A Quiz on Pan Youth Topics. Be it movies, music, gadgets, ads or IT-this quiz comes as a whole some package of fun entertainment.
- Heads or Tails: Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Bored of traditional quizzes of Tech, Biz, India…? Want a change? We could sense that. So here is an offbeat quiz purely dedicated to the Sports Turf. For all Sports Frenzied Junta Heads or Tails? Call it right!
- Youth Marathon
- Your Honour: The mock board room event.
Motion:
Ostracism, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of family members, community and the medical fraternity are increasing in Orissa. Not only people living with HIV and AIDS but also their family members are equally suffering and facing the challenges in different setting. The question is whether we need to practice a differential treatment/approach to address the issue of people living with HIV-AIDS or not?
- PALETTE
With the brush in your hand swipe the fog out of the sky and give life to your imaginations. Let the world acknowledge your endless dreams. Colours being your mouthpiece tell the unspoken and leave the beholder standstill. Mismatch the colours on this palette and paint life.
- LEAF COLLAGE
Attention!!
Dare not miss this opportunity to expose your ingenious dexterity. Let the foliage mirror your imagination and creativity in your grey cells. Leaves are waiting to reflect your artistic thoughts. Share your ideas, feelings, no matter what you want to express, through leave collage. Give a shape to your imagination and let the clutters of leaves take the pride to represent the artist in you.
- Mahfile-E-Hansi: Dr. Kumar Vishwas
- Classical Reloaded: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt; Akram Khan
- Leela: Orissa Dance Academy led by Aruna Mohanty
- Headbang: Kryptos
- Celebration of World Theater Day on 27th March in collaboration with Natya Chetana
- Commemoration of Earth hour on 27th March
One important aspect of this festival is that it is mainly organized by the students with some (minimal) guidance from the faculty and a very small percentage of funding from the IIT. The students find sponsors who cover most of the budget. They organize the events.
March 26th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
… An official confirmed the ministry met these institutes almost two weeks ago to discuss these plans.
Yale’s talks with the HRD ministry involve mentoring all 14 universities through its leadership programme. Since none of these universities have been built, the Ivy League university’s role is to act as consultant and conceptualiser,
“Minister Sibal has agreed to work with us on the new innovation universities for references and conceptualising. We will be developing leadership programmes for the deans and vice chancellors of these universities,” George Joseph, assistant secretary, Yale University, told Business Standard.
“We don’t plan to set up an India campus anytime soon … but we would like to mentor the new innovation universities just like the Indian Institutes of Technology were mentored when they were established,” he added.
Each “innovation university” is expected to focus on one area or problem of significance to India, such as urbanisation, environmental sustainability and public health.
MIT has expressed interest in mentoring one university that is focused on the energy sector. …
Meanwhile, Yale also plans to use part of the funds from its Yale India initiative for the leadership programme for these new universities. The initiative began in November 2008 and now has almost $75 million (Rs 338 crore).
March 22nd, 2010
Update: IIT Study Circle in partnership with Vidya Mandir has just advertised that it will offer a 2 year class room course in Bhubaneswar.
Fiitjee is among the top, if not the top, coaching center in terms of its student success in the IIT JEE. In the 2009 IIT JEE it had 35 in the top 100 ranks, 2307 in the main merit list and 5876 in the extended merit list. The next best was Bansal classes which had 22 in the top 100 ranks and 2175 total selections. At present Bansal is only in Rajasthan (Kota, Jaipur and Ajmer). Some of the other national coaching classes with presence in Bhubaneswar are Careerpoint and Narayana. We wrote about the coaching situation in Bhubaneswar in 2007 here. See also here. With FIITJEE and others coming to Bhubaneswar things have changed since then. Read on!
Another top coaching center, Resonance, is also starting a study center in Bhubaneswar. Its performance in IIT JEE is here.
Another top coaching center, Vidyamandir, now has a classroom course center in Bhubaneswar in partnership with IIT study circle; also some city schools such as Sai International School have teamed up with IIT Study circle which "would offer coaching to the IIT-JEE aspirants in the state in association with Vidyamandir Classes, its learning partner and 100 Percentile, its technology partner." The quoted part is from a Business Standard report.
Careerpoint now has operations in both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
March 22nd, 2010
Update: A picture courtesy Devasis Sarangi and Rajeswar Rao.
Update: Post-inauguration coverage from Dharitri.
Following is an excerpt from an older report in orissatv.
Renowned flute player, Hariprasad Chaurasia has decided to set up a training institute in Bhubaneswar to train students having penchant for classical music.
The flute maestro’s proposed institute has been christened as ‘Vrindaban Gurukul’ that would spread on two acre land at Ghatikia in the outskirts of the capital city. Nearly Rs 5 crore would be invested in the project.
His initial Vrindaban Gurukul in Mumbai came up in 1996. In this article in Hindu the reason behind a similar one in Bhubaneswar is explained. Following are some excerpts:
So the jet-setting flautist, who spends almost half-a-year in Holland as part of the Rotterdam Conservatory, realised the need to set up a gurukul. Situated in Versova (Mumbai), Chaurasia’s Vrindavan (the name of the gurukul) is where students with a passion for music live and learn sangeet free of cost. The students won’t come out of this gurukul armed with degrees and certificates. They will just have their talent to flaunt. Despite his hectic concert schedule, he takes time out to be with his students, guide and interact with them. “Though I stress on discipline; we laugh, crack jokes…there’s enough fun at Vrindavan. I share a good rapport with these youngsters.”
His second gurukul is coming up at Bhubaneshwar. “The progress has been really slow. Who wants to fund a gurukul?” But why Bhubaneswar? The maestro spent quite a few years in Cuttack working as a staff artiste for All India Radio. It is also where he met his wife Anuradha, then an established singer on radio.
Orissadiary reports that Amitabh Bachchan and his family will come to Bhubaneswar (first trip to Orissa for Mr. Bachchan) to "attend a program organized by internationally renowned exponent of the bansuri or bamboo flute Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. … They will attend in the inauguration ceremony of Brindavan Gurukul in Bhubaneswar." The older orissatv report also mentioned about the inauguration of the Gurukul in March 2010. The Orissadiary report has a nice description on what the Gurukul’s aims are. Following are some excerpts:
Brindavan Gurukul is dedicated to the teaching and promotion of performing arts of the world (music and dance particularly), yoga, and meditation techniques, in a serene atmosphere, along the ancient Indian "gurukul" principles.
BGI was established in 1996 by Pandit Hari Prasad and Dr. Shyamala Rajender, for promoting, presenting and teaching Indian classical music, Indian-Western integrated music, along with meditation techniques, yoga, and music theory. Focus will be on gifted or talented children and youth, especially underprivileged and needy children. Pandit Chaurasia’s mission is world peace, love and harmony through music, meditation and relaxation.
To create and inculcate in children and youth a love for and appreciation of Indian music, especially bansuri music as well as Indian-Western (jazz) fusion music. To provide for children at an early age, a constructive, disciplined, satisfying and creative alternative to the culture of drugs, gangs, violence and sex to which they are constantly exposed and to prepare them for the unique challenges of the 21st Century.
For the guru to work closely with sishyas (students/disciples) to identify, recognize, encourage and create a desire to learn and excel in the music or musical instrument of their choice.
To expose children at a very early age to different types and kinds of music and musicians and combination of styles; to expand their horizons and acceptability of styles new or foreign to them by encouraging them to attend various concerts and musical performances by great artists from all around the world.
To bring different artisans from India to practice their different art forms within Vrindaban Gurukul and to keep alive some of the great creative arts so unique to India which are being allowed to perish.
To build a library to house a large collection of books, audio and video cassettes, CDs, DVDs of Indian classical and bhajan music, literature, books, other types of recordings etc.
To promote other activities to make Vrindaban Gurukul an economically and emotionally self-supporting institution for the promotion of Indian classical performing arts, heritage and culture.
Following is an excerpt from an interview in Expressbuzz that adds more to the bond between Pandit Chaurasia and Orissa.
… After a sound training in Hindustani music, I learnt Odissi under great masters like Singhari Shyam Sundar Kar and Balakrushna Dash after I came to Cuttack for my college education.
Kabichandra Kali Charan Patnaik – the doyen of Orissa’s theatre, dance and music who was my maternal uncle – guided my music career. As a result I topped the State in the youth festival in 1959 and also became an AGrade singer for All India Radio (AIR) besides performing in many major music conferences in Orissa.
How was the first meeting with Chaurasia?
I was a student at Sailabala Women’s College and as a staff artiste of AIR he came there to play for a cultural programme.
He was only 19 then. I was mesmerised by the tonal quality of his rendition and you may say that it was love at first sight that grew up into courtship later during our association at AIR Cuttack. Finally we got married against the wish of my father and my mentor (Kalicharan Patnaik).
…
Was it a choice or coincidence that your daughter in law is an Oriya?
A coincidence but we are really fortunate to have a caring, efficient and noble ‘bohu’ like her. She has an excellent academic record and was a gifted Odissi dancer. But she also loved to serve the family. She now takes care of Hariji and the family so nicely that I am able to go back to music. I teach at Hariji’s institution in Mumbai known as Vrindavan.
Do you miss your motherland Orissa at times?
Not only me, our whole family loves Orissa more than any other place on this earth. I am happy that Hariji decided to build his Gurukul here that would link all of us to Orissa for the rest of our life more intimately.
March 21st, 2010
March 20th, 2010
Expressbuzz has a report on the success of this program. A yahoo answers posting on this did not lead to any definitive answer. One of the answers there said:
The available course in IIT & IGNOU are not extensive and only covers macro level that to for few hours . This is a combination of Computing,Maths,Physics & Finance (Derivatives & Risk Management) . Let us wait for some more info.
Following is an excerpt from the expressbuzz report about the success of IMA Bhubaneswar’s program.
… With a student of the Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) at Andharua getting a job of financial analyst with SunGard Technology, Pune with a package of Rs 9 lakh per annum, the institute is hoping that more students will replicate the success in future with its PG course in computational finance.
In fact, IMA’s computational finance is the only such course offered by any institution in India. With risk and return constituting the major concern for every investor, mathematicians can try to capture patterns vis-a-vis predictability, which may help the former to decide on his/her plan.
Computational finance, otherwise called financial engineering, deals with portfolio selection, options and features, asset pricing, managing derivative markets and hedging uncertainty.
… While another student got a research offer from University of Antwerp, Belgium, another has received an offer from a leading insurance service provider as a risk assessment consultant, he added.
IMA’s bachelor-level course attracts applications from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar besides Orissa. It is encouraging to see applications by some students this year, who had participated in the Rural Mathematics Talent Search examination by the institute way back in 2003, he informed.
With 30 seats in each course, IMA has also got a research exchange programme with University of Western Ontario, Canada and has produced 50 researchers so far in the field.
March 20th, 2010
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