Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=36712.
LOK SABHA
The proposal for setting up of AIIMS-like institutions was approved by CCEA on 16.3.2006. The initial bid process for selection of Project Consultant proved to be unresponsive. The offer of short listed Architectural Design Consultant for preparing enlarged concept design was rejected due to the exorbitantly high price quoted by the selected designer. Therefore, the whole process had to be initiated de novo in December 2006. Several methodological changes were made to ensure progress keeping in mind the complexity of building 6 such institutions simultaneously and lack of capacity for taking the whole project as one. Therefore, it was decided that each AIIMS site would be taken as a separate and independent project instead of clubbing all six together. The construction of housing complex was also separated from that of Hospital and Medical College.
The Design – DPR consultants have been selected for each site through an open competitive bidding. The layout / master plans for the AIIMS sites at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Raipur and Rishikesh have been approved. Approval of layout / master plan for Patna site is expected this month. The Consultants are in the process of preparing architectural design, which is expected to be finalized by May 2008. The detailed project report (DPR) would be ready by May-June 2008. Thereafter, tenders would be invited for selection of contractor for civil construction work.
In so far as construction of residential complex (housing & hostel) is concerned, bids were invited for selection of turnkey Developers. However, bid process was successful only for Jodhpur site and work has been awarded to M/s. Rajasthan State Road Development Corporation, a PSU of Government of Rajasthan. Work is in progress. The work relating to construction of residential complex at Rishikesh and Patna has been entrusted to HLL and for Bhubaneswar and Raipur to HSCC. Tender process has been initiated for selection of contractors for Bhubaneswar and Raipur sites by HSCC. For Bhopal site, housing complex work is being awarded alongside the hospital-medical college complex.
The work of residential complexes is likely to be completed by 2009 and the hospital–medical college complexes by 2010.
The details of funds allocated for the PMSSY and expenditure thereon during the last three years are as under: –
(Rs. in crore)
|
Year
|
Funds allocation at BE Stage
|
Funds allocation at RE Stage
|
Expenditure
|
|
2004-05
|
60.00
|
10.00
|
6.15
|
|
2005-06
|
250.00
|
6.00
|
2.52
|
|
2006-07
|
75.00
|
10.00
|
6.36
|
|
2007-08
|
150.00
|
90.00
|
52.00 (approx) (till date)*
|
* Allocation will be fully utilized.
Project Management Consultant for each site is also being selected for expeditious execution of the work. Ministry has initiated steps to set up dedicated project cell at each site comprising medical expert, engineers and administrative support staff. Each of the projects is being closely monitored by the Ministry to ensure that there is no slippage or delay at any of the sites.
This information was given by the Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
KR/SK/280 – LS
March 19th, 2008
For more information on this historic university, originally established as a college in 1868, please see http://www.ravenshawuniversity.com/. The university has a total of 144 faculty positions available in all departments and at all levels. For all the positions, Ph.D is a requirement. If you are interested, please send your bio-data to:
Devdas Chhotray,
Vice-Chancellor
Ravenshaw University
Cuttack 753003
Orissa,
India
March 5th, 2008
The Koustuv group which currently has a diploma college (Koustuv School of Engineering) and two operating engineering colleges (CoEB and KISD) has several more engineering colleges in the pipeline. They are Koustuv Institute of Technology (KIT), Khurda in Orissa and KITs in Ranchi and Kolkata. It also operates a plus two science college, Koustuv Institute of Science. It has plans for a medical college to be called Koustuv Research Institute of Medical Science (KRIMS). In regards to the medical college, there is a report in Telegraph regarding Koustuv’s success in its bid for a 400+ acres of land previously occupied by OTM. Following are some excerpts:
Koustuv Group, which recently got clearance from State Level Single Window Clearance Authority for a tin smelting plant at Khurda, has apparently emerged as front-runner in the auction of Orissa Textile Mills (OTM).
The state-owned composite cotton mill winded up in 2002.
Prabhat Ranjan Mallik, the chairman of Bhubaneswar-based Koustuv Group, was the foremost bidder with a fresh offer of Rs 43 crore for the OTM property and assets, including 422 acres of prime industrial land at Choudwar, in the final round of bidding in Orissa High Court yesterday.
The bidding vehicle set up afresh by Koustuv Group before the company affairs bench of Justice I.M. Quddusi plans to use the OTM factory complex for setting up a tin modulation unit.
“Moreover, a medical research centre comprising a state-of-the-art hospital and a medical college have been planned for the future,” said Koustuv Group counsel P. Mukherjee, while making a verbal bidding before the court. Mallik was also present in the company affairs court.
March 2nd, 2008
St. Xavier’s high school group has established and is currently establishing many schools across Orissa and neighboring states. As per http://www.stxavierschools.org/aboutgroup.htm they have schools in Berhampur, Bhanjanagar, Cuttack, Balangir, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Balasore, Rayagada, Jajpur Rd and Keonjhar. They are establishing schools in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and Sunabeda. The Cuttack school is affiliated to CBSE board. The affiliation of the other schools is not clear.
March 1st, 2008
Following is an excerpt from an article in Forbes Asia. (Hindustan Times reports on this.)
Pledged $1 billion in 2006 from his Anil Agarwal Foundation to set up Vedanta University. Envisions the school as an elite institution modeled on Stanford University and targeting the young Indians who now leave the country in droves to study overseas. Hopes it will boost the lagging economy of Orissa State, in eastern India, where it will be built on a 6,000-acre campus that will ultimately accommodate 100,000 students. Some 1,000 acres have been acquired so far—despite the opposition of locals—and the first batch of students is expected next year.
March 1st, 2008
Following is from Volume 2 of the expenditure of Budget 2008-09.
- NISER/IOP: The IOP+NISER budget (item 9.04 of the DAE budget) is 69 crores in plan + 9 crores in non-plan = 78 crores. The nornal IOP budget is about 20 crores. Hence, 50-58 crores is the budget for NISER in 2008-09. (Note that in 2007-08 IOP was allocated 32.75+7 crores and it spent 27.6+8 = 35.6 crores. I..e, Probably 15-18 crores were spent for NISER. )
- IISER: There is a budget of 150 crores (item 61 of the Higher education budget) for the five IISERs. (The budget for three of them was 125 crores in 2007-08, out of which only 60 crores was spent.)
- new IITs: There is a budget of 50 crores (item 60 of the Higher education budget) for the establishment of three new IITs. (The budget for them was 80 crores in 2007-08, out of which only 0.01 crores was spent.)
- new IIITs: There is a budget of 21.4 crores (item 57 of the Higher education budget) for the establishment of new IIITs.
- AIIMS-like: There is a total budget of 490 crores (item 26 of the Health ministry budget) for the establishment of 6 new AIIMS-like institutes and upgradation of 10 other institutes. In 2007-08 the budget for this was 150 crores out of which only 90 crores was spent; most of it went to the upgradation part.
- NITs: The budget for the NITs (item 69 of the Higher education budget) is 808 (plan) + 285 (non-plan) = 1093 crores. Rs 608 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- IITs: The budget for the IITs (item 38 of the Higher education budget) is 1171 (plan) + 525 (non-plan) = 1696 crores. Rs 771 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- IISc Bangalore: The budget for the IISc (item 41 of the Higher education budget) is 130 (plan) + 91 (non-plan) = 221 crores. Rs 70 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- UGC: The budget for UGC (item 3 of the Higher education budget) is 3095.5 (plan) + 2009.4 (non-plan) = 5104.9 crores. Rs 875 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- NIRTAR and other 6 institutes for blind, deaf, mentally retarded and orthopaedically handicapped: The budget for them (item 21 of Ministry of Social Justice budget) is 47+27.05 crores.
- IIST (Indian Inst. of Space Sc. & Tech): Its budget (item 12 of ministry of space) is 65.25 crores. 25 crores out of a budgeted 75 crores was spent in 2007-08.
- ISIs: Its budget (item 4 of ministry of statistics) is 22.5 + 51.96 crores.
- NIFT: Its budget (item 11.01 of ministry of Textile) is 31.75 + 10 crores.
- Tourism: Its budget for training (item 5 of Tourism ministry) is 71 + 0.8 crores. It includes 26 Institutes of Hotel management, 7 Foodcraft institutes, IITTM, and NIWS (National Institute of Water Sports).
- CIPET: Its budget (item 2 of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) for the 15 centers is 31 crores.
- NIPER, Mohali: Its budget (item 7 of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) is 75+15 crores.
- National Institute of design: Its budget for (item 3 of ministry of commerce) is only 0.25 crores. It was 20.25 crores in 2007-08. It seems the funding pattern has been changed. There is now 50 crores (item 7 of ministry of commerce) for project based support to autonomous institutions which includes NID and several other institutions.
February 29th, 2008
I am told that Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar is the Director designate of NISER, Bhubaneswar. He is currently the director of National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science & Technology (formerly RRL) Trivendrum. Following is from his profile.
| Educational Qualification |
| |
| B.Sc. |
: |
1976, Mysore University, Karnataka |
| M.Sc. |
: |
1978 Mysore University, Karnataka |
| Ph.D. |
: |
1982 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Supervisor: Prof. V. Krishnan) |
| Post-Doctoral |
: |
University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA 1982-1984 |
| Res. Associate |
: |
Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA 1984-1986 |
| |
|
| ———————————————————————— |
| Positions Held |
| |
- 1986 July – 1987 March Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, I.I.T.Kanpur
- 1987 April – 1991 February Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, I.I.T. Kanpur
- 1991 March – 1995 November Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, I.I.T.Kanpur
- 1995 November – 2003 Nov Professor, Department of Chemistry, I.I.T. Kanpur
- 2003 December onwards Director, RRL, Trivandrum
|
February 29th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.
The proposed Vedanta University is aiming to roll out its first course in 2009, if everything falls into place.
The varsity project, which envisages a whopping 100,000 students and 10,000 faculty members in a multi-disciplinary research-driven campus, has moved slower than expected but things now seem to be moving in the right direction.
Land acquisition has picked up and it has launched its rehabilitation and benefits plan.
“We plan to start the first course in engineering research in 2009. It will be a symbolic beginning and would be followed up by programmes in arts, science and medicine in the first phase,” Vedanta University Project CEO CV Krishnan told this paper on Thursday.
The varsity has started working on how to launch the engineering education. In this connection, a two-day workshop was organised at University of Pennsylvania where top deans and professors from across North America took part. According to Krishnan, the University will admit research students since research only can drive the varsity to ‘a different level altogether.’ The identified research areas will be wireless communication, material science, biotechnology, energy and infrastructure. By 2010, the University aims at admitting students into the entire gamut of disciplines. The varsity has already acquired 1,200 acre. The Phase I of the project could entail an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.
February 29th, 2008
See http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news2/20080227-vedanta.htm for Kalinga Times’ report on this. Following are some excerpts:
Vice-president of the varsity project Ajit Kumar Samal announced that Vedanta would provide employment to all graduates of the area by the end of 2009 and run public schools to educate the students living in the villages coming under the project area.
Besides, it would operate door-to-door medical service for humans and for the livestocks in the area, he said.
Samal said job cards would be issued to all landless farmers who make out their livelihood by cultivating other’s land. This apart, scholarships would be granted to the meritorious students with special care to the girl students, he added.
A number of schools and colleges would be established for capacity building of the students of the area and all primary schools would have the mid-day meal service, Samal said.
… A special survey of the temple land measuring over a thousand acres under the acquisition process for the project would be conducted within 10 days to ascertain the status, Sarangi instructed the revenue officers present in the meeting.
… The District Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee meeting would be held on March 4 to settle the outlines and modalities for rehabilitation of the villagers likely to be displaced from their villages coming under the project area, the RDC announced.
Following is an excerpt from the report in the New Indian Express.
As per the package, an affected person would get ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh besides the government valuation of his land. That apart, he/she too will be entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs 2 lakh per acre. Besides, occupiers of Jagannath land would be given Rs 1 lakh per acre while compensation for encroachers of government land would be as per the Orissa Government’s new R&R Policy.
February 28th, 2008
From http://www.charlierose.com/guests/anil-agarwal a interview by a New York area PBS station. (He talks about Vedanta University at 3:20.)
February 24th, 2008