Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.
Professor Banerjee met the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here to apprise him the developments on the new varsity front.
She is clearly defensive and said that the campus will be at Koraput and classes will start in August next. …
During the meeting with Chief Minister, she made it clear that the Campus will be at Koraput.
She said that there seems to be some misgivings about the Second Campus at Bhubaneswar.
Prof. Baneerjee seems defensive and said that all out efforts are being made to start the Campus at Koraput.
Mr.Dasverma was outraged over the decision and demanded action against the people concerned.
Young NROs led by Digamabara Patra created huge stir in both the state and at national level.
Professor Patra wrote it to the Prime Minister, Minister HRD and Chief Minister.
More than 100 students, teachers, educationists and members of the civil society demanded immediate action by sending e-mails.
All of them demanded that if et al the second campus will be opened it should start at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi.
The Chief Minister’s Office(CMO), was flooded with e-mails from all parts of the world and the mandarins were worried over the matter.
Bijay Kumar Patnaik, Principal Secretary to CM took up the matter seriously.
And Prof.Banerjee was summoned to clarify the factual position.
Madhu Sudan Padhi, Secretary Higher Education department, who did not buy the idea of Second Campus of CUO here, before starting the original campus at Koraput.
Mr.Padhi asked her to make arrangements in Koraput.
Prof. Banerjee is now under pressure to start classes at Koraput.
Following is from Samaja.
May 8th, 2009
Following is excerpted from a report in Telegraph.
Twelve new central universities that India is launching will start by offering only research programmes — MPhil and PhD — unlike existing varsities that are controlled by the Centre.
The new universities will focus exclusively on research, at least initially, though they can later expand and offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses not involving research as well, top government officials have said.
… But the 12 new universities will initially offer only research programmes, human resource development (HRD) ministry sources said.
“We will leave it open to each university to decide what research programmes they want to start with. At least one university wants to start with only MPhil courses. That is fine,” a source said.
The 12 new universities are to come up in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Bihar.
At least three of the 12 are expected to start offering courses from the 2009 academic session itself, though more may begin.
The strategy to focus only on research initially at the new universities is based on three major considerations, sources said.
One, it will allow the universities to initially “find their feet” without the pressure of a large number of students, officials argue.
April 5th, 2009
Update: The news item in Samaja.
Tathya writes about this. Following are some excerpts.
Central University of Orissa (CUO) will begin classes from June. … While CUO will have its campus in Koraput, to begin with a temporary campus near Bhubaneswar is being looked out to start classes from next Educational Year.
That is why Professor Banerjee has requested the Government of Orissa in Higher Education department to provide a rented accommodation.
Mr.Padhi has agreed to provide all out support for the institution.
Professor Banerjee is interested to make it a different institution and is inclined to start at least 30-35 departments in the newly carved out Centre of Learning.
However to start with the CUO will have 5 subjects and later it will go on including further, said sources.
… Those CUs, which has not identified land for the institution in the designated place, those can start it from the Capital City of the state, said sources.
So Professor Banerjee is busy in organizing things for facilitating classes from next June. Faculty hiring is the foremost in her mind and as she is eager to make it a top class university, the VC wants to rope in best of the talents from the country.
She is also interested to open Medical College in the University, but it will take time.
… Professor Baral of Arizona State University said only five of the 15 new central universities will have a medical college in the first phase (i.e.,during the 11th plan).
So the ability of the VC Professor Banerjee will be tested in whether she is able to get a medical and engineering college to the Central University of Orissa, feel the educationist.
Considering that the CUO is to be located in Koraput, in the most backward area, KBK, of India, Prof. Banerjee must do her best to make the right arguments at the earliest and get a medical and engineering college to this university, argued Professor Baral.
Page 522 of the document at http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/11th/11_v3/11th_vol3.pdf given below shows that only 5 of the new central universities will have medical and engineering colleges in the first phase, I.e., during the 11th plan.
March 25th, 2009
Following is from a report in indiaeducationdiary.
Union HRD Ministry on Saturday named Surabhi Banerjee as Vice Chancellor of the proposed Orissa Central University. The Centre appointed Banerjee, who was the VC of Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata, along with 14 other VCs of the 15 new Central Universities in the country.
Noted academician Abdul Wahid has been appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of Central University of Jammu and Kashmir while DT Khathing has been appointed in that post at the Central University in Jharkhand.
A PTI report names the VC of all the new central universities. Following is an excerpt.
Noted academician Abdul Wahid has been appointed the first Vice Chancellor of Central University of Jammu and Kashmir while D T Khathing has been appointed in that post at the Central University in Jharkhand.
The other Vice Chancellors appointed are Jancy George- University of Kerala, A M Pathan – University of Karnataka, M M Salunkhe – University of Rajasthan, Jairup Singh – University of Punjab, Surabhi Banerjee – University of Orissa, B P Sanjay – University of Tamil Nadu, R C Sobti – University of Himachal Pradesh, Mool Chand Sharma – University of Haryana, R K Kale – University of Gujarat and Janak Pandey – University of Bihar.
While N S Gajbhiye has been appointed Vice Chancellor of Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya in Sagar (Madhya Pradesh), S K Singh will occupy that post in Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna University in Uttarakhand and Lakshman Chaturvedi in Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya in Chhattisgarh.
March 1st, 2009
The Central Universities bill establishing 12 new central universities from scratch and upgrading three universities was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 24th Feb 2009. It was earlier introduced in the Lok Sabha on 17th Feb 2009 and passed in the Lok Sabha on 19th Feb 2009. Together with that the earlier ordinance was withdrawn.
February 25th, 2009
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
New Delhi, Jan. 16: President Pratibha Patil has promulgated an ordinance allowing the government to establish 15 new central universities despite last-minute objections by the National Knowledge Commission that the ordinance would hurt higher education.
The President signed the ordinance late last night even as the commission headed by Sam Pitroda tried to convince the Prime Minister and senior government officials against the move.
Patil’s signature triggered a chain of events today that saw the human resource development ministry launch a process of selection of vice-chancellors within hours.
It has also set off fireworks between the commission and the ministry, which the commission believes is keen to retain control over universities while officially calling them autonomous.
… The government is keen to start classes at the universities in the 2009 academic session, said the ministry note to the President.
The ministry, a top HRD official said, will bring the ordinance before both Houses when Parliament meets briefly in February. “We want the ordinance to be cleared by both Houses in the narrow slot for which the Parliament is meeting so that we can start classes from 2009,” the official said.
An ordinance needs parliamentary ratification within six months.
One of the above mentioned 15 universities will be in Orissa; Earlier the Orissa government recommended the Koraput area as the site of this university. As per the bill, available here, the one in Orissa will be called Central University of Orissa.
An earlier copy of the bill (before Goa University was taken out) is available here. There was last minute criticism of the bill and request to not promulgate it as an ordinance by the National Knowledge Commission. See news reports on this here and here. But the President promulgated the ordinance anyway.
January 18th, 2009
The Indian government has announced to have 16 central universities in states that do not have any. Following are the states and the locations in those states that are being championed by those states. In some states existing universities will be upgraded to central university status:
- Bihar – Near Motihari, East Champaran District
- Chhatisgarh – Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur will be upgraded (approved by cabinet)
-
- Gujarat – Gandhinagar
- Haryana – Mirzapur Bachhor Village In Mahendergarh District
- Himachal Pradesh – Kangra
- Jharkhand – Khunti (near Ranchi)
- J & K – Dual Campus in Jammu & Srinagar
- Karnataka – Suntanur-Kadaganchi on the Aland Road , Gulbarga
- Kerala – Kasaragod
- Madhya Pradesh – Dr. Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar will be upgraded (approved by cabinet)
- Orissa – Koraput
- Punjab – Bathinda
- Rajasthan – Bikaner
- Tamil Nadu – Tiruvarur
- Uttarakhand – Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University will be upgraded (approved by cabinet)
The location of the new IITs are (the existing ones are at Bombay, Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Madras, Guwahati and Roorkee and IT BHU is to be upgraded):
- Andhra Pradesh – Hyderabad
- Bihar – Patna
- Gujarat – Gandhinagar
- Himachal Pradesh – Mandi
- Madhya Pradesh – Indore
- Orissa – Bhubaneswar
- Punjab – Rupnagar
- Rajasthan – Jodhpur
The location of the new IIMs are (the existing ones are at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow) :
- Uttarakhand – Dehradun
- J & K – Srinagar
- Chhatisgarh – Raipur
- Haryana – Rohtak
- Jharkhand – Kanke, Ranchi
- Tamil Nadu – Tiruchi
- Meghalaya – Shillong
November 22nd, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.
Education is set to receive a Rs 2.85 lakh crore boost, with the Planning Commission increasing the allocation for the sector by a massive 19.9% in the 11th Five Year Plan.
The education budget has been classified into elementary, adult and secondary, and higher education. For elementary education, Rs 1.25 lakh crore is being earmarked, which is a major hike from the Rs 30,000 crore allocated in the last Plan.
Likewise, the share of adult and secondary education is being increased to Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 53,000 crore, respectively. As per the plan document, Rs 84,000 crore are being set aside for higher and technical education.
Planning Commission member, Bhalchandra Mungekar, said the increase in the budget for health and education is an attempt to achieve inclusive growth.
… "The most important issue is our agenda for reforms in higher education system, where we have asked for major structural changes," he said. "Major reforms are a must like introducing credit and semesters systems and exam reforms."
The Plan has set aside resources for a massive expansion of higher education. It seeks to establish 30 new central universities of which 16 are to be set up in areas which don’t have a central university. The rest 14 are to be model universities of world class infrastructure.
According to HRD ministry, each of these 14 universities would cost around Rs 1,000 crores. There are plans for seven more IITs, seven IIMs, 10 National Institute of Technology, five Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs and two schools of architecture. There will also be 330 new colleges in educationally backward districts.
November 14th, 2007
