The documents are at:
* http://www.education.nic.in/uhe/Universitiesconceptnote.pdf
* http://www.education.nic.in/uhe/Concept-BGP.pdf
Following are some excerpts from the first document:
Continue Reading September 22nd, 2009
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
… the government has decided to allow private funding in setting up some of the proposed 14 national universities, which would be of world class standards.
During his interaction with British Trade and Investment Minister Mervyn Davies, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today said the government was in favour of setting up some of the 14 universities in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.
As per the government’s plan these universities would be "global centres of innovation". The HRD Ministry has already prepared a concept note on institutions proposed to be set up in the 11th Plan.
"Sibal told Davies that the government would seek PPP model for creation of some of these institutions. A few other may be set up under complete government funding," a ministry official said.
September 17th, 2009
The duration of the 11th plan is from 2007-2012. We are now in 2009 and very soon 2012 will be looming. My guess is that the planning commission may already be in its preparatory stage to start planning for 2012. Considering that one of the big focus of this government is to increase the GER (gross enrollment ratio) in higher education from 12.4% to 30% by 2020, the 12th plan will also pay significant attention to higher education. The national knowlede commission has also recommended that India have up to 50 national universities and 1500 universities. With that in mind, following is part of something that I wrote to Prof. Yash Pal (and copied to to Sam Pitroda) in June as a response to Prof. Yash Pal’s draft. (Prof Yash Pal replied back saying: "I thank you for your excellent and concerned suggestions. I have shared them with some of my colleagues. I am sure they would be taken up by some of them. Our report will be submitted in a week. Then will start another phase. Many of these will keep reverberating. Thank you again.")
ii) Regional Universities with 50-50 split between state and the center:
The Central government now has central universities and is proposing 14 national universities. In these universities the students are and will be from across the country and the universities will be funded 100% by the central government, except land being given by the state.
As you have noted some of the centrally managed universities and institutes (IITs, etc.) have a good structure and are doing the best.
As a way to transfer this first-hand to the states I propose the establishment of “Regional Universities” which are funded 50-50 by the state and the center and the students are 50-50 between the state and the rest of the country. This will be similar to the structure of the erstwhile “Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs)”, which have now been transformed to NITs. The original RECs were funded 50-50 by the state and center and had 50-50 students from the state and the rest of the country. The NITs are funded 100% by the center.
Eventually the regional universities may be funded 100% by the center. This idea has many benefits:
(a) The direct collaboration between a state and the center helps in the transfer of know-how of how to develop and manage a good university.
(b) It costs less for the center to create another 30-40 good universities, as the cost is shared 50-50.
(c) It helps develop additional knowledge centers in the states. (Most RECs were established in second rung cities in their respective states. REC/NIT in Orissa is in Rourkela, in Tamil Nadu it is in Trichy, in Maharashtra it is in Nagpur, in Karnataka it is in Surathkal, in West Bengal it is in Durgapur, etc.)
I think this is something feasible and should be pushed with the planning commission. Even with the new central universities and national universities many states have large metropolitan areas that did not get one and are in need of a good (at least partially) centrally funded institution and university. That gap can be filled with the above proposed regional universities. In Orissa possible location of such a regional university could be Rourkela or Jharsuguda.
The proposed national universities also had stringent criteria attached to them, which made it difficult to distribute them. For example, the PIB announcing them said:
As regards 14 Central Universities aiming at world class standards, it has been considered necessary that these are located in or near selected large cities which would automatically have the kind of connectivity and infrastructure which such universities would need.
Earlier reports mentioned prime locations being an important factor and gave an example criteria of what they meant by a prime location. They cited proximity to CSIR labs.
Like the erstwhile RECs, the proposed regional universities need not have such stringent conditions allowing them to be located in places like Durgapur, Kadapa, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, etc.
Another item that I had in my mail to Prof. Yash Pal, which should be pushed for the 12th plan is as follows:
(vi) University and local communities; National and regional libraries:
I think a good library should be an integral component of each of the universities. Currently the libraries in most universities and colleges in India are pathetic. While the libraries are improved it should also mandate that a big part of the library materials, should be available for browsing for common folks who are not necessarily enrolled in the university. In the US any one can walk into a university library, be it Berkeley (a state university) or Stanford (a private university). I am not sure if that is the case with respect to the universities and colleges in India.
While we are discussing libraries, like central universities and national universities, the Indian government should establish a national library in each state capital (100% funded by the central govt.), and a regional library (funded 50-50 by the state and the central govt.) in another city of a state. In 5-10 years there should be good libraries in each district and in 10-15 years in each block. (When I walk into the local library in the US, I envy not growing up in the US and recall having to beg my local book store in a cabin near my house in Bhubaneswar to lend me translations of the world literature book series. I could not afford to buy them. Nor did my school have them.)
A new item that I have mentioned once in a while and that can be genarlized for the 12th plan is to establish centrally funded rural technological institutes like SLIET (Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology) in Punjab and the recently proposed ABA Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering and Technology in West Bengal, in each of the other major states of the country. In Orissa, Balangir and Kalahandi (Bhawanipatna) are good possible locations for this. (Orissa should aim for having a centrally funded institute in each of the undivided KBK+Kandhamal districts.) Although centrally funded, these institutes are different from the NITs. The PIB release in the context of ABA GKC IET says the following:
The Institution will offer courses in Engineering and Technology to cater to the various manpower requirements of the region, with special emphasis on courses relevant to the local population such as in food technology & sericulture.
Initially, the Institution would start with Certificate level courses leading to Diploma, Degree and Post-graduate levels later.
The total project outlay of the Institute will be around Rs. 97 crores.
Dear Readers: Please suggest your thoughts and ideas on the 12th plan. Even if your main interest is about your home town, think of a way to put it in national terms.
September 14th, 2009
Our sister site in Twitter is http://twitter.com/orissalinks. (Often when we are busy or do not feel like writing a full posting here, we post a micro-blog in our Twitter sister site. The Twitter sister site also automatically adds the headline from this site and the orissagrowth site. Once in a while we will collect those headlines here. But readers wanting a broader and more immediate coverage should consider following our Twitter site at http://twitter.com/orissalinks.) Following are some selected items from that site since July 12th.
August 20th, 2009
Following are some excerpts from a report in Indian Express.
The HRD Ministry has unveiled a blueprint for world-class universities (WCUs) that proposes a free hand and more autonomy to varsities, exempting them from audit systems and placing them outside the UGC-style regulatory system, offering a range of scholarships and a flexible faculty recruitment process. The ministry has also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy to attract quality faculty from across the globe proposing to amend existing legislations to permit foreign citizens to be engaged as faculty in India.
The concept note for the universities, circulated to select academicians, proposes a strong focus on research at these varsities and government aid in the form of a corpus.
…The varsity will have just two pay bands for faculty and the varsity will be free to recruit as many faculty members as its suits them within these two pay bands.
… The ministry also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy on Monday which aimed at attracting best quality teachers from across the globe to work at the 14 National Universities, proposed to be set up by the Centre in the 11th Plan. To ensure that quality faculty of foreign nationality join these universities, the government may amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 which does not allow persons of Indian origin, who are citizens of another country, to be appointed to public services and posts.
The government also intends to amend the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Services) Act of 1971 to exempt national universities from the CAG’s scrutiny.
Following is some excerpts from a zeenews report.
These universities will be kept out of the purview of existing regulatory bodies in higher education in academic matters.
"The government shall ensure that the governance structure of the university shall be tuned to towards ensuring autonomy over all matter, specially academic matters, including but not limited to admissions, curriculum, research, assessment, award of degrees, selection of members of the professoiorate and the basic direction of the academic work in the university," the concept note said.
The autonomy will be at various levels — at the level of university via-a-vis government, at the level of faculty vis-a-vis the university and at the level of researcher via-a-vis the faculty.
These proposed universities will get Research Endowment Fund of an amount less than Rs 200 crore each annually.
Following the preparation of the concept note, the Ministry will make a draft bill on setting up the universities which will go to the cabinet for approval and then placed before Parliament.
The universities will have the freedom to get funding from non-governmental sources subject to condition that it will not be from dubious or unverified sources.
An research peer group, comprising eminent academicians, will evaluate the research proposals. The varsities will have the freedom to decide remuneration for research personnel.
As a major exemption, the transactions of these universities will be kept out of the purview of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
… Accountability will be ensured by the review of the academic research peer group for research work and teachers peer group for course work and teaching.
"To that end, scrutiny and accountability shall be defined by outcomes rather than processes," the note said.
The universities will be free to establish Chairs of Studies with funding through non-government endowments.
Similarly, the universities will have freedom to make appointments by invitation based on the recommendations of a standing search committee.
"Recognising that brilliance is not a factor of age of a person or years spent in research, the appointment by invitation shall not be subject to limitations of age or years of experience of the considered candidate," the concept note said.
August 19th, 2009
Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.
Innovation universities, the government’s proposal to build its own Harvard and Oxford, could also bring in transition from the existing reservation system, to one that is based on socio-economic factors. In a concept note commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) for the upcoming 14 innovation universities, a proposal to make away with outright reservations has been mooted. Instead, the note suggests making admissions based on the socioeconomic background of the candidate.
This would mean that seats will not be reserved for candidates, rather the candidate’s admission test scores would be increased based on deprivations that he or she experiences. The concept note says that the weight would depend on factors such as the educational attainment and earning capacity of the parents and nature of the school from which the student has passed Class 10 and Class 12 (urban or rural).
…The Innovation universities, previously referred to as World-class universities or National universities, was proposed in the 11th five year plan, and would focus on multi-disciplinary research and innovation.
… Interestingly, the note recommends allowing foreign candidates to apply to the Innovation Universities along with Indians.
The note recommends holding the admission tests not only in all the state capitals and metropolitan cities, but also in selected cities across the world.
… For admissions to undergraduate courses, the note proposes to use a two-stage testing process: a standardized aptitute test followed by an essay type test. For PG courses, graduate scores and aptitude test scores would be used for determining admissions, while admission to doctorate programmes would be done based on results obtained at the PG level supplemented by references from eminent academicians.
August 9th, 2009
Following is from a recent PIB report about a Rajya Sabha reply.
The Government is considering a proposal to set up 14 Universities aiming at world class standards at the following locations:-
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Location
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Amritsar (Punjab)
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Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh)
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Jaipur (Rajasthan)
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Gandhinagar (Gujarat)
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Patna (Bihar)
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Guwahati (Assam)
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Kolkata (West Bengal)
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Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)
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Kochi (Kerala)
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Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)
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Mysore (Karnataka)
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Pune (Maharashtra)
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Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
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Bhubhaneshwar (Orissa)
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Universities aiming at world class standards would act as exemplars for other universities including Central Universities, in benchmarking standards of teaching and research to those prevailing in the best universities in the world.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. D. Purandeswari, in a written reply to a question, in the Rajya Sabha today.
There are some reports about a "brain gain" policy that is being considered for the National Universities. Following is an excerpt from a report in webindia123.
The brain drain from the country will be checked by a ‘Brain Gain’ policy, the Government told the Rajya Sabha today.
The steps mooted under the policy would attract talent from all over the world into the country’s 14 national universities aiming for world class standards as well as for Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and National Institutes of Technology, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purundeswari told the House in a written reply.
Following are excerpts from a report in Times of India by Akshaya Mukul.
In a move that could result in the exodus of Indian scholars and teachers from foreign universities back to the country, HRD ministry’s new Brain Gain policy promises unheard of academic freedom, negotiable salaries, massive research funds, right environment, freedom from regulation and bureaucratic control and a good quality of life.
… The ministry’s Brain Gain policy — aimed at attracting Indian talent for 14 proposed national universities to be developed as ‘global centres of innovation’ — is likely to be made public in the coming days.
Recognizing that funding is essential to support research environment, Brain Gain policy promises a Research Endowment Fund of at least Rs 200 crore per national university per year. The university will also have the freedom to source funding from non-government sources subject to their not being dubious organizations.
Grants will be provided to individual researchers on the basis of their proposal, which will be evaluated by ‘academic research peer group’ consisting of eminent academics. Researchers will be free to procure aids and equipment, appoint research associates and assistants and decide on their salary. The amount spent by the university or its academics on research or teaching will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In this regard, the ministry has proposed amendment to CAG Act, 1971.
Accountability will be ensured by reviews by the academic research peer group for research work and teaching peer group for course work and teaching. National universities will have the freedom to establish chairs of studies with funding through non-government endowments to be occupied by eminent professors. Chair professors will receive pay, if any, both from the endowment as well as university.
On the academic front, national universities will be kept out of the purview of regulatory oversight as well as regulations on maintenance of standards or minimum qualification requirements for appointment to academic posts. As for academic freedom, researchers will be free to publish results. They will also have freedom to patent the results of research jointly with university without getting government approval, except in cases of research in strategic areas.
July 28th, 2009
Some news reports mention about opposition to certain conditions in the Vedanta University act. In this regard a recent article by Ila Patnaik in Indian Express is illuminating. Following are some excerpts.
The existing framework for running universities in India has been tried for many decades, and has been shown to have failed. In striking contrast, China has been able to get far ahead of India in building universities. If progress has to be made in India, every assumption of the HRD ministry now needs to be questioned. In addition to removing entry barriers against new private or foreign universities, the four new ideas that need to be brought in are: autonomy of universities (including on budget); reduced core funding combined with more competitive research grants; a flexible salary structure; end of government interference in recruitment of staff and students.
The best universities in India, those that we are particularly proud of, are not well rated by international standards. The Times of London’s Higher Education Supplement ranks universities around the world. In 2008, their data showed IIT Delhi at rank 154 and IIT Bombay at rank 174 globally. No other university in India made this top 200 list. By way of comparison, China has universities at ranks 50, 56, 113, 141, 143 and 144. In other words, China has six universities which are superior to IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.
Last week, the NBER Digest carried an article by Linda Gorman summarising a research paper by Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Caroline M. Hoxby, Andreu Mas-Colell and Andre Sapir which investigates the sources of success in building universities. The paper is immensely useful in thinking about how to build universities in India; it should be on the top of Kapil Sibal’s reading list.
The paper finds that the first element that pulls down the rank of a university is the process of budgetary approval from the government. The average European university that sets its own budget has a rank of 200 while the average European university that needs approval from the government has a rank of 316. In other words, giving a university autonomy to set its own budget on average yields an improvement of 116 ranks. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give universities autonomy.
The second important feature is the role of government in funding universities. They find that each percentage point of the university’s budget that comes from core government funds reduces the rank of the university by 3.2 points. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give them less money through core funding from the government.
The third issue is inequality in wages. European universities which pay the same wages to all faculty of the same seniority and rank have an average rank of 322. Universities which vary wages for each faculty member and pay different salaries to two people of the same seniority and rank, have an average rank of 213. In other words, flexible HR policies yield an improvement of 109 ranks. The message for India: freeing up HR policies is essential to building high-quality universities.
The fourth issue is the recruitment process for students. Universities which are free to recruit undergraduate students as they like have a rank 156 points higher than those where the government determines the composition of students. The message for India: universities should have full freedom to recruit students as they like, without interference from the government.
The fifth issue is competition. Each percentage point of a university’s budget that comes from a competitive research grants process yields an improvement in its ranking by 6.5. …
Variation across state governments in the United States shows that the best universities come up in states which allow more autonomy, such as independent purchasing systems, no state approval of the university budget, and complete control of personnel hiring and pay.
There is only one university in India which has autonomy on budget setting, recruits its own students, has flexible HR policies, etc., and this is the Indian School of Business. It is perhaps logical that, in 2008, ISB was ranked the 20th best MBA programme by The Financial Times, and in 2009 this rank was improved to 15. None of the IIMs feature anywhere. This is a striking contrast between enormous state expenditures on the IIMs failing to yield measurable results when compared with an alternative which has landed India in the top rankings of the world.
July 21st, 2009
Update on 27th April 2011: The Central University location has been changed to Bander Sindri near Ajmer and only 80 kms from Jaipur. The Innovation University (previsouly referred to as National University) aiming for world class is now pushed for Jaipur. [Times of India]
The panel set up by the CM of Rajsthan has picked the following places to recommend to the central government for the various national institutes and universities coming up in Rajasthan. (From a Times of India report and another Times of India report)
- IIT : Jodhpur
- IIM: Udaipur
- National University aiming for world-class: Ajmer
- Central university: Bikaner.
The committee also recommended:
- a "futuristic" heritage conservation and museology centre in Jaipur
- an institute of Food Technology in Hadoti region of Kota
Currently the following national institutions exisit or are being made in the following places in Rajasthan:
- NIT: Jaipur
- LNMIT (private but top-notch): Jaipur
- National law School: Jodhpur
- AIIMS-like institution (being made): Jodhpur
The institutions are nicely distributed between various cities of Rajsthan, although people of Jaipur and Kota are not happy. The population of these locations are:
- Jaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 3.1 million (has inetrnational air connectivity)
- Jodhpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 988K – (332 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
- Udaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 457K – (400 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
- Ajmer (World Gazetteer 2009): 604.7K – (131 kms from Jaipur)
- Bikaner (World Gazetteer 2009): 624.6K – (321 kms from Jaipur)
- Kota (World Gazetteer 2009): 823 K (242 kms from Jaipur)
In contrast in Orissa the distribution of national institutions are more Bhubaneswar centric. Following is the status:
- IIT: Bhubaneswar
- NISER: Bhubaneswar
- AIIMS-like (being made) : Bhubaneswar
- National Law University: Cuttack (part of Bhubaneswar metroplex)
- IIIT (state-funded) : Bhubaneswar
- National University aiming to be world class: Bhubaneswar
- Vedanta University (private): Puri
- NIT: Rourkela
- Central University: Koraput
- IIIT (centrally funded): state wants it in Berhampur; center has identified as Bhubaneswar
Unfortunately, one of the reason given behind the above selection is the lack of connectivity and the size of places. Following is some information on that.
- Bhubaneswar (World Gazetteer 2009): 1.67 million (has airport but no inetrnational connectivity)
- Rourkela (World Gazetteer 2009): 551 K (no air connections) – 334 kms from Bhubaneswar
- Berhampur (World Gazetteer 2009): 403 K (no air connections) – 160 kms from Bhubaneswar
- Koraput-Jeypore-Sunabeda: 200K+ (no air connections) – 499 kms from bhubaneswar
- Puri (World Gazetteer 2009): 185K – 60 kms from Bhubaneswar
- Sambalpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 258 K (no air connections) – 321 kms from Bhubaneswar
- Jharsuguda-Belpahar-Brajarajnagar: 200 K (no air connections) – 374 kms from Bhubaneswar; 50 kms from Sambalpur
For the future, following are some of the steps that Orissa government needs to urgently take regarding developing more larger urban areas and having the national institutions more evenly distributed:
- Make sure the centrally funded IIIT is established in Berhampur
- Establish functioing airports in Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Koraput at the earliest
- Push for international flights to Bhubaneswar
- Push for upgradation of UCE Burla (Sambalpur area) to an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
- Push for the establishment of a branch of IGNTU (Indira Gandhi National Tribal University) in Phulbani
- Push for the establishment of IIM outside of the Bhubaneswar area
- Push for the establishment of a centrally funded KBK Inst of Engineering and Technology (along the lines of SLIET and ABAGKIET) in Kalahandi or Balangir.
- Push for upgrading another medical college (Berhampur or Sambalpur) to AIIMS level.
- Push for establishing NID in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
- Push for establishing NIPER in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
- Push for a BITS Pilani campus in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
June 12th, 2009
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 from the PIB report http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=47448.
| Foundation Stone of Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, laid
TO ACT AS A CATALYST FOR THE RAPID INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE STATE
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15:15 IST |
Foundation Stone of the Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Bhubaneswar, was laid in Orissa today. Shri Arjun Singh, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, was to lay the Foundation Stone, but due to unavoidable reasons he couldn’t go to Orissa and the ceremony was held in his absentia at KANSAPADA ( Khudupur-Taraboi Road ) near Jatni Block Office, Khordha.
This new IIT at Bhubaneswar is part of the 8 new IITs that have been established in the country by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Ministry. Orissa is also to get a new Central University under The Central Universities Ordinance, 2009 which was promulgated by the President of India on 15.01.2009.
Following is the full text of the speech of Shri Arjun Singh, delivered on his behalf :
“ IITs are our national pride and owe their existence to the scientific temper and disposition of our First Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Making India, the knowledge hub of the world was a cherished dream of our first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Way back in 1951, the Government of India, under the leadership of Panditji, planned to have four such institutes of excellence in the field of Engineering and Technology. The first amongst four such institutes (one for each zone) came up at Kharagpur in eastern region.
During the Eleventh Plan Period, the Government of India has decided to have eight new IITs, including IIT Bhubaneswar. IIT Bhubaneswar was one of the new IITs to become operational with 120 students in July, 2008. It is also heartening to note that the mother of the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur, is mentoring this new IIT. I would like to compliment Prof. Damodar Acharyaji, Director, IIT, Kharagpur who has made all possible efforts to mentor this IIT. The necessary facilities are being created in IIT Kharagpur Extension Campus at Bhubaneswar so that the students of IIT Bhubaneswar could have their education from Bhubaneswar itself from the forthcoming academic session starting from July 2009. IIT Bhubaneswar will offer science based engineering graduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes of international standard in various disciplines.
The State of Orissa is a resource-rich state and we expect that IIT, Bhubaneswar will act as a catalyst for the rapid industrialization of the State. Indian Institutes of Technology are known the world over for imparting quality and relevant education to students. I am confident that this new IIT also carry forward the great tradition of IITs.
I am happy to note that the Government of Orissa has allotted 935 acres of land for this IIT. The State Government has also agreed to provide adequate facilities of water, electricity and road connectivity. I appreciate the support of the Government of Orissa to have this IIT in Bhubaneswar and would like to specially thank Shri Naveen Patnaikji for his support for the venture.
I take this opportunity to mention that we had made an assessment of various States about availability of degree and diploma level courses per lakh population in the field of technical education. We find that the availability of degree and diploma level courses per lakh population in Orissa is much below the national average. This obviously means that the regional imbalance in respect of technical education needs to be corrected. It is in this context that the setting up of an IIT in Bhubaneswar is a right and timely step. I am sure the Government of Orissa will derive maximum benefits from the Central Government schemes for educational advancement of this State.
The Government of India in its Eleventh Plan has given a major thrust to education. The Central Government has taken several initiatives in respect of new institution building. These include setting up of 30 new Central Universities, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, eight new IITs, seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), two new Schools of Planning & Architecture (SPAs), 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and 20 new IIITs. For this unprecedented expansion, the credit goes to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, who has been kind enough to accord very high priority to the education sector and provided a nine fold increase in the budgetary outlays for the higher education during the XIth Plan as compared to Xth Plan.
Capacity building in the diverse fields of basic science, engineering and technology, architecture, management will empower besides providing opportunities to the youth. It has been decided to launch a massive National Initiative for Skill Development under which it is proposed to give assistance for the establishment of 1000 new polytechnics. It is also proposed to upgrade infrastructure facilities of existing diploma level Government and Government aided polytechnics. In order to attract women in polytechnic education, we are proposing to provide financial assistance for the construction of women’s hostels in 500 polytechnics.
The Government is also going to incentivise the States for starting new Universities, besides giving a one time grant to the States on a matching basis to develop the infrastructure of State technical institutions. With these initiatives, we hope to increase access (by 5% GER during XI Plan) with equity and excellence.
8. I am happy to say that the State of Orissa is also getting its due share. We have decided in this Plan Period to have in Orissa State, one Central University, one National University aiming for world class standards, one IIIT, and several Polytechnics in those districts which currently do not have a Polytechnic. The Government and Private Engineering Colleges will also be getting opportunity to upgrade their facilities through TEQIP. This will provide our youth in the State with vocational and professional educational opportunities to realize their full potential.”
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KKP/ska
February 12th, 2009
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