The PM’s independence day speech will be remembered for a long time for its groundbreaking educational steps. Here, we analyze them vis-a-vis Orissa.
K-12
"We will support 6,000 new high quality schools — one in every block of the country" [Orissa has 314 blocks. Currently the central govt has three kinds of schools: Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Ekalabya Vidyalayas. My guess is these will be Navodaya Vidyalayas. Until now, Navodaya Vidyalayas were being made one per district. Extending it to one per block will do wonders.]
Higher education
"We will also ensure that adequate numbers of colleges are set up across the country, especially in districts where enrollment levels are low. We will help States set up colleges in 370 such districts." [Orissa has 30 districts. As per the NSSO study of 2004-2005, Table 3.14.1 shows that in the 15-19 age group 29% people in Orissa are attending school/college and in the 20-24 age group this number for Orissa is 6.1%. (Both numbers are lowest among all but the small states/UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.) For the Scheduled Tribe population these numbers are 17.1% for the 15-19 age group and 4.1% for the 20-24 age group.]
"We will set up thirty new Central Universities. Every state that does not have a central university will now have one." [Orissa does not have one so it should get one. But considering that there are 23 other existing central universities, making it a total of 53 central universities, Orissa should get two.]
"we are setting up five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research" [The five IISERs are at Pune, Kolkata, Mohali, Bhopal, and Trivendrum. A NISER is being set up in Bhubaneswar.]
"eight new Indian Institutes of Technology" [Three of these IITs are announced to be in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Orissa should get one of the other five IITs.]
"seven new Indian Institutes of Management" [Announcements have been made with respect to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Shillong. If Orissa gets a new IIT then its chance of getting a new IIM this round is much less. Orissa should try though.]
"twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology." [There will be one in each main states, including Orissa, which does not have one. Existing ones are at Allahabad, Amethi, Jabalpur, and Gwalior and a new one is being established at Kanchipuram. ]
Vocational Education
"We will soon launch a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development, through which we will open 1600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres."
"We will ensure that annually, over 100 lakh students get vocational training – which is a four-fold increase from today’s level."
More scholarships
"We should seek not just functional literacy, but good quality education – education that is affordable, accessible, equitable – and available to every boy and girl who seeks to study. For the needy we will provide more scholarships."
The NIT (National Institutes of Technology) act becomes effective Aug 15 2007. There is a similar act for the IITs; but the NITs did not have one earlier. By virtue of this act NITs now become "Institutes of National Importance (INI)." Thus the proposed IIESTs, which will also be accorded INI status will not necessarily have a higher status than NITs.
The NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) web page has a list of candidates who have been called for interview in Bhubaneswar. The list for the candidates invited for interview in Mumbai in connection with UM-DAE is here. Following is the information for interview for the interviews in Bhubaneswar, as given in the NISER web page.
I came across this Allahbad bank site about education loans. They give loans up to 4 lakhs without any collateral security to students of a selected list of colleges/institutes. The current list includes four Orissa institutes. They are:
Pioneer reports on this teaming up to give training to selected children from several Tribal department run schools. Following are some excerpts.
The SC & ST Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI) under the ST & SC Development Department has been organising a number of training programmes for the teachers as well as students of tribal schools to promote effective education among the tribals.
The institute, in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) headed by eminent mathematician Professor Swadhin Pattnaik, identified 47 meritorious tribal students of Class VI from different Tribal Department-run schools and provided them an eight-day-long residential training course from July 17 to 24 to prepare them for the Mathematics Olympiad.
The training programme is considered to be unique and innovative, director of the institute, AB Ota, indicated that more and more such programmes would be held in future in the interest of tribal education.
Our institute has become the first among all NITs to earn the trust of SBI to sanction study loan to our students by the NIT campus branch itself ( in stead of the branches located in their native places) without asking for any sort of security. This facility was earlier available only to reputed institutes like IIT and IIM under Scholar Plus Scheme.
The story behind how this was achieved:
This has become possible due to strong follow up and bargain made by our director insisting on exclusive new ATM counter in the campus, Internet banking facility to all students (now students need not stand in the queue to pay fees in cash/cheque either in institute or halls) and this study loan, otherwise we would have given permission to other banks to open their branches in the campus to break the monopoly of SBI since inception.
It is from http://www.aicte.ernet.in/approval/engg_LIST/Orissa.doc (as of July 12 2007) reached via http://www.aicte.ernet.in/app_inst_new.htm after clicking the scrolling sentence in AICTE web page that says "Approval status 2007-08 as on 05-07-2007." The Orissa JEE counseling brochure has a few other colleges that are not in this list. For BPUT to put them in the Orissa JEE counseling brochure these colleges must have some sort of approval. Beyond that I can not guess why they are not in the latest AICTE list. Sometimes AICTE has multiple lists in its web pages. If people have doubts about these colleges they should ask BPUT to give them some written guarantee/proof regarding these colleges when counseling or during admission.
The last two columns of that article denote "Existing intake for 2006-07" and "Approved intake for 2007-08." Please note that they are not properly aligned. (I am having problems with the editor when copying and pasting from word documents.)
News Indian Express reports on some recent developments in regards to the AIIMS branch in Bhubaneswar. Following are some excerpts.
Construction work of All India Institute Medical Sciences (AIIMS) branch proposed to be set up at Sijua near here would start by the year-end, seven years after its foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee.
The Centre has informed the State that construction of housing and hostel blocks and medical college complex would be started by the year-end. The process of shortlisting the developers and consultants for the designdetailed project report (DPR) is at a final stage.
In a letter to the Secretary in the Health Department Chinmoy Basu, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Deepak Gupta has requested the State Government to initiate immediate action for transfer of title deed of the land in favour of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
NISER Bhubaneswar has advertised for teaching positions. Following is an excerpt from their advertisement.
National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is expected to initiate its academic programme from September, 2007. NISER invites highly qualified scientists with good teaching experience to submit their CV and list of publications to participate in the Integrated M.Sc. teaching programme of NISER in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. NISER will offer fixed term contract appointments to scientists in service or who are retired. Those professors who are interested in coming on sabbatical to teach at NISER up to two semesters, also are welcome to send their CV and list of publications.
All documents should be sent to…
Director
Institute of Physics
Sachivalaya Marg
Bhubaneswar – 751 005
INDIA
Business Standard reports that central minister Chandrasekhar Sahu is pursuing with the central government regarding establishing three marquee institutions in South Orissa. Following is an excerpt of that:
While the first Central University is likely to be set up in Koraput, plans for an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and National Institute of Design (NID) in Berhampur are in the works. …
Sahu also said he has discussed the possibility of a National Institute of Design (NID) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) being set up in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. The recent discussions with the Union minister for commerce, Kamal Nath, and the minister for textiles, Shankarsingh Veghela, “were very positive and they assured us that they are willing to establish these institutes if the state government extended its cooperation,†said Sahu. …
While the Central University and IIIT are under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, the NID is under the Ministry of Commerce. NIFT and NIHT come under the Ministry of Textiles.
Lets analyze this. First of all if all these materializes then its great. However lets compare what Orissa will be getting vis-a-vis the other states.
In the Central University front, the central university in Koraput should be a distributed kind like the proposed Indira Gandhi National Tribal University. It should be designed such that it has branches in all KBK+ districts from the start.
The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows: 8 KBK districts total 38.72% (+ 16.63 % SC). Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC).
The literacy rates in the KBK districts are as follows: Overall in 8 KBK districts 36.58% with the female literacy at 24.72%. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.
India already has 20 central universities and if 30 more are going to be made then besides the central university in Koraput one of the other universities in Orissa should also be upgraded to a central university.
There will be 19 new IIITs. Orissa will be getting one of them. This is good but does not take Orissa out of the bottom of MHRD spending
NID is good. But it does not replace the IIT that was taken away from Orissa. The 2007-08 budget for the 7 IITs is a total of 1553.70 cores (i.e., an average of 221.96 crores) while the 2007-08 budget for NID is 20.25 crores.
Hence, Orissa must: (a) continue to push for an IIT in Orissa; (b) push for the Central University in Koraput to have branches in the KBK+ districts from the very beginning; (c) this central university should have special quote for tribals and locals as is the case in many north eastern states and as will be the case in the Indira Gandhi national tribal university; (d) push for one of the other universities in Orissa to be upgraded to a central university; (e) Make sure branches of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University exist in the north western districts with high tribal population, in particular Mayurbhanj (tribal percentage 57.87%, literacy 52.43%), Sundergarh (50.74%, 65.22%), and Keonjhar (44.52%, 59.75%); and possibly in Sambalpur (35.08% , literacy 67.01%), Deogarh (33.31%, literacy 60.78%), and Jharsuguda (31.88% , literacy 71.47%).
The Hindu reports that XIM Bhubaneswar will be signing an MOU with NIS SPARTA, a Reliance Dihrubhai Anil Ambani company, on this. It says:
“Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar and NIS Sparta, a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Company, will sign a MoU to promote satellite based management programmes in Bhubaneswar on Monday.”
New Indian Express reports that Regional Medical Research Center in Bhubaneswar will now have facility for diagnosis of viral infections. Following are some excerptss from that report.
Giving a much-needed boost to viral diseases surveillance in Orissa, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has identified Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) here as one of its diagnostic centres. …
Keeping in view the overburdened NIV, the council decided to establish facilities for diagnosis of viral infections at centres having expertise in molecular biology and bio-technology.
The expert group of the council had met recently to discuss establishment of new virology laboratories in the country and identified three such categories of labs as part of the network. RMRC, it said, falls in the first category of labs basing on its strategic location in outbreak-prone areas.
ICMR will build capacity of RMRC as part of this new networking.
