Archive for May, 2007

Samaja: Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu meets with the PM and suggests alternatives to an IIT

May 13th, 2007

After Bokaro Steel plant, now Central Coalfields Ltd. (CCL) plans to set up an engineering college in Jharkhand

Earlier we wrote about how Bokaro Steel Plant has agreed to set up an engineering college and a medical college in Jharkhand and urged our CM to pursue with RSP and other public and private sector metals and mines companies.

Today in Business Standard there is news that Central Coalfields has also agreed to set up an engineering college in Jharkhand. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for writing about it in the ornet.)

Orissa government must go after all the mining and metal related comapnies, be they public sector or private sector and urge them to do the same. The central public sectors in Orissa include NALCO, SAIL RSP, MCL, CIL and NTPC. We will write about the private sector in another positing.

1 comment May 13th, 2007

FAEA (Foundation for academic excellence and access) Scholarships to study Bachelors and Masters

FAEA, the Foundation for academic excellence and access offers scholarships for socially and economically disadvantaged students. It has an impressive governing council. Its objective as described in its web pages are:

to secure social justice for students belonging to socially and economically disadvantaged sections of the society. It emphasizes equality of opportunity to help students become what they would like to be so that they have a choice and are not dictated by economic and social necessity. It enables economically and socially disadvantaged students to study in the institutions, which provide academic excellence, access to structures of power and economic opportunity.

Its web page and students manual give more details on its scholarship program.

May 12th, 2007

Vedanta University: its architect and their initial designs

Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimore USA firm, is in charge of Vedanta University’s campus master plan. The client list of Ayers Saint Gross is extremely impressive and as per their web site today includes Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Duke University, Emory University, Franklin and Marshall College, Guangzhou China University City, George Washington University, University of Georgia, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland College Park, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, Rutgers University, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Vedanta University.

Based on their list of current projects they are involved in the Building design and architecture of academic buildings of Vedanta University as well as its campus planning. Following is a blurb from their site.

Vedanta University
Campus Master Plan
Orissa, India

Completion: 2012 (phase !)
Size: 8,000 acres
Cost: N/A

Ayers/Saint/Gross has been selected as the Lead Campus Master Planner and Architect for Vedanta University, envisioned to be a world-class, multi-discipline university in India. This project will entail the design and development of a state-of-the art education and research institute that will rank among the highest caliber schools internationally – at the level of Harvard, Stanford and Oxford.

This new University will be built around several colleges and ‘Centers of Excellence’ for cross-disciplinary research. The colleges will include Graduate, Post-Graduate, and Doctoral programs in various disciplines. It is aimed to have a globally diversified, high-quality student body, comprising an equal mix of Indian and international students – serving over 100,000 students in the long-term. The campus will house state-of-the-art facilities including a global resource library, research and development parks, student and faculty residences, and an Olympic caliber sports complex. The vision also includes the development of a University township that will evolve with the University and drive local development in the region as an education and research satellite city.

We now present several daigrams from the Vedanta University web pages as well as from their architect’s pages.
Masterplan:

Phase 1 plan:

Campus planning view (as given in their website):

Another view:

View of one of their buildings:

CM writes to PM again on the IIT issue

Various news outlets report that the CM has written to the PM again on the IIT issue. [Statesman, India eNews, New Kerala,New Indian Express, Kalinga Times, India Edu news.net,Dharitri, Samaja, Sambada, Pragativadi]

Following are some quotes of what the CM is supposed to have written.

  • “The recent reply of Union minister of state for human resource development on the floor of the Parliament regarding establishment of IITs in the country has come as a shock to us.”
  • “When I met the honourable minister of HRD in this connection, he had indicated to me that the case of Orissa can be considered for a full-fledged green field IIT. The recent decision of government of India to locate the IITs in states which already have the benefit of many Central institutes indicates that objective criteria have not been followed in deciding the locations of the 3 IITs.”
  • “It is indeed painful that the decision has now been reversed.”

May 12th, 2007

Time Magazine on Anil Agarwal and Vedanta University

Time Magazine in its recent issue lists Anil Agarwal at number in its list of 12 Powergivers. The others in the list are Angelina Jolie, Rania al-Abdullah, Yu Panglin, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, Sir John Templeton, Li Ka-shing, Pierre & Pam Omidyar, David Rockefeller, Gordon Moore, George Soros, and Bill & Melinda Gates.

Following is an excerpt of what Time says about Mr. Agarwal and Vedanta University.

Cause: University education in India. The London-based mining magnate has pledged $1 billion to establish a world-class, need-blind university in Orissa, eastern India. To be called Vedanta (the name of his mining group), the school will focus on liberal arts, in contrast to India’s many technically oriented schools.

Impact: Vedanta will help address the region’s dearth of university spots, which keeps qualified students from going to high-quality colleges.

It says Vedant University will focus on liberal arts and not like the technical schools in India. What it means probably is that it will not be unidimensional like the IITs were (they are changing), the IIMs are, etc. It does not mean that it will not have disciplines like science, engineering, management etc. In fact Vedanta University’s website lists all these disciplines and my guess is that in their first phase they will have disciplines like Engineering, Management and Medicine (as they recently promised) which are in demand and which will attract paying students.

(Thanks to Jibanendra babu for tipping of about the Time magazine article.)

May 12th, 2007

In response to Dharitri’s editorial by MP Tathagata Satpathy

IIT and irrigation projects are not either-or propositions

Dear Tathagata babu:

In regards to your yesterday’s editorial, having higher education institutions like IITs and having irrigation projects are not either-or propositions. Andhra is pursuing both and as a result they have one new IIT, two more of its institutes are being upgraded to IIT clones, a new Birla institute of Technology and at the same time they are also pursuing irrigation projects. They are also building a world class airport (see pictures at http://www.newhyderabadairport.com/information/photos.html http://www.newhyderabadairport.com/information/live_footage.html )

However, your point to not forget others is an important one.

I do believe that the current Naveen Patnaik government has not forgotten that and the Biju KBK jojana and Gopabandhu Jojana are examples of that. But there is always need for more to be done. So please pursue irrigation projects and other projects with all vigor.

best regards
Chitta

May 11th, 2007

Ravenshaw University with the help of XIMB is experimenting with on-line application

It seems Ravenshaw University with the help of XIMB is experimenting with on-line application. One can apply on-line at an XIMB site that is linked from the Ravenshaw University home page. But one still needs to physically mail a demand draft of the appropriate amount and a print out of the application form. One can print out the admit card from that site though.

May 11th, 2007

Orissa focussed on IIT: newspapers report on various happennings on this

During the last two days there have been many developments on the IIT in Orissa front. Following is a quick summary of them.

May 10th, 2007

Highcourt judgment on the NIS case

In 2005 after newsreports came in that the proposed National Institute of Sciences was shifted to West Bengal, Mr. Prasanta Das from Cuttack, on behalf of his organization, filed a PIL on this at the Cuttack high court. At one point the Cuttack highcourt put a stay order on any progress on IISERs (the renamed version of NIS). The central govt. went to the Supreme Court and got the stay order lifted. All these led to a lot of news coverage of this issue.

Several Oriyas helped in the supreme court part of the case and even roped in Arun Jaitely to argue the case on behalf of the PIL. The supreme court sent back the case to the high court and finally two days back the high court gave a judgment.

However during this time the PM had already announced the establishment of NISER in Bhubaneswar. This was conveyed to the high court through an affidavit, and that affidavit said that the NISER would open by August 2007. So the high court in its judgment basically said that NISER must be opened by August 2007. This news is reported in Sambada and New Indian Express. Some of the documents related to the Supreme Court case in regards to NIS/IISER shifting (1550-of-2006) are as follows:

Old news items on the case at high court and supreme court are in this blog.

May 10th, 2007

Dharitri: The minister had spoken the truth

Dharitri reports that the minister answering the no call motion had said that upon the advice of the scientific advisory committee an IIT is to be established in “Orissa”, but then she corrected herself and said “Bihar”. More interstingly, she also said that Minister Fatmi never said that an IIT will be established in Orissa. However, Minister Mr. Fatmi was in the Lok Sabha at that time and he was silent even when the Orissa MPs were looking at him for an answer.

3 comments May 10th, 2007

Analyzing some excerpts of the Indian Express article on “No IIT in Orissa”

Following is an excerpt from the Indian Express article.

Replying to the calling attention, Minister of State for Human Resources D Purandareswari said … As she proceeded to read out a list of educational institutions in the state that were receiving Central assistance—it was in answer to criticism that the state was being discriminated against—the NDA members began protesting, claiming the assistance was paltry. At this BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra rose to say, “There has been injustice against Orissa,” and led the NDA camp in a walkout.

Two comments:

1. Its laughable that the minister was reading out educational institutions in Orissa that receive central assistance. Every state has such institutions. What we are talking about is institutions like IIT that are international brands; institutions that are fully funded by MHRD; institutions like IIT, IIM, SPA, IIIT, IISc, IISER and Central Universities.
2. It is significant that the NDA leader of the Lok Sabha led the walk out and said what he said. I hope if and when the NDA comes to power he and other NDA leaders will come to Orissa’s aid and make things more equitable.

1 comment May 10th, 2007

BJP + BJD MPs in dharana for IIT (picture from Kalinga Times)

From Kalinga Times.

May 9th, 2007

MHRD discriminates against Orissa: You be the judge!

On May 8th 2007, NDA MPs from Orissa brought a call attention notice in the Lok Sabha about an IIT in Orissa and dissatisfied with response walked out of the parliament and were supported by other NDA MPs in this walkout. Speaking about this MP Baijayanta Panda of BJD is reported to have said, “Orissa is being continuously neglected by the Centre, especially by the ministry of HRD.” Is Mr. Panda right? Or is this a typical whining allegation that opposition parties from various states regularly throw at the government.

Continue Reading 2 comments May 9th, 2007

MHRD neglect of Orissa

During this UPA rule MHRD has announced and started several top-notch institutions across India; some are mentioned in a recent PIB press release. Following is a list of them:

    1. IISER Kolkata, West Bengal (1)
    2. IISER Pune, Maharashtra (1)
    3. IISER Mohali, Punjab (1)
    4. IISER in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (1)
    5. IISER in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala (1)
    6. IIT in Andhra Pradesh (1)
    7. IIT in Rajasthan (1)
    8. IIT in Bihar (1)
    9. IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya (1)
    10. SPA in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh (2)
    11. SPA in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2)
    12. Upgradation of Bengal Engineering and Sc U to an IIT clone (IIEST), West Bengal (2)
    13. Upgradation of Andhra Univ Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (3)
    14. Upgradation of Osmania Univ Engg College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (4)
    15. Upgradation of IT BHU to IIT clone (IIEST), Uttar Pradesh (1)
    16. Upgradation of Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech to IIT clone (IIEST), Kerala (2)
    17. IIIT Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (1)
    18. Allahbad University made to a Central University, Uttar Pradesh (2)
    19. Manipur University made to a Central University, Manipur (1)
    20. Arunachal Pradesh university made to a Central University, Arunachal Pradesh (1)
    21. Tripura university made to a Central University, Tripura (1)
    22. New Central University in Sikkim, Sikkim (1)
    23. CIEFL Hyderabad made to a central university, Andhra Pradesh (5)
      Orissa is among the bottom three (and now at the bottom) in terms of per-capita spending by MHRD in fully funded higher education institutions and it does not have an IIT, IIM, Central university, Institutes of National Importance, IIIT etc.
      If so many new institutes are being made by MHRD, and Orissa did not have any of the above kinds of top-notch institutions to begin with, why a single one of the new ones fully funded by MHRD are not in Orissa.

      May 9th, 2007

Excerpts from the Statesman article on IIT: MP Baijayanta Panda’s statements

Following is an execrpt from the Statesman article on this issue.

Call for dharna

Meanwhile, the BJD Rajya Sabha leader, Mr Baijayant Panda, has requested all MPs from Orissa, irrespective of party affiliation, to be join a sit-in dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the premises of Parliament tomorrow for an IIT in the state, SNS adds from Bhubaneswar.


All BJD-BJP MPs from Orissa have decided to stage a dharna and others from the state are invited to join, he said.

Orissa is being continuously neglected by the Centre, especially by the ministry of HRD, said Mr Panda. In spite of the declaration by the HRD minister of state to have two IITs in Orissa last year, the Centre has decided to have three new IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

It is unfortunate that Orissa’s longstanding demand for Central institutes like Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management continues to be ignored by the Central government, he observed.

1 comment May 9th, 2007

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