Orissa has a regional office of the coir board at Bhubaneswar. It also has a State Coir Development & Training Centre at Teisipur, Puri where it imparts training. Following is an ad from Samaja on a one year training course offered by the later.
August 1st, 2007
Following are some excerpts on this from a report in New Indian Express.
The State Government has proposed to the newly formed Ravenshaw University to introduce Computer Science as an elective subject in all disciplines.
… Keeping in mind the importance of information technology in the present scenario, computer education should be offered as a subject in all disciplines – art, science and commerce, the meeting observed.
The Government has also decided to fill up all teaching posts in the university this year and as a first step, all teaching
staffposition [*corrected*] of the erstwhile Ravenshaw College would be transferred to the university. The posts lying vacant would be filled up through recruitment. Out of the total sanctioned teaching posts of 144, as many as 26 posts are presently vacant, official sources said.A decision has also been taken to transfer the existing lecturers to government colleges in phases and make fresh recruitment in their place. The non-teaching staff would be given an option to continue in the university or go to any government college on transfer. The meeting resolved that a decision on the introduction of new subjects in the university should be taken only after reviewing the existing self-financed courses.
Following is Sambada’s report on it.
2 comments August 1st, 2007
Indiaedunews.net has more details on UGC’ s support to Ravenshaw. Following are some excerpts.
Cuttack: The newly-formed Ravenshaw University (RU) has become eligible to receive Central financial assistance under section 12 (B) of UGC Act 1956. The university authorities recently received a letter from UGC undersecretary Urmila Gulati.
The communique states that: "The University shall abide by the instructions, guidelines, notifications, rules and regulations as issued by the UGC from time to time". It may be noted here that a team of members from UGC had visited the campus earlier this month to verify the facilities available at the university that was last year upgraded to its present status from an autonomous college.
As per the UGC norms, the varsity would now get an immediate assistance of Rs.1 crore for development under "Young University" scheme. "The Government is now going to abolish all existing posts of the erstwhile college and in their place, fresh recruitments will be made soon for the newly formed university," said Satyakam Mishra Registrar of RU.
Ravenshaw University is a state University which came in to existence on 15th November, 2006. The university has been upgraded from the erstwhile Ravenshaw College established in 1868 which was one of the oldest and largest autonomous colleges in India.
August 1st, 2007
Following are some excerpts on this topic from a report in Hindustan Times. However, the numbers below look wrong. A previous article had mentioned the total cost to be 5000 crores. That number appears more reasonable.
In a bid to have similar higher standard of education in the new 14 Central Universities proposed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the government wants to bring a uniform legislation to govern them all. The new universities would cost government Rs Rs 41,802 crore.
… Recently, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had told HT that the government intends to develop these institutes into “centers of excellence” at part with one of the best in the world.
The decision to have a uniform legislation is said to be a step in this direction. HRD ministry officials, who deliberated on the issue on Monday, said uniform legislation would ensure better regulation and maintaining of high standards of education. “It will also give a sort of uniformity to higher education system in India, which is lacking,” a ministry official said.
The government has also proposed that the new Central universities should be modeled on Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the only university in the country among top 200 in the world.
The proposed law will also ensure linkages between Central universities enabling easy mobility of students from one university into another and a centralized admission system. However, the HRD ministry has some reservation on whether the centralized admission system would be possible for graduate and post-graduate studies in arts or commerce as evaluating students’ ability through a test may not be possible.
Government officials also said the proposed law will frame complete autonomy for these universities based on JNU governance model to check “political interference” in appointment of vice-chancellors and faculty. The law would provide complete autonomy to the executive and academic council on how to run the university within University Grants Commission guidelines.The government also plans that 14 Central Universities will have an engineering school, a management school and a law school. But, the decision on the fees to be charges will rest with the university, an official said. The Planning Commission had recommended that the fee for undergraduate courses should be Rs 12,000 per annum with 40 per cent of students getting substantial scholarships. “The fee structure should cover 20 per cent of the cost for running the university,” the official said.
August 1st, 2007
Fiber2fashion reports,
The 29th centre of ATDC is inaugurated in the State of Orissa ON 24.07.2007. Indeed the last few years, ATDC is streamlining its activities in tune with its objectives. From an initial strength of a mere 195 students training in 1996, number of students passing out last year has risen to 7500. Overall more than 23000 students have been trained in different centres of the ATDC, since its inception and around 5500 students are now undergoing training in different courses. The students trained at various centres of ATDCs are suitably employed in the garment industry and we are proposing to set up a total of 50 ATDC centres by December 2007 and to train a minimum of 25000 students per year. As part of institutional social responsibility and in specific development of the weaker section of the society and to provide them opportunities for a better livelihood, in collaboration with the National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and National Scheduled Castes Finance & Development Corporation (NBCFDC), New Delhi, ATDC has tied up to impart training to OBC/SC candidates by signing MOU’s. …….. In fact, ATDC provides 100% placement for the students passing out from ATDC centres. Various industries / export houses situated in all over the country recruit our students. Indeed there is a huge demand for skilled human resources in the Apparel Industry, as the textile sector would generate employment opportunities for 17.35 million work force of which 5.2 million will be skilled and the textile sector is expected to attract an investment of 1,50,600 Crore by the end of 11th Five year plan. Indeed the growth of the industry has now accelerated to 10% per annum and it is expected to rise to 16% in coming years.
2 comments August 1st, 2007
The Pioneer on Aug 1, 2007 reports,
Students of DAV Vedanta International School, Lanjigarh, Kalahandi, celebrated Vanamahotsav on Sunday. Their slogan for the people of the entire area was ‘Let’s make Lanjigarh greener’. A short cultural programme was presented by the students on the occasion. The speeches delivered by the students emphasised on the causes and consequences of deforestation and they exhorted the people to work for plantation and afforestation. …
People from near and far gathered at VAL Township to participate in the programme. …
People of the locality pledged to take the cause further. They participated in the programme by planting saplings at the site along with the students, teachers, parents and VAL executives. Neem and Golmohar tree saplings were planted by all.
9 comments August 1st, 2007
The Pioneer reports on demand of KBK central university by all KBK districts. It says,
All KBK districts are echoing with the demand for a Central University in the region, thanks to the initiative of the intelligentsia in the area. For the last one-week, concerned citizens of the KBK districts have been meeting at different forums raising the demand. Meetings were organised at Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Jeypore, Koraput and Sunabeda, which culminated at a workshop in Koraput on Sunday.
People’s representatives, intellectuals and a number of other leading citizens assembled at Koraput to chalk out the future plan. A well-documented presentation of Chitta Baral, professor of Arizona State University was discussed at length over the status of educational standards of the KBK districts vis-à-vis other parts of the State. Organisers like Umi Daniel and Saroj Padhi presented the research document.
Baral, sitting thousands miles away, was able to make an impact on the minds of all the 50 participants at the workshop. Agriculturist Bibhu Mohanty of Jeypore, who improvised Kala Jira Rice in Kalahandi on behalf of the Swaminathan group, highly appreciated the detailed study done by Baral.Lalit M Patnaik of Agamee Odisha harped on the improvement of the poor standards of higher education in the State.
The meeting decided that crying over the poverty index is bringing shame to the State. So, the Infrastructure of progress should be referred to rather than the poverty index, which in itself is misleading about the progress of the State.
By taking seven sub-sectors of the infrastructure such as transport, energy, irrigation, banking, communication, education and health, one can really compute the composite development index of infrastructure for different districts of the State, said speakers.
August 1st, 2007
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:
5 comments July 31st, 2007
This is something I have talked about in various forums earlier. Its great that it is gaining momentum in India. I will now follow it more closely and cover its progress. To start with, today’s Statesman has a report on this. Following are some excerpts.
PARALAKHEMUNDI, July 30: The New Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society inaugurated the “School Choice Campaign in Gajapati district” at a function at the Town Hall here. …
Dr Mishra said the programme was meant to create awareness among the people about the need for a student to be able to study in a school of his/her choice.
There is an obvious disparity in the education system where the rich have the option but a poor child has none whatsoever.
The school choice campaign being organised in nearly eight states has plans to collect 10 lakh signatures, to highlight the issue.
“Crores of rupees are being spent in the name of education but when it comes to real evaluation of results, one finds that pass results are poor, drop-out rates abominable, corruption galore, misappropriation of funds and no accountability.
Why should the bureaucrat decide how education funds should be spent and should they bear no responsibility for the failures,” asked Dr Mishra.Despite the progress of projects such as the Sarva Sikhsha Abhijan and National Child Labour Project, results are not up to the mark.
After the meeting, Dr Mishra said they have found out that the government investment in education is about Rs 5000 per annum, per student.
The money is being spent in the form of infrastructural development, books purchase, teacher recruitment , purchasing of materials and so on.
Spending is decided by government officers who are unaware of the ground realities.
Had the same money been handed over to the parent or the guardian, giving him or her the choice of school, there could be rapid transformation in the system.
However radical or antagonistic the proposal may be, it is fast catching up and the Delhi-based CCS has been trying to make the government understand that the money is best given to the guardians in the form of vouchers.
If 1,000 students are selected from a particular block and given Rs 5,000 each year for their education, it comes to Rs 50 lakh per annum, he said.This is bound to encourage good schools to come up in the block.
These can be an alternative to locally run government schools where the poor people are forced to study because the government is investing money on them.
July 31st, 2007
Following are excerpts from a report in televsionpoint.com.
Mumbai based Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) is looking at its child care division, Kidzcare, as a major growth-driver in the years to come. …
Arun Khetan, CEO, ZILS said, "The franchised childcare centres, Kidzcare, are geared to meet the gap in proper existing childcare programmes. We will be setting up a total of 35 Kidzcare centres in this financial year."
According to Khetan, the demand for these centres is mostly from the IT and BPO crowd. "Thus, the Kidzcare centres will mostly come up in places like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai."
July 31st, 2007
Following are some excerpts from Tathya’s article.
Entire KBK districts are echoing with the demand for a Central University, thanks to the initiative of the intelligentsia of the area.
For last one week, concerned citizens of the KBK districts have been meeting at different forums, while raising their demand for a Central University.
Meetings were organized at Malkangiri, Nawrangpur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, which culminated at Koraput on July 29.
The people’s representatives,intelectuals and a number of leaders assembled here to chalk out the future plan.
A well documented presentation … was discussed at length over the status of educational standard of the KBK districts vis-à-vis other parts of the state.
The organizers like Umi Daniel and Saroj Padhi presented the thorough researched document in a lucid manner, which has a long lasting impression on the participants of the workshop. …
Agriculturist Bibhu Mohanty of Jeypore, who improvised "Kala Jira Rice" at Kalahandi on behalf of Swaminathan group, highly appreciated the detailed study …
Lalit M Patnaik of Agamee Odisha harped on the improvement of the poor standards of higher education in the state.
Mr.Patnaik said that “they are not alone rather a large group of intellectuals inside the country and in abroad are behind the struggle to make Orissa the Major Destination of Higher Education”.
The meeting decided that crying over the poverty index is bringing shame to the state.
So the Infrastructure of Progress should be referred rather then the Poverty Index, which in itself is misleading about the progress of our State and it’s Districts.
By taking seven sub-sectors of the infrastructure such as transport, energy, irrigation, banking, communication, education and health, we can really compute the composite development index of infrastructure for different districts of Orissa, said speakers in the meeting.
July 31st, 2007
Following are the branches and colleges that no longer have any GE seats. On the side we mention in which counseling the seats got filled up.
5 comments July 31st, 2007
Updated dated Dec 8 2007: Thanks to reader Priyanka (comment 108-109) we now have details on the increase in CSIR fellowship amounts. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=867 or http://www.csirhrdg.nic.in/fellowship%20revision.pdf for details. In short, the amount go up in two stages. From 1st September 2006 the amount for JRF goes up from Rs 8,000/month to Rs 10,000/month and then from 1st April 2007 the amount goes further up to Rs 12,000/month.
From a S&T department PIB press release.
Government of India, Department of Science & Technology (DST) has been considering the revision of research fellowships of Research Fellows and Research Associates from time to time. There are various practical considerations in deciding on the revision of fellowships which should take into account all possible scenarios and specially, availability of resources and the sustainability of increased fellowships. While attractive fellowships have to be instituted to attract promising candidates to take up research as a career, there is also a need to create an ambience required for pursuing research, which is a pre-requisite.
The Exercise of revision of fellowships is conducted through an inter-agency and extensive consultative process. The Department, as a part of the consultative process, had discussions with all the S&T agencies including the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). The revision had taken into account the need for redesigning the research fellowships for meeting the needs of a competitive market environment for talent, and longer-term time horizon. It was also decided that both the Scientific Departments and the MHRD would harmonize the fellowship levels and effective dates for implementation. The following were the main recommendations apart from the revision of fellowships:
The candidate who qualifies through NET examination or its equivalent for admission to do Ph.D. should get a fellowship amount of Rs 12000.
All eligible candidates admitted in different disciplines to do Ph.D may be covered under a suitable fellowship programme in a phase- wise manner.
Fellowships to candidates, other than those qualified in NET or equivalent examination, admitted to pursue Ph.D in the institutions, recognized by relevant S&T agencies, would be covered by UGC norms.
Based on these extensive deliberations, the Department of Science & Technology has proposed the enhancement in research fellowships. Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences told media persons in New Delhi today that the Government has accorded approval for this enhancement, as given below.
Table: Enhancement of Research Fellowships for NET or Equivalent
(Rupees per month)
|
Sr. No. |
Category
|
Current Fellowship |
Approved Fellowship w.e.f. 01.04.2007 |
|
1. |
JRF/ SRF |
Rs 8000/- |
Rs 12000/- |
|
2. |
JRF/ SRF (Professional) |
Rs 9500/- |
Rs 14000/- |
|
3. |
Research Associate (1) |
Rs 11000/- |
Rs 16000/- |
|
4. |
Research Associate (2) |
Rs 11500/- |
Rs 17000/- |
|
5. |
Research Associate (3) |
Rs 12000/- |
Rs 18000/- |
224 comments July 30th, 2007
Samaja has the following article on this.
1 comment July 30th, 2007
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