Odisha HRD

Foreign universities bill almost ready for the cabinet to look at

Following is from a report in IndiaEduNews.net.

The Foreign Education Providers Bill, a bill that seeks regulating the entry and operations of Foreign education providers in India, is likely to be placed before the Cabinet this week.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is ready with a draft of the Bill, sources from the Ministry said.

On the Foreign Education Providers Bill, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal argued that the government alone could not finance the educational needs of the country, and said, "There is an allocation of Rs.85,000 crore for education in the 11th Five-Year Plan. But this is not enough."

"The private sector has to come. But we will have to regulate it and there will be a law for it," he said, adding that such regulations would be done by experts and academics and "there would be no political interference at all."

He said 1.6 lakh Indian students go abroad every year and spend millions of dollars besides the heavy cost to the exchequer. Sibal wondered: "A student in India may be denied admission in IIT but he gets it in MIT."

As per the Bill, Foreign education providers would be given the status of deemed universities in India. This will also permit them to grant admission and award degrees, diplomas or certificates.

The Bill also proposes to bring Foreign education providers under the administrative umbrella of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which means that the admission process and fee structure of these institutes will be regulated by the UGC.

Foreign education institutions and their branches in India would have to provide for reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), in keeping with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act.

Foreign education institutions are currently not allowed to offer degree courses in India, although a 100% foreign investment is allowed in the sector. However, nearly 150 foreign institutes offer courses with Indian varsities under a twinning arrangement – part of the course in India and the remaining abroad.

2 comments September 9th, 2009

Prof. DK Tripathy of IIT Kharagpur appointed as VC of VSSUT, Burla

Update: He has now joined as the VC. He will be felicitated by the alumni association in Bhubaneswar on 19th Sept 2009 at 6:30 PM in the Institue of Engineers building.

Following is an excerpt from a report in expressbuzz.com.

Governor and Chancellor of Universities Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare today appointed Prof Deba Kumar Tripathy as the new Vice-Chancellor of the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla.

Prof Tripathy is currently Professor of Rubber Technology Department in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. The post was lying vacant as previously appointed Vice-Chancellor Ganapati Panda did not join.

He is considered an expert in metal and rubber forming, die mould, tool design for metal and elastomer, rubber product manufacturing, rubber processing, rubber blends and composites, vibration isolation, cellular rubber and plastic and environment engineering.

For Prof. Tripathy’s webpage at IIT Kharagpur is at http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/fac-profiles/showprofile.php?empcode=ZVmdT. Following is some content from that page. It is very impressive that he continues to publish in international venues.

Prof Tripathy became the first Director of NIT Warangal on Aug 4, 2003. I think his tenure at NIT Warangal was from 2003 to 2005 (links: 2003, 2004,2005, 2005). NIT Warangal is one of the top NITs. During his tenure at NIT Warangal he had positioned it to be among the top 5 NITs and a candidate for upgradation to an IIT. We hope he will take VSSUT Burla on a similar path to an IIEST.

September 9th, 2009

Orissa lags behind most states in terms of medical colleges

Following is an excerpt from deshgujarat.com.

… at present Maharashtra possesses highest 40 permitted medical colleges in the country. Karnataka has 38, Andhra Pradesh has 33 and Tamilnadu has 30 medical colleges. Kerala has 22 medical colleges, Uttar Pradesh has 21, Gujarat has 14, West Bengal has 10, Madhya Pradesh has 9, Rajasthan has 9, Bihar has 8, Pondicherry has 8, Punjab has 8, Orissa has 6, Delhi has 6, Jammu & Kashmir has 4, Uttaranchal has 4, Assam has 3, Haryana has 3, Jharkhand has 3, Chhattisgarh has 2, Tripura has 1, Sikkim has 1, Manipur has 1, Goa has 1, Chandigarh has 1 medical-college.

… Nationwide, ten new medical colleges opened this year, three of them were in Gujarat. Kerala, Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh each added two new medical colleges this year, while Madhya Pradesh added one.

…five more new medical colleges are in pipeline in the state [Gujarat] and the government intends to start them in next academic year.

The Gujarat Government plans to start two new medical colleges in Ahmedabad by next year at Ahmedabad based Sola Civil Hospital under a charitable trust and another college at Asarwa Swadeshi Mill Compound by Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute(GCRI).The colleges each have 150 seats and a proposal is at present under process at Medical Council of India.

The government also plans to start three new medical colleges in next academic year at Vadodara, Patan and Valsad also will get new medical colleges . While medical college in Vadodara will be attached with TB hospital, the medical colleges in Patan and Valsad will be attached with the government hospitals there.

1 comment September 9th, 2009

Four new IIMCs (Indian Institute of Mass Communication) in the offing; Hope the one in Dhenkanal is upgraded

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Four more Indian Institutes of Mass Communication (IIMC) will soon be set up in different parts of the country to meet growing demand for media professionals, taking the number of IIMCs to six.

The new IIMCs will come up in Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram, besides in the southern and western regions, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni today said.

…  She said the ministry will firm up proposals for setting up of IIMCs and the work will start soon.

Currently, there are two IIMCs in Delhi and Dhenkanal (Orissa).

Soni also said that her ministry is working out the modalities of upgrading IIMC as a world class university to provide undergraduate courses, offer MPhil and PhD degrees and serve as a think tank for media.

Currently IIMC (both Delhi and Dhenkanal campus included) has a total full-time faculty of 14, with only one mentioned in the context of Dhenkanal.  I hope by upgrading IIMC both Delhi and Dhenkanal, especially Dhenkanal will have more faculty. The Orissa government should be proactive on this and try to find out if more land is needed at IIMC Dhenkanal.

1 comment September 9th, 2009