In a recent statement to Outlook (Thanks to Abi for the pointer) Prof. CNR Rao, Chairperson of SAC-PM and responsible for for many good things in Bangalore (including the recent Indian Institute of Nanotechnology), is seemingly critical of the IT industry but what really comes out of the article is that he wants the IT biggies in Banaglore to set up a Harvard/Stanford type private university in Bangalore. Perhaps he has tried to convince them of this earlier, and this public posturing is a last ditch effort in that direction. Following is an excerpt from that article.
IT people have a responsibility that they are yet to fulfil. If they’re making so much money, why shouldn’t they create an outstanding private university equivalent to Stanford or Harvard? Had they done something like that they would have compensated for the other problems they have created. If IT people are making money, what do I get out of it, unless I am employed in Infosys with Narayana Murthy? The trouble is, we have given them a lot, but have got nothing in return.
In this context, it is interesting that the people of Orissa do not quite realize the value of the proposed Vedanta University, whose stated goal is to be a Stanford/Harvard type university and plus it seems to have a sound financial plan behind it that includes a $1 billion pledge by Mr. Anil Agarwal. Because of the roadblock created by some in Orissa, the Vedanta University plan has not moved as fast as they wanted it. If such road blocks and delays continue, and other such plans come up in other parts of India, Vedanta University, and Orissa will lose the first movers’ advantage.
Orissa has a golden opportunity with Vedanta University; I hope they do not mess it up.
Thanks to reader Priyanka (comments 108-109) for the pointer. The following is from http://www.csirhrdg.nic.in/fellowship%20revision.pdf. 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.
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Statesman.
The Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu), being renamed as Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST),Shibpur, would enrol students who qualify the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), an all India entrance examination, only.
Among the total enrolled students, 50 per cent would be admitted from the domicile category of AIEEE and the rest will be admitted from the non-domicile category. The Centre will send a letter detailing the admission procedure and the administrative set up to the state government next week. Once the letter reaches the higher education department, Besu would start taking in candidates.
The mode of governance that Besu followed by Besu would be in accordance with the recommendations laid down by the Anandkrishnan Committee. The board of governors will be the highest body in IIEST. It will be constituted by the Centre and will have some officials from the state. The number of state representatives in this body would be mentioned in the Centre’s letter. No Bill would be introduced in the Winter session of the Parliament to upgrade Besu to IIEST.
As Besu is the first institute to be upgraded to IIEST, Centre would not enact a separate IIEST Act. Instead the amendments would be included in the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Act as two separate schedules. Later on when more institutes acquire the IIEST status, a separate IIEST Act would be formulated”, said Prof BN Datta, dean, sponsored research, Besu.
On the other hand, Jadavpur University, that had come out of the fold of the proposed IIESTs, is yet to hear anything from the Centre in regard to its letter urging to confer the status of Institute of National Eminence on JU.
Technopark-headquartered Toonz Animation’s sister company Toonz Academy announced Friday plans to open a centre in Hyderabad later this month.
A press release issued here said this would be the latest centre after the opening of the previous one in Delhi last month.
Their other centres are at Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai and Nagpur.
‘The opening of these centres is just one among the major expansion plans we have in store. We will be opening the academies in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar in the coming months,’ said Binu Raj, national marketing head of the company.
Toonz Academy is a fully owned subsidiary of Toonz Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Singapore, which also owns Indian animation studio Toonz Animation India Pvt Ltd.
Union government has identified Bangalore among the three cities in the country for the promotion and development of Nanotechnology under the Union government grant of Rs 1,000 crore (approx. $225 million). The other two cities are Kolkatta and Mohali. As part of the nanotechnology research and development efforts, the Centre has called upon to set up the Indian Institute of Nano Sciences (IINS) at the three locations. Karnataka has already been granted the Rs 100 crore from the Centre for the commencement of the project and the State government has provided the possession certificate of the 14 acres of land to construct the IINS in Bangalore. The Institute will primarily focus on advanced scientific research. The other two cities will also have to set up similar institutes.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have found a magic wand to make industrialisation acceptable to masses: bring more youngsters under the technical education umbrella.
“I want each of the industry and corporate houses in our state to have a greater involvement in the technical education sector. The greater the mass of technically qualified manpower, the more will be the demand for industrialisation from the common people. It will make industrialisation a more widely acceptable way of improving life and enhancing regional growth,” Naveen said, …
Stating that he has a vision of establishing at least one industrial training institute in each block of the state, Naveen urged the industry captains to choose any zero-ITI block of their choice and immediately start the establishing an ITI offering trades that they think have market demand.
He advised the industries department to facilitate the process and guide the industrial and corporate houses in this regard.
Stressing the theme of this year’s event — “Building People, building Orissa” — the chief minister said meeting mandatory stipulations under different laws or complying with the guidelines of the resettlement and rehabilitation policy is just one small component of the corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Perhaps keeping the resistance by the locals to several industrial projects in mind, the chief minister advised the industries to have good relationship with the people and entities around their plants.
The HRD ministry will soon seek Union Cabinet’s approval to set up a statutory body to recognise and regulate all distance education and all online courses in the country.
The body will also monitor courses being provided by foreign education providers through the Internet. The ministry has prepared a draft law to provide legal backing to the Distance Education Council (DEC), at present a body under Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
… The proposed law is based on the recommendations of a committee appointed by the ministry last year. The committee had felt that regulation of online and distance education is imperative as in the next five years admissions in online courses will double with increase in internet connectivity.
A candidate has to satisfy all the eligibility conditions given below:
A candidate can attempt JEE only twice, in consecutive years.
Candidates appearing for JEE-2008 should have either passed in 2007 or should be appearing in 2008 in the qualifying examination listed in section 7.1 and should satisfy the eligibility criteria listed in section 7.2.
Candidates should meet the age requirements given in section 7.4.
Candidates should not have accepted admission by paying full fees at any of the IITs, IT-BHU, Varanasi and ISMU, Dhanbad, through earlier JEE.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is yet to decide the fate of the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa. Repeated reminders by the State Government and demands continuously raised by the intelligentsia seem to have no effect on the Centre.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his address to the nation on the Independence Day this year, had, inter-alia, announced the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
On December 3, after five months of the Prime Minister’s announcement, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeswari told Rajya Sabha that no decision has been taken on Orissa and Uttar Pradesh in this matter. She said the Central Government has received requests from various State Governments, including Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, to set up new IITs in their States.
Based on the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) to the Prime Minister, the Union Government has already decided to establish three new IITs, one each in Bihar in the East, Rajasthan in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South, during the 11th Plan period, she said.
The SAC to the PM was set up under the chairmanship of Prof CNR Rao. The decision on the locations of the remaining institutes has not yet been taken, Purandeswari said.
Recently, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also written a letter along with a Vision Document asking for an IIT, IIM and IIIT for the State.
Henceforth, headmasters of the eligible block-grant schools will be regarded as secretaries of the school management committees. They will enjoy the power of the disbursing authority. The Government will send the salaries of the teachers and other staffs in the account of the headmasters for disbursement. Earlier, secretaries of the management committee received the money, for which various problems cropped up. The same principle will also be applicable for the ME School teachers.
The Government doubled the salaries of the High and ME School teachers. As the Government has not been able to provide full grants to the schools due to an MoU signed by the then Congress Government in 1999 with the Centre, it has decided to double the block grant amount given to the schools. Henceforth, a Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) will receive a salary of Rs 3,330 instead of Rs 1,579. A Sanskrit and a Hindi teacher will receive salary of Rs 2,997 instead of Rs 1,523. A Physical Education Teacher (PET) will get Rs 2,398 instead of Rs 1,218, a clerk Rs 2,031 instead of Rs 1,072 and a Peon Rs 1,698 instead of Rs 846.
Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said teachers and staff of the 100 girls’ high schools, high schools of 169 Gram Panchayats (GPs), 102 ‘Left’ High Schools and another 59 High Schools would benefit. "The Government will have to bear an additional expenditure of Rs 167 crore on this account only," he said.
He further said the ME Schools would receive a block-grant of nearly Rs 68 lakh instead of Rs 33 lakh. Those ME Schools and High Schools eligible to receive block-grant by June, 2004, will come under the block-grant-fold. All the decisions would come into effect from April 2008.
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in his address delivered to the Nation on the occasion of the 60th Independence Day had, inter-alia, announced the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The Central Government have received requests from various State Governments including Governments of Uttar Pradesh & Orissa to set up new IITs in their States. Based on the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, under the Chairmanship of Prof. C.N.R. Rao, the Government have already decided to establish three new IITs, one each in Bihar in the East, Rajasthan in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South, during the 11th Plan period. Decision on the location of the remaining Institutes has not yet been taken.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Smt. D. Purandeswari in written replies in Rajya Sabha today.
Madhya Pradesh is already having various centrally funded technical educational institutions viz. Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal; Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (ABV-IITM), Gwalior; Pt. Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (PDPM-IITDM), Jabalpur and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Indore. Further, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) has been approved to be established in Bhopal. Planning Commission has given its ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal. At present there is no proposal to upgrade Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior (ABVIIITMG) as an IIT.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Smt. D. Purandeswari in a written reply to a question by Smt. Maya Singh in Rajya Sabha today.
Ashram Schools in tribal areas is another central govt. scheme. However, as the following PIB shows, Orissa has not been taking advantage of it in recent years. (Orissa did take advantage of it in the past.) Its not clear if this is because Orissa decided to focus more on the Ekalavya Vidyalayas as in case of the Ekalavya Vidyalayas the funding is 100% from the central govt. while in case of the Ashram Schools the funding is 50% central and 50% state. In any case, here is the recent PIB on Ashram Schools.
Ministry releases grants to the States for construction of Ashram School in Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) Areas, boys and girls hostels and Post Matric Scholarship is a continuous process. The grant-in-aid is released only if the proposals are complete in all respects including availability of land free of cost, confirmation about availability of matching share in the State budget, Utilization Certificate for grants released in previous years and physical progress reports in respect of proposals sanctioned in previous years and the availability of funds.This was stated by the Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri P.R. Kyndiah in a reply to a question by Shri M.A.M. Ramswamy in Rajya Sabha today.
The scheme-wise and year-wise funds released to States/UTs including Karnataka during last three years are as follows:
Grant in aid released under the scheme of Ashram Schools in TSP Areas
S.No.
Name of State/UT
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
Amount
Amount
Amount
1.
Gujarat
86.49
200.00
156.52
2.
Madhya Pd.
300.00
200.00
624.01
3.
Karnataka
77.51
150.00
400.00
4.
Maharashtra
86.00
50.00
256.71
5.
Chattishgarh
0
0
112.76
Total
550.00
600.00
1550.00
Grant released under the scheme of Boys/Girls Hostel to various State Govt. during the last three years.
