See http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1697, http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1695 and http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news2/20080313-Orissa-demands-for-IIT.htm.
4 comments March 13th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
President Pratibha Patil has asked the government to set up an Indian Institute of Technology exclusively for girls.
She has also insisted that it be built in Amravati, her former Lok Sabha constituency. Amravati is in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha, which has seen a spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers.
None of the country’s top institutes of higher education like the IITs or the Indian Institutes of Management caters only to women. Nor is there any central university meant only for women.
In a letter to the human resource development ministry dated March 7, Rashtrapati Bhavan has said the IIT in Amravati should be set up as soon as possible. A project proposal was attached with the request.
Pratibha’s husband Devisingh Shekhawat hails from Amravati and was once mayor there. She herself represented it in the Lok Sabha between 1991 and 1996.
… The IIT proposal has been prepared by Kamal Singh, vice-chancellor of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University.
… The proposal suggests that the new IIT offer only “integrated†courses, where students fresh out of school can get postgraduate degrees after five years.
The existing seven IITs have some five-year integrated courses, but Singh said she was in favour of making them mandatory across all streams.
Statistics on IIT recruitment have shown that a larger section of postgraduate students choose work in India over foreign jobs, unlike undergraduate students.
2 comments March 12th, 2008
2 comments March 10th, 2008
Its web page is http://www.kiit-is.org/. Other details:
March 9th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.
The three new IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh will teach not only engineering, but also design and creative arts, management, health sciences, humanities and social sciences.
… To be set up at an outlay of Rs 760 crore each over six years, outsourcing will be resorted to in the three IITs for various routine services. In fact, the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has only approved creation of the post of director and the registrar in each institute along with minimum support staff. The HRD ministry would submit a separate proposal to EFC for support staff.
… Initially, each institute will have an intake capacity of 200 students, but when fully developed, each IIT will have a total student strength of about 3,000 students with approximately 2,000 of them in B Tech, 500 in M Tech, 400 in Ph.D and 100 as post-doctoral fellows.
The new IITs will be mentored by one of the existing IITs to enable them to attain high standards. Each institute will have a faculty strength of 262 at the end of the seventh year of operation and adhere to the teacher-student ratio of 1:9, as in the case of other IITs.
Our earlier article at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=630 gives numbers related to NISER, IISERs and some of the IITs.
March 6th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
… The decision, officials at the human resource development ministry concede, indicates a desperate effort to stall the drain of top teachers from IITs to the corporate sector or foreign universities, which offer salaries several times higher than what the government pays.
The ministry has set up a committee under IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya to determine the performance indicators and recommend the raise the best professors will receive.
Quality and quantity of peer-reviewed research and student feedback from classes are likely to be two crucial indicators, sources said.
“The top faculty, who are often wooed by the private sector, will now receive differential treatment and will get salaries close to what they would in the corporate world,†a senior official said.
At present, the faculty are paid a fraction of what fresh IIT graduates earn.
… A separate committee will be set up to revise pay scales for all faculty members at the IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). But the revised scales will be no match for corporate salaries, officials conceded. The increments the Acharya committee recommends will be over and above the hike.
March 6th, 2008
Following are excerpts from a news report in tathya.in.
So the Governor of Orissa has lent his voice for setting up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state.
While entire Orissa is aggrieved over Central apathy towards the state by not announcing an IIT, Mr.Bhandare has also expressed his surprise over the issue.
While the Governor was addressing the gathering of students and teachers in Krupajal Engineering College here, he said that he is sad over the issue.
Entire audience present on the occasion was overwhelmed by the response of the First Citizen of the State, said a senior professor.
March 4th, 2008
See http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080302/jsp/frontpage/story_8971000.jsp.
It mentions Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. In the context of https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=951, https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=947, and https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=946. One may note that in the last few years an IISER and an IIST (Indian Institute of Space Sc. & Technology) are being established in Kerala and CUSAT is in line to become an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology).
2 comments March 2nd, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, on the other hand, described the budget as “disappointing” for a backward state like Orissa.
… Alleging that the sanction of an IIT was made on political considerations, Orissa’s “genuine” demand was ignored.
Following is from a report in the Statesman.
Orissa has once again been deprived of an IIT as political considerations seem to have governed such decisions remarked ruling BJD-BJP circles here today while reacting to the budget.
… State finance minister Mr Prafulla Chandra Ghadei was also critical of the budget and said "it may cause further inflation" adding "the loan waiver is a pre-poll populist measure which does not make economic sense at all". Mr Ghadei said "the state was not only denied an IIT but was also deprived of additional funds and coverage of the Backward Region Grant Fund scheme".
Following is from a report in Pioneer.
Launching a scathing attack on the Centre for neglecting the cause of Orissa, Patnaik said IIT seems to have done with political consideration. "There has been no scheme for the welfare of the tribal people," he said. Orissa had earlier demanded an IIT for the State and the Chief Minister wrote a number of letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh. But without conceding to the demands of the Orissa Government, the Centre announced setting up of IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
…. Industry Minister BB Harichandan said this Budget was made keeping elections in mind. The Union Government has adopted a stepmotherly attitude towards the State while announcing setting up a number of IITs.
Following is from one New Indian Express report.
NCP convenor Bijay Mohapatra described the Budget as pro-farmer. The relief given to the farmers is a bold step, he said. The extension of NREGS to all districts and increased allocation under the BRGF will benefit the underdeveloped district. Except for not announcing an IIT for Orissa, the Finance Minister has catered to all sections.
He, however, said the Centre should have considered the demand for the establishment of an IIT in Orissa.
Following is from another New Indian Express report.
Even as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram dished out a populist Budget in an election year, Orissa missed out on several key announcements as usual.
What has hurt it most is that the Centre has once again ignored its demand for establishment of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) even as Chidambaram announced three IITs to be set up in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh
See also the story in Tathya.in.
1 comment March 1st, 2008
Update: MHRD thinking of SAT/GRE style staggered exams.
This is a good move by MHRD. Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph about this.
Concerned about the proliferation of private tutorial services and the high fees they charge, the human resource development ministry has approved a proposal to introduce the country’s first public-funded training to crack competitive exams.
Initially, the training is likely to cover entrance tests to the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. But the government plans to extend the facility to the civil services entrance exam too, senior officials said.
… The government is, however, anxious to ensure that the “cheaper” option does not end up as a poor man’s coaching class.
Teachers from the country’s top higher education institutions will be invited to form a faculty pool for the facility.
“It will be a broad-based effort involving teachers from universities, IITs and IIMs. The institutions have agreed in principle. The challenge will be to bring teachers on board,” the official said.
Officials conceded that at least initially, the online coaching might not be a substitute for the physical tutorials.
But they hoped the low fees would attract people — rich or poor — to it.
“We hope that soon enough they will realise that they will be prepared best for the competitive exams here,” the official said. … the Planning Commission is learnt to have cleared the proposal as well. … sources said students were likely to charged only a basic registration fee — probably less than Rs 1,000 — which will be used to cover additional emoluments for the faculty.
The faculty will each have a blog restricted to students, who can ask questions and will receive answers within a day.
The teachers’ pool will prepare tests in each subject, which students will take online — like the GRE.
Each student will have an online account — their entry to the coaching class.
Apart from the questions through blogs, live classes can also be held, the official said.
1 comment February 9th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.
The BJP launched a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA Government for its continued apathy towards the State.
Addressing the opening session of the two-day State executive committee meeting of the BJP here on Thursday, party president Suresh Pujari lambasted the Centre for its preferential treatment to the State so far as sanction of Central projects or Central assistance is concerned.
“The only solution to the Centre’s apathy is to build a movement against the UPA Government in the State,” Pujari said.
The BJD-BJP combination has completed 10 years and the alliance will continue to rule the State, Pujari asserted and exhorted party leaders and workers to defeat the evil design of the Congress. All the projects sanctioned by the NDA Government for the State are either shelved or relocated to other states.
The Netaji Subash Bose All India Institute of Medical Science is languishing for lack of financial support. While Orissa’s demand for an Indian Institute of Technology has been ignored, states having several national institutes are being given special treatment, he rued.
February 8th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial express.
The Rajasthan Government has asked the Centre to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Kota, Industry Minister Digamber Singh has said.
At a function yesterday, Singh said "a letter has already been sent to the Centre by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje asking it to set up an IIT at Kota."
He claimed Kota was the most ideal place for setting up such an institute in Rajasthan because it had already become a hub for technical education in northern India.
Following is an excerpt from a report in 24-7pressrelease.com.
The Centre has also been approached to issue No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the two civil airports in the State at Bhisiana in Bathinda and Sahnewal near Ludhiana. An IIT or IIM is also proposed to be set up in the city. With the emergence of all these fast-paced developmental activities, Bathinda is fast emerging on the Real Estate Map of India and one of the most sought after land in Punjab.
5 comments February 4th, 2008
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