A brand new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is currently being established in Bhubaneswar, the vibrant, modern, capital city of Orissa. It is among the six new IITs that are scheduled to start classes this year. (The others are: IIT Hyderabad, IIT Patna, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Punjab and IIT Gandhinagar.) Bhubaneswar IIT is uniquely placed to become one of India’s top IITs within a decade.
This fledging institution will be the heart of Bhubaneswar, a burgeoning, modern city in eastern India with a population of 16.36 lakhs. It has all the amenities of a world-class metropolis: wide roads, luxury hotels, malls, restaurants, clubs, bookshops, museums, gardens, water parks and fountains. A picturesque city with boulevards, gardens and fountains, Bhubaneswar seems to have it all, minus the traffic, water problems, power cuts and the mega slums that dot most cities of India. It is well connected to the rest of the country by air, rail, and road.
With all major Indian software firms such as Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, Mindtree and Hexaware setting shop here, Bhubaneswar is also the eastern India’s IT hub. It is the East Coast Railway (ECOR) HQ and has headquarters of various private and public sector companies such as Navaratna NALCO, POSCO-India and Dhamara Port Company Ltd. Four major industrial clusters are about 100 kms from Bhubaneswar in each of the four directions: Kalinganagar to the North, Paradeep to the east, Chhatrapur to the South and Angul-Talcher to the west. With Orissa leading the country in investment, bagging 30 percent of the total investment in India in the last quarter (fourth quarter of 2007-08), mainly in the industrial and infrastructure sector, Bhubaneswar is abuzz with optimism.
Several national level institutes have recently been established or are being established in Bhubaneswar. Besides IIT Bhubaneswar, they include the National Institute of Science, Education and Research (NISER), which is equivalent to the IISERs but funded by the DAE, and which is currently admitting its second batch of students, an AIIMS-like institute, and a centrally funded World Class Central University (WCCU). At present Bhubaneswar is the only city in India that is scheduled to have an IIT, a science institute (NISER) and a WCCU; a IIIT and an AIIMS-like institute are additional pluses. In addition, the Anil Agarwal foundation is establishing Vedanta University in Puri, which is about 40 kms from the outer edges of Bhubaneswar. It has a budget of $3 Billion (Rs. 12,000 crores) and includes a personal pledged donation of $1 Billion (Rs 4,000 crores) by Mr. Anil Agarwal. Vedanta University is envisioned to be India’s answer to Stanford and Harvard. Other universities that are coming up in the Bhubaneswar area include ICFAI University, Sri Sri University, National Law University and Orissa Open University. At the college level, the Bhubaneswar area has 30+ engineering colleges with another 20+ in the pipeline and four existing medical colleges (SCB, KIIT, SUM, Hi-Tech) with several more in the pipeline.
IIT Bhubaneswar will admit students in three disciplines in 2008: civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. In case one may wonder, why civil engineering, instead of computer science that four of the other new IITs are having, one just needs to think of China and Beijing and imagine how far India has to go in terms of infrastructure development and the role of civil engineers in that development. This interview with Anil Agarwal is illuminating in that respect. (He also talks about his vision of Vedanta University.)
IIT Bhubaneswar students will be housed in IIT Kharagpur for the first year, which will act as the mentoring institution of IIT Bhubaneswar for a period of three years. During their stay these students will gain exposure to the established academic and cultural environment of the largest and oldest IIT, which they will carry home to IIT Bhubaneswar.
The Orissa government is extremely supportive of IIT Bhubaneswar and has committed to provide 1000 acres of land so as to accommodate future growth of this IIT. The 1000 acres is double the 500 acres required by the central government, and double the size of the other new IITs. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will be the second largest IIT, after IIT Kharagpur. With the inherent advantages in terms of its location in the midst of rivers, forests and sanctuaries; as the heart of a rapidly growing and industrializing city and state; surrounded and to be driven to excellence by the competition from NISER, WCCU and Vedanta University; and a supportive state government that has put Bhubaneswar in the path of making it the knowledge-hub of the country; IIT Bhubaneswar holds the promise of being the best among the new IITs and becoming one of India’s top five IITs within a few years!
The counseling brochure is at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/CBrochure.pdf. But it has only information on three of the six new IITs where classes will start this year. Information on all the six new IITs where classes will start this year are at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/newiit.html. We copy the information from that site below. (We will provide additional information on IIT Bhubaneswar – misspelled as IIT Bhuvaneswar- in this site.)
Admission to New IITs:
The Government of India has announced setting up of 8 more new IITs in the 11th plan. Admissions in the following six new IITs, subjected to the approval@ of the competent authority of the Govt. of India, is likely to take place during the counselling session of JEE 2008. To begin with, each new IIT will admit students in the B Tech programmes in three branches only and the corresponding course codes for filling choice sheet is given in the table below. The academic programmes at these new IITs will commence in July/August 2008. The curriculum and syllabus as well as the fee structure and other rules for the new IITs will be broadly same as that of the respective mentor IITs.
S. No
New IIT
Mentor IIT
Courses offered* (course code)
1
IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Bombay
Chemical Engineering (N07), Electrical Engineering (N11), Mechanical Engineering (N24)
Computer Science and Engineering (H10), Electrical Engineering(H11), Mechanical Engineering (H24)
*40 seats [20+11+6+3;(1)] are available in each course.
@ If for any unforeseen reason the start of any new IIT is delayed, admission to that IIT will not be taken up during counseling session of JEE 2008.
The first year classes for IIT Punjab, IIT Rajasthan and IIT Bhuvaneswar will be conducted at the campuses of the respective mentor IITs. In the second year, the students from the above three IITs will be shifted to their respective locations. Classes for other new IITs will be conducted in the cities where the new IITs are located.
IIT Patna
IIT Patna’s campus will be on the outskirts of Patna in a 600 acre campus. Classes will start in 2008 from a temporary campus in Navin Govt. Polytechnic, Patliputra Nagar, a posh area of Patna. The campus will have 45000 sq ft of space. Two hostels to house boys and girls are also available next to the academic area. Faculty from IIT Guwahati will take the classes. It is expected that all operations will shift to the main campus by July 2010.
IIT Rajasthan
The location of the new IIT in Rajasthan will be announced by the Government of India. In the meantime, IIT Kanpur would be acting as the mentor institute of IIT Rajasthan.. Till the required infrastructure comes up, the classes will be held at the IIT Kanpur campus, after which the students will be relocated to the place in Rajasthan where the new IIT gets established. The students taking admission to the new IIT Rajasthan, along with their parents, will be required to give an undertaking to this effect. For the benefit of the aspiring applicants, further details of the academic programs and other procedures on IIT Rajasthan will be made available on the website of IIT Kanpur (www.iitk.ac.in/iitj) very soon. In the meantime, any queries can be made by sending e-mail to: iitj@iitk.ac.in or by calling at: (+91)-512-259-6244 (Tele-Fax).
IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Gandhinagar, in Gujarat, is one of the new IITs proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Gujarat is known for excellent infrastructure with thriving industries, prestigious academic and research institutes and an ambience which encourages entrepreneurship. IIT Bombay has been identified as the mentoring institution for the IIT in Gujarat. Till the campus of the new IIT in Gujarat gets established, the classes will be held within the premises of Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda, which is within the municipal limits of Gandhinagar. Students will be provided with residential and other facilities at a temporary location. The curriculum will be similar to that of IIT Bombay with some differences until the time the academic bodies of the new IIT is in place. Fee structure will be same as that of the mentoring Institute
IIT Bhuvaneswar
IIT Bhuvaneswar is one amongst the new IITs proposed by Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. Its location will be intimated in due course and the academic programme will start from 24 July 2008 in the IIT Kharagpur campus. After completion of first year in IIT Kharagpur, the students will be shifted to new location where IIT Bhuvaneswar will be established. The first year fee structure will be same as that of IIT Kharagpur.
IIT Punjab
IIT Punjab is one of the new IITs proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. Its location will be known in due course of time and the academic session 2008-2009 will start on July 23, 2008. The curriculum, course structure and syllabus for the first year courses will be broadly as per that at IIT Delhi. The first year fee structure will also be same as that at IIT Delhi. Classes will initially start at IIT Delhi campus, and subsequently the students will be relocated to its new location as soon as IIT Punjab is established. The students will have to move to the new place and they will not be accommodated at IIT Delhi campus; an undertaking to this effect will have to be given at the time of joining.
Many JEE qualified students may be wondering about the new IITs. In a series of articles we will talk about the IIT in Bhubaneswar and the advantages of the Bhubaneswar area.
Bhubaneswar has excellent connectivity by train, road and air. It has multiple daily direct trains to/from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, a daily train to/from Mumbai, and trains to/from all corners of India (Guwahati, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Jaipur, Punjab, Haradwar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Benras, Patna, Raipur, Bhopal, etc.) It has direct train connections to all the old IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati).
Following is a map of Bhubaneswar’s railway connectivity.
The Koustuv group which currently has a diploma college (Koustuv School of Engineering) and two operating engineering colleges (CoEB and KISD) has several more engineering colleges in the pipeline. They are Koustuv Institute of Technology (KIT), Khurda in Orissa and KITs in Ranchi and Kolkata. It also operates a plus two science college, Koustuv Institute of Science. It has plans for a medical college to be called Koustuv Research Institute of Medical Science (KRIMS). In regards to the medical college, there is a report in Telegraph regarding Koustuv’s success in its bid for a 400+ acres of land previously occupied by OTM. Following are some excerpts:
Koustuv Group, which recently got clearance from State Level Single Window Clearance Authority for a tin smelting plant at Khurda, has apparently emerged as front-runner in the auction of Orissa Textile Mills (OTM).
The state-owned composite cotton mill winded up in 2002.
Prabhat Ranjan Mallik, the chairman of Bhubaneswar-based Koustuv Group, was the foremost bidder with a fresh offer of Rs 43 crore for the OTM property and assets, including 422 acres of prime industrial land at Choudwar, in the final round of bidding in Orissa High Court yesterday.
The bidding vehicle set up afresh by Koustuv Group before the company affairs bench of Justice I.M. Quddusi plans to use the OTM factory complex for setting up a tin modulation unit.
“Moreover, a medical research centre comprising a state-of-the-art hospital and a medical college have been planned for the future,” said Koustuv Group counsel P. Mukherjee, while making a verbal bidding before the court. Mallik was also present in the company affairs court.
I was told that the CM’s office has not sent a letter to the PM after the announcement of 5 more new IITs were made. This while, other states have staked their claim. He was supposed to have sent a letter a month back, but apparently he has not sent it.
Apparently his office can not decide which one of the options to pursue: upgrade Burla (300 crores); IIT KGP campus in BBSR (800 crores); greenfield IIT 1000-4000 crores.
I can not believe that they are that indecisive.
Please send a short email immediately to the CM cmo@ori.nic.in withh cc to Industry Secretary indsec@ori.nic.in and urge them that the CM must send a letter to the PM on a new IIT followed by a vision document.
Follow-up to this: I had made the above appeal by email to certain groups. In response, many of you sent the mail on this. Thank you very much. I am being told that the emails have made the cmo office take notice. See the mention in http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1235
My purpose of writing this is to convey that your emails are not thrown away without reading. They are being read and not thrown away. How else a journalist will get hold of them and write about it?
I hope they will take action soon.
Please participate in such email writing, if the cause resonates with you.
While it is possible that Vedanta University, may not turn out as envisioned, it is definitely not a flawed pipe dream. We now show why some of the
arguments given in the above article is flawed.
1. This article talks about $1 billion (the number $3 billion is thrown as an afterthought towards the end of the article) and how it is not a lot money. First, Vedanta University folks have talked about $3 billion, not $1 billion. The $1 billion number is the number that Mr. Agrawal has pledged to contribute; not the number he thinks the university needs. He thinks the later number to be $3 billion. If one wonders where the rest of the $2 billion is supposed to come, then there are two likely sources: (i) the tuition paid by the students and (ii) the use of the real estate in the planned city around the Vedanta University.
Next, lets look at the budget of some of the existing Indian institutions:
UGC had a budget of 2700.17 crores in 2006-07 and 3763.52 crores in 2007-08. This include funding about 20 central universities (does not include IGNOU)
What Vedanta University folks have said is that they will spend $1 billion in the initial phase (i.e. Rs 4000 crores) and $3 billion (Rs 12,000 crores) over the next 10-15 years.
Based on the estimates about Rs 4000 crores can be used to build two new IITs (1000 crore*2) + two new IISERs (500 crores*2) + two new central universities (300 crores*2) + two new IIMs (150 crores estimate) + a new National Institute of Design (100 crores estimate). The recurring cost of these would be at 2006-07 estimates would be 2 IITs (200 crores total), two IISERs (200 crores total), two central universities (200 crores), two IIMs (30 crores), an NID (12 crores) = 650 crores. That is about 650/(8000) = 8.125% of the remaining $2 billion of the Vedanta University estimate which is a fairly small percentage of interest. (The Indian market has been making much more in recent years.)
2. The article says: "No research university in the world has 100,000 students or even anything close."
As per http://www.asu.edu/enroll/news/news2.html ASU will have 90,000 students in its campuses by 2020. (Note that all its campuses are in the Phoenix metro area. It is not like the multi-campus UC system or U of Texas system.)
So Vedanta’s goal of 100,000 students around the same time is not that different.
3. Location: It seems the author does not have much idea about the location. The Vedanta University location is about 30 miles from the outer periphery (read Khurda) of Bhubaneswar metropolitan area (the capital of Orissa) . Bhubaneswar is very well connected with the rest of the country both by train ( BBSR , Khurda Rd Schedules, Puri Schedules) and by plane and it is expected to have international flights within a year or two . The Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has a current population of 1.6 million and at the rate it is growing (both in area and population) it is likely that by 2020 it will be more than 3 million and its periphery would be close to (if not completely engulfing) Vedanta University.
4. India is hungry for good higher education and people are willing to pay for it. May be the example of KIIT, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) will open the eyes of the author. KIIT was started in 1992 by three young people with an initial investment of few thousand rupees. In 15 years it has programs in multiple fields (engineering, management, medical science, Rural management, biotechnology, Social Sciences, Dentistry, Diploma, ITI, international high schoo l) and is a deemed university. The growth and revenue of ICFAI and Amity also illustrates the revenue potential. Although none of the above are research universities, Vedanta University can collect similar revenues and spend a big part of it in research.
So it is not unreasonable that Vedanta University will have enough students paying enough in tuition to sustain it. Moreover, one should not take the real estate aspect of Vedanta University lightly. With 6000 acres, there will be enough land left beyond the core university, to earn a handsome income, which can then be ploughed into Vedanta University’s research programs. Currently, Bhubaneswar is a destination for many IT companies for their development centers. It has the big 4 of India (Wipro, Infosys, TCS and Satyam), IBM and many small and medium sized IT companies. With a top-notch environment the research park around Vedanta university should be able to attract research divisions of international companies.
Bhubaneswar metropolitan area has 26 engineering colleges (at least 5 more will start operating in the coming year) , 7 existing universities, several more in the making, etc. etc. Please see the right column of https://www.orissalinks.com/to get an idea of the existing and expected educational infrastructure of greater Bhubaneswar.
Chakradhar Institute of Rehabilitation Science, F-10, BJB Nagar, Bhubaneswar – 751014
Course Co-ordinator
Bachelor in Prosthetic and Orthotics
–All Disabilities–
2
Chetna Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, (Jewels International), A/3, Nayapalli, Opposite Oberoi Hotel, P.O. RRL Campus, Bhubaneswar-751013 Tele no. 2581999
The Director
DSE (MR)
–All Disabilities–
3
Institute of Health Sciences N 2 / 41, IRC Village, Nayapalli Bhubaneshwar – 751 015 Tel: 0674-2553640 Fax: 0674-2420932 Email: ihsbbsr@yahoo.com Website: ihsindia.org
Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research, Olatpur, P.O. Bairoi, Distt. Cuttuck-754010 Tele no. 06724-55552/ 55465 Fax no. 06724-55465
The Director
Bachelor in Prosthetic and Orthotics
–All Disabilities–
6
Training Centre for Teachers of the Deaf (A Joint Project of State Govt. & AYJNIHH), S.I.R.D. Campus, Unit-8, Bhubaneswar-751012 Tel & Fax 0674-2561394 E-mail tctd@hclinfinet.com; tctd@cltiger.com
Assistant Director
DSE (HI), DHLS
–All Disabilities–
7
Training Centre for Teachers of the Visually Handicapped, S.I.R.D. Campus, Unit-VII, Bhubaneswar Tel No. 0674-2417163
Course-co-ordinator
DSE (VI) Primary Level
–All Disabilities–
New Indian Express has a report about a similar school that is not directly listed above. It may be a new one or may be part of one of the above. Following are some excerpts from the New Indian Express report.
City-based International Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research has decided to introduce a four-and-half-year degree programme in physiotherapy from the current academic session.
…
In all, 20 students would be enrolled in the first batch through a screening test. The programme has been recognised by the State Government and the institute is affiliated to Utkal University, said director Chitrasen Parida. Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, he said a bachelor degree programme in audiology and speech language pathology is also being introduced from this session.
Both the courses have been approved by the Rehabilitation Council of India. The institute has invested about Rs 70 lakh out of Rs 1.76 crore which it plans to pump in three years for development of supporting infrastructure. Soon it would come up with its own campus.
Chairman of Shreedevi Charitable Trust, Kalyanpuri, Gandhi Chaudhury said a model pre-school for special children has already been established for their holistic development. A comprehensive diagnostic clinic ‘Susruta’ providing services for people with deafness, cerebral palsy, autism, speech and language disorders is functioning from the campus.
Many of the readers have been asking about what field and what college they can get with their rank. I have maintained that I really do not know the answer. Today while digging around I came across a repository (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that shows the various students and their ranks that got admitted to various colleges in Orissa in 2004 and only CET data for 2005. So this data is three years old. Nevertheless, it may give some guidance. Note that Since 2004 many new colleges have been made, KIIT has become a deemed university and many colleges have more seats now.
Moreover the data reflects the students in these college months after the counseling. So it is not the data after the first counseling. Normally after the first counseling many students may not join the institute and go to NIT, IIT or some other out of state college.
Plus two programs at various schools (Central Schools, DM School, DAV Schools, etc.) Search for "Bhubaneswar" (2), "Bhubaneshwar" (9), "Bhubanshwar" (1), "Bhubneshwar" (2), "Buxi" (1), "Cuttack" (8), "Khurda" (2) in the CBSE site.
Following is a list of institutions with non-traditional programs that I compiled earlier. They are categorized as follows: Arts and Crafts, Design, Teachers training, Diploma in Engineering, ITIs, Film and TV, Homeopathy and Ayurveda, Hotel management, Journalism, Law, Library Science, Performance arts, Physical Education, Sanskrit and Social work.
