Excerpts from the executive summary of the Kakodkar committee report titled “Taking IITs to Excellence and Greater Relevance”

The report is available at http://www.education.nic.in/tech/KakodkarCommitteeReport-05132011.pdf. Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointer. The members of this committee were: Anil Kakodkar (Chair), T. V. Mohandas Pai, Hari Bhartia, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, K. Mohandas, Ashok Thakur, M. Anandakrishnan, Gautam Barua, T. A. Gonsalves, K. Sudhakar and S. Ramesh Babu. Following are excerpts from the executive summary of the report.

A committee was constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) vide its order F.NO.19-3/2009-TS 1 of 3 February 2010 to suggest a roadmap for the autonomy and future of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as world-class institutions for research and higher learning.

… We should be in the forefront to meet the growing human needs with minimum use of earth resources in a manner that keeps the environment around us protected. We need to nurture a large science and technology (S&T) based innovation ecosystem that creates solutions for India’s inclusive development and economic growth. The creation of a large pool of researchers (with PhD) commensurate with the size of our population and economy as well as our aspirations, is a key necessity for the realization of these objectives.

… In terms of research, the IITs are continuously enhancing their research activities as evidenced by the increasing number of PhDs coming out of the IIT system. In fact, most PhDs in engineering in the country are now coming from the IITs. Even so, the number of PhDs that come out annually from the IITs is very small (about 1000 per year) in comparison to the size of our country, size of our economy and number of youth in the country. Further, only about 1% of IIT B.Techs do PhD at the IITs. … The IITs, being the largest system for high-level engineering R&D and human resource development in an ambience of high-level research, have thus to take on the challenge of creating an advanced research-based innovation ecosystem that, on a national scale, is large enough to make a significant positive difference. For this purpose, while the scale of high-level research at the IITs needs to be considerably enhanced and broad based with the involvement of industry and national technology related programmes, the IITs should also contribute in a significant way to the research and development capability and culture in the country at large (by creating a large pool of PhD graduates). If one looks around the world, most of the best technology institutions in the world have 15,000+ students as opposed to 6000+ currently at each of the established IITs. USA and China produce around 8000–9000 PhDs in engineering and technology annually while in India the corresponding number presently is around 1000. With this background, and considering the large gap that we have to bridge in realizing our development aspirations, we need a large-scale increase in the number of PhDs coming out from the IITs. The Committee has therefore suggested that each IIT should progressively grow to have around 1200 faculty (from around 500 today) and closer to 12,000 students with maximum growth coming from an enhanced number of PhD students. While the established IITs could aim at reaching this scale up in about 10 years from now, the newer IITs could take longer. Further, the Committee has suggested setting up of 5 more IITs over this period of time. Thus, the Committee has recommended the number of IIT PhD graduates per year to be scaled up to 10,000, while continuously enhancing quality.

… The Committee has suggested a minimum of 0.6 PhDs per faculty annually, eventually reaching 1 PhD per faculty. On this basis, the Committee has suggested that we should aim at scaling the IIT system to 16,000 faculty and 160,000 total student strength (with 40,000 at the PhD level, 40,000 at the Masters level and 80,000 UG students) by around the year 2020. Each year, then, the IIT system will admit 10,000 PhDs.

…Finding faculty in adequate numbers to meet the needs of OSC expansion as well as new IITs has in itself been a major challenge. Coping with faculty needs for scaling up the PhD programme to the above-mentioned level would thus have to primarily depend on the PhD programme at the IITs itself.

Feeders to such a large PhD programme in the form of bright engineering graduates have to be of a size commensurate with the requirements. While students with a Masters degree and, to some extent B.Tech students, of IITs would constitute an important channel (all efforts must be made to attract them into the IIT PG stream), one would need to tap other channels to get quality students in adequate numbers. The Committee has therefore suggested engagement of IITs with other good quality engineering and science education institutions, particularly those of the Central government like NITs, IIITs and IISERs, with a view to enlarge the pool for selection of quality students and also attract their faculty into the PhD programme. The Committee has also suggested special efforts be made to identify and pick up bright 3rd year students of IITs, NITs and such other such public or private institutions and to initiate them into the PhD programme. Further, the Committee has suggested an augmented intake of PhD students from industry and the engineering education system in the country. IITs being at the top of engineering education in the country should act as an inspiration to raise the level of engineering education in other public and private institutions. This would result in enrichment of these institutions, which is long overdue. Of course, for all this to happen, the IITs would have to aggressively pursue candidates from these different streams to join their PhD programme. To support such a large number of PhD students (40,000 at a time) with challenging and meaningful research problems would require comprehensive augmentation of research facilities and infrastructure. The Committee has proposed significant augmentation/addition in the following four domains. This would be over and above the current mode of support through various research funding agencies for individual proposals submitted to them by the faculty.

1. Identify 3–4 areas of recognized strength involving a reasonable faculty strength at each IIT and support them massively to become the world’s best. Selection of such areas should be done on the basis of demonstrated high-level capability.

2. Take up large coordinated research projects involving a number of groups from different disciplines (from same or different IITs) to address important national challenges/other grand challenges with specific pre-defined deliverables.

3. Establish research parks with significant industry presence at each IIT on the lines of a research park established at IIT Madras, to enable industry–academia collaborations and build a Research and Innovation ecosystem.

4. Establish special laboratories of government ministries/their Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) at IITs to strengthen indigenous capability in key areas of national importance. It is expected that such augmentation of research infrastructure in the IITs would create useful linkages between them and the external world, thus making research at IIT more meaningful. More importantly, this would lead to a broad-based innovation ecosystem of which IIT students and faculty will be an integral part.

World-class institutions are characterized by the existence of a large high quality talent pool (faculty, students and visiting researchers), vibrant academic and research linkages with external better quality institutions, availability of liberal resources and a flexible and conducive governance system that can recognize and selectively support credible new ideas in a hassle-free manner. Funding and autonomy of the IITs are thus key areas that need serious attention.

Towards enhancing autonomy that would provide the IITs the necessary flexibility to support and deal with a new idea or take a new initiative and lead them towards world-class excellence, it is proposed that each Institute be fully governed by its Board of Governors (BoG), including aspects like financial planning and expenditure rules, faculty remuneration, fees and number of faculty and staff, within the overall policy guidelines of the IIT Council in terms of expectations from IITs as world-class institutions, affirmative actions, technology directions and human resource development. The composition of the Board would enable representation of all stakeholders. The Committee has suggested that the Board should have one representative each from MHRD and the state governments. Other members could be selected from panels (duly approved by the IIT Council) prepared by S&T academies and Industry associations; also the alumni and faculty would also be represented. The Board will select the Chairperson following a due process and appoint him/her after approval by the Council. A search committee appointed by the Board would select the Director for approval and appointment by the Board. Selection of the next set of members to replace those retiring, would be done by a nomination committee of the Board and approved by the Board. Each institute would subject itself to a comprehensive institution review by an internationally eminent group once every 5 years. Such reviews which will be overseen by the IIT Council, will have focus on quality, programmes, their direction and size, working of the institutions and suggestions for change, including new initiatives. These review reports shall be made public. Further, there will be an annual MoU between the Government and each IIT, with the Council’s oversight and guidance. Such MoUs would include commitments, responsibilities and deliverables on both sides (Government and IIT). The Visitor would retain emergency powers as at present.

… Attracting the best faculty to the IITs is thus of crucial importance. This would require a strong academic, research and innovation culture and a conducive and transparent organization that nurtures excellence. It has to be driven by the Director and faculty and there should be additional attractions like significant start-up funds that would enable researchers get on with their research from day one. The BoG should have the flexibility to decide on faculty remuneration. It is proposed that there should be a system of faculty assessment in terms of several parameters like teaching, research, technology development and industrial consultancy, policy research and service with differentiated faculty remuneration based on performance-based assessment. At the same time, a tenure system for faculty needs to be examined. The Committee has also suggested the need to enable and encourage some mid-career faculty from the established IITs to shift to newer IITs and for overseas faculty to join IIT.

Institutions like IITs that are devoted to growth in the knowledge, technology and innovation domains and related human capital development, should be seen as asset builders for the nation in the modern knowledge-driven economy. The Committee has thus suggested that IITs be made independent of non-plan (operational) support from the Government for their operational expenditure while at the same time seeking greater plan (capital) support to enhance research in a comprehensive manner, as outlined above. The objective of realizing autonomy would be facilitated by de-linking IIT finances with non-plan support of the Government. The enhanced plan support to IITs would have three components: (i) Student support at postgraduate and research level on a per student basis through scholarships, (ii) research support aimed at pushing the frontiers of knowledge and innovation and (iii) massive augmentation of infrastructure to support larger numbers of students.

It is proposed that the fee charged by the IITs should cover the full operational cost of education, which works out to be roughly 30% of the total current cost of education. A hassle- free bank loan scheme specific to IIT students has been proposed. No collateral would be required. This would enable access to all eligible and deserving students. Further, it has been proposed that MHRD should fully provide for fees and living expenses as per currently prevalent norms at IITs for all research students (PG) as well as UG students from weaker sections. In addition, all students whose parental income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum (to be revised from time to time), should be paid scholarships covering 100% fees, and a monthly stipend. Incentives in the form of deferment of loans for students entering postgraduate education and research and proportionate repayment of loan for students joining as faculty and researchers into programmes at IITs and other areas identified by the Government, have been proposed. The Committee has also recommended that all government ministries should provide a minimum of 20% overheads without ceiling on the R&D projects sanctioned to IITs. This is necessary to avoid strain on institute resources as they undertake enlarged R&D activities. Most US universities charge overheads to the tune of 50%. Industrial consultancy and royalty, alumni and industrial grants/donations and continuing education programmes, including executive M.Tech programmes, would be some other modes for enhancing IIT finances. It is expected that IIT resources through non-governmental sources would further improve in a significant way once the IITs acquire financial autonomy.

With this background, the Committee has suggested that the tuition fees should be between Rs 2–2.5 lakh per year per student. This would be reasonable considering the high demand for IIT graduates and the salary that an IIT B.Tech is expected to get. There is a legacy commitment in the form of retirement benefits under the old pension scheme (to the tune of around Rs 221 crore for all IITs in 2010). This should be continued to be paid by the Government till the end of the scheme.

To support research at IITs, MHRD should provide plan funds at Rs 1.5 lakh per student annually. The newer IITs do not have any significant endowment funds at present. Hence, Rs 50 crore as seed endowment over the next 5 years has been proposed for each new IIT.

On the capital investment front, the Government should support an Expansion Budget at Rs 20 lakh per additional student. In addition, a sum of Rs 5 lakh per student would be required in the established IITs for regeneration of ageing infrastructure. It is also assessed that for OSC- related expansion costs, Rs 15 lakh per student should be provided as Rs 10 lakh per student provided presently has been found to be inadequate. The IITs must nurture an ambience of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to make India a world leader in the present-day knowledge economy. In order to achieve this, we should have substantially enhanced Industrial collaboration with a focus on technology development in the Indian context. A strong industry–academia relationship is of key importance. Initially, there needs to be significant give and take on both sides. But this will make a significant difference to teaching and research at the IITs and will train IIT graduates to take India to a leadership position. One should also encourage industry R&D personnel to become adjunct faculty and enable large numbers of industry persons to do PhD. Research Parks create the right ecosystem to bring students, faculty and industry R&D personnel together. It is proposed that Rs 200 crore be provided for setting up a Research Park on the lines of the IIT Madras Research Park at each IIT. The IITs need to learn that success in entrepreneurship often comes only after multiple failures and substantial benefits accrue only if R&D is pursued over long periods. We need to create a value system that takes these factors into account. IITs have to make special efforts to learn to evaluate faculty focusing on product development. Outsourcing of support activities to the maximum extent possible has been strongly recommended. IITs should strive to minimize the number of regular employees for non- technical support functions. All decisions with regard to staff, including numbers and remuneration, should be decided by the BoG. Most scientific staff is proposed to be on project mode, with flexibility of salaries for temporary staff. The technical staff could be in-sourced wherever possible. Here, the use of PhD students as teaching assistants would be of help. On the administration side, maximum possible computerization of functions has been recommended to reduce the requirement of administrative staff. Hiring of some professional mid-career staff could be considered to make the administration more efficient. They should be observed for their performance for a few years before they are regularized. Scaling up engineering education with quality would ensure availability of quality human resource for meeting India’s needs. It will also be an excellent feeder pool to critical areas as well as into the PhD programmes. Seventy Centrally funded institutions (including IITs) should therefore graduate 100,000 high quality engineers every year. While the share of 20 IITs could be 20,000 B.Techs, the 50 other institutions should plan to graduate 80,000 graduates every year in about 10 years from now. Hopefully, state governments and private institutions could create additionally at least 200,000 quality seats. This will create a reasonable sized science and engineering pool for India’s future.

As a part of IITs’ engagement in this process, each of the 50 Centrally funded science and engineering institutions (like NITs, IIITs, IISER, NISER) could select 5 bright young (aged around 35 years) faculty members from the IIT system and invite them to be a member of their BoG and Senate. They could be tasked to build a relationship with the concerned IIT department and young faculty at the Institute to enable and enhance research collaboration (Rs 50 lakh to be identified for each faculty for this purpose) between the institute and the IITs. They would encourage B.Techs to join PhD programmes at the IITs and, if necessary, get faculty to do PhDs at the IITs. Similarly, they could get some IIT PhDs to join the institute as faculty. It is expected that each faculty spends at least 15 days a year at the institute. One of the consequences of this strategy would also be that young IIT faculty would be trained to be future leaders. In a similar manner, 3 young persons from industry could be identified by each NIT. They could be similarly invited to the Board and be tasked with similar goals.

Amendments to the IIT Act would be necessary to give effect to the above-mentioned recommendations.

Details are given in the report. We strongly suggest that the recommendations of the Committee should be treated as a whole to realize the intended objective. It is also recommended that an empowered Implementation committee should be tasked for implementation of these recommendations and to facilitate transition to the new framework for IITs.

May 19th, 2011

Excerpts from the February 2011 newsletter of Central University of Orissa Koraput

The newsletter is at http://www.centraluniversityorissa.ac.in/Downloads/Newsletter_Feb.%202011.pdf.

Page 9: From the Vice-Chancellor’s statement:

From the forthcoming academic session the University proposes to introduce five new subjects under New Schools …

As for the progress of our physical infrastructure of the main campus, the construction of the Boundary Wall is almost through and the construction of buildings in the first phase, the Girls’ Hostel, the Boys’ Hostel, the Guest House and the Academic Block I are likely to start towards the end of March.

… As a Founding Vice-Chancellor my vision of this composite University has two well-defined thrust areas in terms of priorities: One is healthcare and subsequently the introduction / dissemination of medical education and the other is related to the development and welfare of the tribal community.

Page 12: Development of Campus (progress of the Boundary Wall)

The main campus of our University is coming up at Sunabeda. The construction of boundary wall undertaken by CPWD is in progress. Out of actual 9.3 kms of boundary wall about 8.6 kms work is completed. The pillar excavation, raising columns on rocky terrains of the boundary is almost over. The brickwork and plastering of the Boundary Wall is going on in full swing.

The master plan has also been approved by the University Building Committee. Recently the Chief Engineer of CPWD has visited our main campus in Koraput and inspected the progress of construction work.

Page 24: The List of forthcoming Centres and Schools of the Central University of Orissa duly approved by the Academic Council and the Executive Council

The Academic Council and the Executive Council of CUO have approved the establishment of the following new Schools and Centres:

Page 31: Centre for Tribal Welfare and Community Development

Extreme poverty has its own typical features and adverse impacts on any society. Migration in search of survival for livelihoods is gradually becoming a common phenomenon in the KBK region as well as in the other parts of the country. For the survival of local people, the traditional skill based occupations are gradually becoming uneconomic options. On the other hand the same traditional skills have a flourishing market value in neighbouring states. This creates situations for mass migration, often with the family, in search of a livelihood even under stressful conditions. In the recent trend of economic development, the traditional skill based occupations have also became largely resource dependent. With the depletion of natural resources, the traditional occupations of tribes are fading away, though these are also the outcome of the occupational mobility.

The Koraput District comes under the tribal sub-plan area and PESA. As per the provision, PESA promises devolution of power to Panchayats completing the tribal self-rule. While larger accountability for the utilizing the provisions under the Act is vested in the Panchayats, due to poor understanding of the Act by the Panchayatiraj functionaries the Act seems to have lost its legal tooth in this area. This calls for wider accountability of government and civil society bodies to build the capacity of the PRIs thereby enabling them to utilize the power and authority vested in them for the development of their area and the communities. The customary rules existing even today provide a framework to compare the provisions of PESA and a suitable blending of two can contribute towards good governance to spearhead developmental process.

According to the report of the Committee on the Constitution of Separate Development Board in Orissa, 96% of Community Development Blocks in KBK districts are either ‘very backward’ or ‘backward’. According to the UNDP Human Development Report 2004, Malkangiri, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Koraput, Nabarangpur are the bottom five districts in terms of HDI values, three of which are in KBK region.

Considering the above issues, the Centre for Tribal Welfare and Community Development (CTWCD) has been established as University’s first initiative of Corporate Social Responsibilities to foster the needs and take up the issues of the tribals of KBK region as well as other tribal groups of India.

The Centre for Tribal Welfare and Community Development at Central University of Orissa is functional since 5th June,2010. A batch of tribal youth has already received training on mushrooms cultivation. New initiatives are under progress and it is hoped that various trade identified by the Centre will benefit the tribes.

Page 47: Progress of new Campus

April 27th, 2011

NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2011: A team from DPS Rourkela wins the first prize in the 11-12 grade small team category and Mrinal Chaudhury, also of DPS, wins speciality first prize for Artistic Merit

The web page of this contest is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/. The results of the 2011 page is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/Results/2011/index.html. Following are excerpts from that web page.

Winners

Grand Prize

The Grand Prize for the 2011 Space Settlement Contest went to a large team of 7 students (11-12 grade), Gaurav Kumar, Deepak Talwar, Harman Jot Singh Walia, Mahiyal B. Singh, Kaenat Seth, Ishaan Mehta, and Navdeep Singh Makkar, from Punjab, India for creating the Hyperion Space Settlement. They also won the NSS Bruce M. Clark, Jr. Memorial Space Settlement Award.

First Prize

11-12 Grade First Prize

• Asteria, Sarah Bell, Queensland, Australia, Individual.
• Shangri-la, Odisha, India (Delhi Public School), Small Team.
• CRONOS, Constanta, Romania (Colegiul National "Mircea cel Batran"), Large Team.

9-10 Grade First Prize

• Adamas, Aditya Bathla, Punjab, India (Apeejay School), Individual.
• AMOS (Advanced Moon Orbiting Settlement), Romania ("Tudor Vianu" National High School of Computer Science), Small Team.
• Brisinger, Constanta, Romania (Colegiul National "Mircea cel Batran"), Large Team.

6-8 Grade First Prize

• The Satus Novo Serere, Hasan N. Kahn, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (American International School), Individual.
• Big Bang, California, USA (Sequoia Middle School), Small Team.
• EON: Everlasting Orbita Nation, New York, USA (Cortland Junior Senior High School), Large Team.

Specialty First Prize

• S’ukhavati, Mrinal Chaudhury, Odisha, India (Delhi Public School), Artistic Merit.
• Life on the Space Station, Seebor, Romania (Tudor Vianu National High School of Computer Science), Literary Merit.
• Arcadia, Shanghai, China, Life Sciences.

Rourkelacity.com has some details about the winners. Following are some excerpts.

Among the winners include the team comprising Siddharth Tripathi, Akshat Dutt and Nisarg Behera of class –XII, and Mrinal Chaudhary of class-VIII of the same school.

The team comprising Siddharth, Akshat and Nisarg won the first prize in the 11th -12th grade for their project titled “Sangri-La”, a space settlement colony to provide exceedingly proficient and enjoyable living amenities for 20,000 permanent space residents. The colony that the team has proposed, is designed as a heavenly abode for settlers who can revel in the extraordinary luxury away from the earth. Thinking out of the box, the team proposed a major scientific research laboratory as well as a business hub in space, bio-regenerative life systems incorporating all biological components, state of art meditation halls, an efficiently functioning government machinery to take care of the law and order, a new currency named ‘Hawking’ and also a National Shangri-La Stock Exchange to help people participate in World economic affairs.

Mrinal won the specialty first prize for Artistic merit in her paper presentation titled “Sukhavati”. Mrinal in her report presented the colony and several paintings and diagrams depicting the interior and the exterior, living spaces, laboratories, recreation areas etc. of the colony.

… Mr.Bijoy Bahadur Mathur, Science Head of the School and the mentor to these students has been instrumental in preparing the students for this competition.

Teams from Odisha have been doing very well in this contest for the last several years. 

• 2010: Prateeksha Das, Ispat English Medium School, Odisha, India’s entry "Paradise Reclaimed" won the inaugural Bruce Clark Memorial scholarship which goes to the top individual entry.
• 2009: The Grand Prize winning submissions for 2009 went to Eric Yam, Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya. … Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya were instructed by Ms. Itishree Nanda of St. Xavier’s High School in Orissa India. Orissa Design Inspired Systems and Aerovehicles was the title of their submission.

April 26th, 2011

A snapshot of Utkal University: departments, faculty and offerings

The following is compiled from various pages of http://www.utkal-university.org/.

The self finance courses (marked by SF above) that are offered and links to them are as follows:

The total number of faculty listed below is around 155 (without double counting faculty that are listed both in the Business Administration department and the Center for Agribusiness.) In February 2008, Utkal had a faculty of 169. In March 2008, it was mentioned in Samaja that in Utkal University only 187 out of 340 faculty positions were filled. I wonder if Utkal still has 340 positions or if the government reduced or increased that number.

April 17th, 2011

Ravenshaw status report by its VC in the first edition of “The Ravenshaw Times”, its monthly newsletter

Since January 2011 Ravenshaw has started publishing a monthly newsletter. These are available at http://ravenshawuniversity.ac.in/website/ravenshaw-times-(newsletter).htm. Following is an article written by its VC from  the first newsletter at http://ravenshawuniversity.ac.in/File/The%20Ravenshaw%20Times%20-%20January%202011.pdf.

Ravenshaw University was set up by the Ravenshaw University Act, 2005. The draft statutes of the University have been pending with the Government for approval. Pending that, the University is referring to the Orissa Universities First Statutes (OUFS), 1990 on the basis of which its own statute has been drafted.

The Ravenshaw University inherited 25 Departments in the disciplines of Science , Commerce and Humanities. In order to upgrade Ravenshaw like the single campus JNU, the University created 11 Schools out of the existing Departments. The Schools are headed by Deans. It takes time for a new structure to be grounded. Therefore academic reforms envisaged are vitally dependent on the faculty. The situation in Ravenshaw was queer. The Government created posts for new faculty only in August 2008, although the University was set up in 2006. For administrative reasons, the Government could not withdraw the old faculty till September 2010. Despite this mismatch, the syllabi in almost all Departments have been revised to cope with contemporary demands. While setting up the University, the Government had not provided adequate faculty to meet the UGC teacher-student ratio of 1:15. The current teacher – student ratio is about 1:50. In order to make it 1:30, which are twice the UGC/ AICTE norms, the University will require 106 new faculty positions. The demand of the University is pending with Government. Ravenshaw has envisioned incorporating all subjects from microbiology to geophysics in its growth. The University has accomplished only a few. The new faculty is still half formed. Many positions for recruitment have been hit by court cases and reservations. It is easy to set up a greenfield institution. It is difficult to deal with old baggage in an institution like Ravenshaw, where the expectations are high and resources low.

Ravenshaw had an identity like none other. In last 50 years it has become fairly pedestrian. When it became a University, it was caught like any other educational institution in the strangle hold of a predicament that is now fairly common. Every educational institution now faces the demand to expand by incorporating vocational elements. MBA, before it was hit by the economic meltdown, was regarded as the flagship course. Ravenshaw, therefore, introduced MBA and set up the Ravenshaw Management Centre, to mark its transition to a University. The Government does not give anything more than the salary grant and some money for infrastructure to the new University. The responsibility of earning by introducing new courses is on the University itself . The Government, in fact had advised in a meeting to consider winding up subjects like Philosophy, Hindi etc. and opening of technology and management courses.

Research in Ravenshaw has been almost nonexistent for many decades, for multipl e reasons. It is believed that given the research achievements of the new faculty, on the basis of which most have been recruited, particularly in science , Ravenshaw will reacquire its earlier fame in scientific research. The new faculty is still in the formative stage.

The Kanika Library wa s indeed the saddest place when the University started. The Library claimed that it had nearly two lakh books in its roll and numerous precious journals but they were thoroughly disorganised. By a hand count, it was found that only 1.12 lakh are available on the shelves. Of the entire lot, only 60,000 have been digitally entered. Precious journals were kept in gunny bags and piled up it some corner. ‘The Ravenshavian’ issues of an entire decade , which were almost falling off like debris , have now been scanned and made available in our website. The antique books of invaluable worth were rotting in a mezzanine floor to which there was no easy access. The only transaction with the students was for some textbooks. Due to lack of grant, and more than that, of involved interest, there was no accretion. The University has started renovation of the Kanika Library and the Centenary Library, which houses the textbooks on a massive scale. The renovation comprises conservation of the heritage structure, redesigning of utility areas and digitalisation with e-library. Already some beginning of the e-library has been made by storing about 80,000 PDF books and one lakh music files in the library server. In brief, the old Kanika Library is emerging now a s the new Ravenshaw Knowledge Centre (RKC) with other such auxiliary activities that a knowledge centre entails.

As for hostel accommodation, Ravenshaw has a low satisfaction of 23%. All its dilapidated hostels with leaking roofs, and their infrastructure falling apart have been renovated, if not fully. Only the West and East Hostels have been specially renovated. The University has spent nearly R s 8 crore of its precious money on the repair and renovation of hostels. Besides, a projection has been worked out to raise the level of satisfaction by another 25%, through construction of six new girls’ hostels and three new boys’ hostels at a tentative cost of Rs 27 crore.

There is a difference between beautification and restoration. Beautification is optional but  restoration is always expensive, if it is done with quality. A historic institution like Ravenshaw, whose infrastructure has greatly decayed, due to years of negligence, requires extensive restoration. The restoration of Ravenshaw College Hall, which once housed the Odisha State Assembly, was expensive. The restoration of Kanika Library is going to be expensive. Such expenditure is unavoidable if they are restored with quality. Many visitors, including the Chief Minister, who have seen the restoration of the Heritage Hall have admired it.

Desecration of statues had started long before the University was founded. Front area of the college was congested with growth of wild bushes, half masonry walls, dividers, broken tennis courts with potholes, and littered garbage. All the three statues were installed on pedestals in that nearly abandoned front area, with plasters peeling off them, and all discoloured. They were left open to the vagaries of both nature and men. The University decided to renovate the front area with a huge green lawn and wrought iron gates and boundaries, making the view of the majestic college building visible to the road. While clearing all impediments to the view, the statues too were removed. While removing them the University had discussed with their donors, and assured them that they will be reinstalled either in the front porch or in the Kanika Library building after they are renovated. The renovation work is in process.

The backbone of a University is its faculty. The old faculty was highly underexposed. The new faculties, chosen on the basis of an open competition and global advertisement, have brought tidings from other shores. I am sure they would gradually settle down and also incorporate the best practices they have experienced. When I was a student at Ravenshaw four decades before, we had tutorials. There is none now. The high teacher-student ratio makes it impossible for any exclusive supervision. Besides, the culture had so deteriorated tha t even after it be c ame a University, most of its faculty, particularly those who stayed at Bhubaneswar would leave the campus before early afternoon. I hope the new faculty does not fall into the same rot.

Ravenshaw University shall continue to be a blend of the old and new. For over a century it had been the home of classical studies. In its new version, it will now cope not only with new theories but more so with applications. Ours is a knowledge economy. But the creation of economic wealth must not be at the expense of cultural wealth and insight.

The Ravenshaw University has been in existence for some years. It should have incorporated a few best practices of the best universities of the world. I would like to believe that the University is about intellect. The intellect of a University is the sum total of intellect of its faculty and students. I trust the new faculty. I trust the students of Ravenshaw.

In the faculty recruitment front, the newsletter had the following to say: 

After receiving Government’s approval for creating 153 faculty positions comprising 17 posts of Professors, 45 posts of Readers and 91 posts of Lecturers, Ravenshaw University took up this mammoth recruitment enterprise by global advertisement for the faculty positions and received more than 7,000 applications.

It lists 75 new faculty that have been hired.  With respect to the quality of the new faculty its goes on to say the following:

The university now boasts of faculty members who have joined the university with their successful research and teaching career in universities abroad. As a Humboldt Fellow, Pradipta Mohapatra, a leading botanist of the country with his focus of research on toxicity of insecticides on algae and cyanobacteria has worked in Rostock and Duesseldorf Universities in Germany. Similarly, the two other botanists, S.K. Naik and N.R. Singh have done their postdoctoral research in the Universities of Kentucky, US, and Stellenbosch in South Africa respectively. Rupashree Shyama Roy, a young scientist with research in molecular modeling and computational chemistry has worked in the Universities of Munich and Leipzig, Germany. Another young scientist, Kumar Siddhartha Kesav Varadwaj with his research interest in nanoscience and technology has been associated with Hokkaido university, Japan and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Yet another young faculty of chemistry, Sabita Nayak has worked on the design and development of cardiovascular drugs as part of her postdoctoral research in the University of Texas. Apart from teaching and research on contemporary economic issues, the department of economics has started addressing the problems of rural Orissa. Economist Dr. Mamata Swain, with a Ph.D. from London, is the lead in this regard. Nachiketa Das with a dual citizenship status of India and Australia and being a permanent resident of Japan now heads the department of Geology. With a postdoctoral degree from Harvard, he has been associated with universities of Glasgow, Melbourne and Hiroshima in several academic capacities. Dipti Ranjan Patnaik, who has been both a Fulbright Fellow at Ohio State University, Columbia and an Indo-Canadian Fellow, and has recently received the prestigious Erikson Scholar-in-Residence Position, has already spelt out the roadmap for his department of English. The list goes on. The idea here is not to undermine the achievements of individual faculty members of other different departments by citing a few cases at hand. What needs to be stressed here is the clinical precision which has gone into the process of selection of the core faculty of the university. As one traverses through the departments cutting across humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, the possibilities of having an engagement with ‘ignited minds’ who seek to question meta narratives, becomes absolutely inescapable. In fact, this core faculty of the university in many ways than one is going to shape the texture of academic discourse not only for the university but also for the society at large.

The Ravenshaw website at http://ravenshawuniversity.ac.in/common/faculties.htm has the latest list of the faculty with their short biographies and their phone numbers. I also noticed that some of the faculty have foreign post-doctoral experiences, a couple have Ph.D from abroad, some have experience outside Odisha, some with Ph.Ds from IITs, and many with good publication record.

So it seems like a decent start. Having only one Mathematics faculty is worrisome though. If that can be strengthened and more Physics faculty is hired then Ravenshaw could develop good science programs, such as a 5-yr program in collaboration with NISER.

3 comments April 14th, 2011

Govt. of Odisha has just sanctioned 96 new regular faculty positions (professors, readers and lecturers) for VSSUT Burla

Update on April 9th 2011: Here is the ad from today’s Samaja. The detailed ad is at http://www.vssut.ac.in/Faculty-2011.pdf. They list 23 Professor positions + 57 Reader positions and 50 lecturer positions. The minimum qualification for professors and readers is a Ph.D and among lecturers, at least in science and humanities, most that will be hired will have Ph.Ds. Once these positions are filled it will increase the number of Ph.D faculty in VSSUT by at least 90.

Following is from a mail sent by Prof. Rakesh Mohanty of VSSUT Burla. It also appears in the alumni site at http://vssut.org/uncategorized/history-created-by-honorable-vc-vssut-burla/.

You will be thrilled and suprised to know that under the dynamic leadership and painstaking effort of Honorable Vice-chancellor, VSSUT Burla, Govt of Orissa has sanctioned 96 New Regular faculty positions (Professors, Readers and Lecturers) for VSSUT Burla.

A great achievement for VSSUT Burla.

This is really wonderful news. If they are able to hire good people against these positions VSSUT will be one of the top technical university in the country and will be next in line for upgradation to an IIEST.

In 2006 the then UCE Burla had submitted a proposal for becoming an IIEST. At that time it had 97 positions sanctioned but with 62 faculty out of which 36 had Ph.D.

I am not sure of the current situation, but with 96 new positions, the sanctioned strength will at least become 193, which is a good number to make a claim for an IIEST.

As per a document prepared by the then UCE Burla in 2006, the then faculty strength of the colleges that were earlier shortlisted for becoming IIEST were as follows:

• IT BHU: 229 faculty with 170 having PhD
• UCET-Osmania U: 127 faculty with 57 having Ph.D
• BESU: 212 faculty with 136 having Ph.D
• UCE-Andhra U: 123 faculty with 68 having Ph.D
• CUSAT: 206 faculty with 151 having Ph.D

So VSSUT’s claim for an IIEST will now depend on how quickly and how many Ph.D faculty they can hire. The sanctioned strength of 193 is pretty good.

Note that earlier in March 2011 VSSUT had advertised for 34 positions (23 lecturers+ 9 readers + 2 professors). See http://www.vssut.ac.in/adv_20111.pdf.

3 comments April 9th, 2011

Major higher education and research milestones in Odisha history (work in progress)

(Last Updated on 15th September 2023.)

This grew out of a draft article that I wrote few years ago. I will fill in more details and more items as time permits. Please suggest missing items and links in the comment section. Especially I would like to add information on all the government degree colleges. (A list is at https://sites.google.com/site/orissavision2020/ger-of-ebd-districts.
The list of all degree colleges, about 548 of them, is at
http://dheodisha.gov.in/Defaulter/ReportCollegeProfileSubmitted_DEG.aspx. )

7 comments April 1st, 2011

Higher education moves by the Odisha state government outside of the Capital area during the last 5 years [work in progress]

To get a clear picture on higher education moves by the state government (during the last 5 years) outside of the capital area (Khurda, Cuttack and Puri districts) we try to list the moves. Many fully centrally funded institutes are mentioned as the state contributes by free land and in making the location decision. (Note that Odisha has 30 districts.)

What has been done so far (including under construction):

1. Central University of Orissa, Dist – Koraput
2. Upgradation of UCE Burla to VSSUT, Dist – Sambalpur
3. Private University status to Centurion, Dist – Gajapati
4. Government Engieering College, Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi
5. College of Agriculture, Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi
6. WODC funds and free land for Private Medical College, Jaring, near Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi  (significant part of the construction is complete)
7. Pushed Vedanta to establish Vedanta Science College in Lanjigarh, Dist – Kalahandi
8. Parla Maharaj Engineering College, Berhampur, Dist-Ganjam
9. Special SUIIT institute as part of Sambalpur University, Dist – Sambalpur
10. WODC funds for Hi-Tech Medical College, Rourkela, Dist – Sundergarh (under construction) 
11. Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Baragarh
12. College of Horticulture, Chipilima, Dist – Sambalpur

The districts involved above and the number of items for them are: Baragarh (1), Gajapati (1), Ganjam (1), Kalahandi (4), Koraput (1), Sambalpur (3), Sundergarh (1). If one takes the funding amount as the criteria then Koraput comes at the top.

Some of the announcements that are most likely to happen in 1-3 years as reported in the news:

1. Pushed MCL to agree to make a medical college in Talcher
2. Pushed NTPC to agree to make a medical college (location not announced)
3. Pushed NTPC to agree to make a Power Institute (location not announced)
4. Announced that all three medical colleges (includes Berhampur, Sambalpur) will be autonomous starting with the one in Sambalpur.
5. Announced that Khallikote College Berhampur will be made to a university
6. Proposed that one of the 20 IIIT should be in Berhampur.
7. Pushing to upgrade FCI Balangir to an Institute of Hotel Management
8. Grants to XIMB to open a campus in Balangir
9. Grants to XIMB to open a campus in Sambalpur
10. Support for a CIPET campus in Balasore
11. Upgradation of GM College, Sambalpur to a university (announed by Higher Education Minister)

The districts involved in the above two lists and their number of items are: Angul (1), Balasore (1), Balangir (2), Baragarh (1), Gajapati (1), Ganjam (4), Kalahandi (4), Koraput (1), Sambalpur (6), Sundergarh (1).

The districts that are left out are: Bhadrak, Bouda, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kandhamala, Kendrapada, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur.

Besides the above there have been reports about government willing to give grants to several private medical colleges in various places and the WODC has tried (but failed) to entice (through grants and free land) a private party to establish a medical college in Balangir.

Also, I think the government will implement some of the recommendations made by the higher education task force.

Please suggest missing items in the comments section. Any capital-bashing comments will be deleted as the purpose of this post is to get a clear picture of what is happenning and not happening in the higher education side outside of the capital districts of Khurda, Cuttack and Puri.

Again, this list is to get a clear picture of what has happened in the non-capital area districts so that one can make an informed decision if the government is biased towards some non-capital districts over other non-capital districts. (There is no argument that the bulk of the moves have been made favoring the capital area. So no discussion on that.)

In regards to my personal view on what the government ought to do, it is listed in details in the site http://orissa2020.org.

The above list should not be interpreted in isolation. For example, one should not conclude that Kalahandi got too much. It got several institutions because it started from very little and the education conscious people of Kalahandi have been rightly demanding for higher education institutions for a long time. But at the same token, arguing that Kalahandi has been neglected by this government with respect to higher education just goes against the facts above and I worry that the well-meaning people who are making such arguments may be harming their cause. I guess the argument comes from losing the central university to Koraput. But then every district other than Koraput (and the capital districts) can use that argument. [If there is interest I will explain more on my take on this in the comments section.]

As an analogy, in 2005 we could rightly argue that the central government neglected Odisha with respect to centrally funded higher education institutions. But if we now say that the UPA government  neglected Odisha with respect to centrally funded higher education institutions, we will be laughed at, and our efforts will have negative impact. So we plan to use finer arguments and location specific arguments to push for central institutions in Odisha for the 12th plan.

Kalahandi people wanting more institutions in Kalahandi should think of other ways to make their case and irritating the state government and its bureaucrats with arguments that go against the facts (see list above) may help some politicians but has a higher potential to harm Kalahandi’s case than help its case.

44 comments March 29th, 2011

NALCO to set up a carbon sequestration unit in its power plant in Angul; The National Academy of Engineering of US considers carbon sequestration as one of the 14 engineering grand challenges awaiting solutions in the 21st century

Following is an excerpt from a report in Orissadiary.

National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), the Navratna PSU, under Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has become the first PSU in India by implementing a pilot-cum-demonstration project on Carbon Sequestration in its Captive Power Plant at Angul.

… Nalco has earmarked an area of 0.18 acre for the project to adopt an advanced and innovative technology by engaging the firm M/s Indo-Can Technology Solutions (ICTS), a pioneer in the area of bio-technology solutions, for providing technical consultancy and rendering necessary services to guide Nalco for successful completion of the project within 18 months.

Carbon sequestration is a method for managing and storing of carbon dioxide (CO2) or other forms of Carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere by burning carbon-based fuels. It is a relatively new idea brought about by the worldwide concern that high concentrations of atmospheric CO2 contribute to global warming.

Since Orissa is having huge coal reserves, a large number of Thermal Power Plants and Industries having large power requirements are coming up in the State and this trend will continue to grow in future. These power plants emit huge quantity of CO2 to the atmosphere. In the recent Copenhagen summit India has volunteered to cut down the rate of emission of Green House Gases (GHG) by 20% by 2020.

A battery of system would be introduced into the flue gas stream to clean the flue gas to suit cultivation of algae.

Algae, a kind of microorganism, is the most efficient photosynthetic and CO2 sequestering organism on earth and its productivity potential can be increased by supplementing with high concentrations of CO2, a characteristic not matched by plants, thus making algae more productive than any other crop. Micro-algae could achieve growth rate that is ten times more than that of other land plants. Faster growth implies more photosynthesis and hence higher CO2 consumption. India being in the temperate climate zone is best suited for algae cultivation.

The algae so produced can be used for production of bio-fuel, Poultry & Cattle feed, Aquaculture Feed, pharmaceutical products and a kind of organic fuel having high calorific value. By successfully implementing this project NALCO can pursue to avail the benefit of Carbon Credits under Clean Development Mechanism in two ways (i) through the process of Carbon capturing from flue gas and (ii) also through Bio-Energy and bio product generation.

Carbon Sequestration is a very important research area in Engineering and is in the list of 14 grand challenges awaiting solutions in the 21st century compiled by the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Committee on Engineering’s Grand Challenges. See http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9077.aspx for details. I hope one of the research institutions in Odisha partner with NALCO and others having thermal power plants in Odisha to pursue research in this area.

Following is a big excerpt from the NAE site.

What is carbon sequestration?

Carbon sequestration is capturing the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels and storing it safely away from the atmosphere.

How do you capture CO₂?

Methods already exist for key parts of the sequestration process. A chemical system for capturing carbon dioxide is already used at some facilities for commercial purposes, such as beverage carbonation and dry ice manufacture. The same approach could be adapted for coal-burning electric power plants, where smokestacks could be replaced with absorption towers. One tower would contain chemicals that isolate carbon dioxide from the other gases (nitrogen and water vapor) that escape into the air and absorb it. A second tower would separate the carbon dioxide from the absorbing chemicals, allowing them to be returned to the first tower for reuse.

A variation to this approach would alter the combustion process at the outset, burning coal in pure oxygen rather than ordinary air. That would make separating the carbon dioxide from the exhaust much easier, as it would be mixed only with water vapor, and not with nitrogen. It’s relatively simple to condense the water vapor, leaving pure carbon dioxide gas that can be piped away for storage.

In this case, though, a different separation problem emerges — the initial need for pure oxygen, which is created by separating it from nitrogen and other trace gases in the air. If that process can be made economical, it would be feasible to retrofit existing power plants with a pure oxygen combustion system, simplifying and reducing the cost of carbon dioxide capture.

Advanced methods for generating power from coal might also provide opportunities for capturing carbon dioxide. In coal-gasification units, an emerging technology, coal is burned to produce a synthetic gas, typically containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Adding steam, along with a catalyst, to the synthetic gas converts the carbon monoxide into additional hydrogen and carbon dioxide that can be filtered out of the system. The hydrogen can be used in a gas turbine (similar to a jet engine) to produce electric power.

How do you store CO₂?

Several underground possibilities have been investigated. Logical places include old gas and oil fields. Storage in depleted oil fields, for example, offers an important economic advantage — the carbon dioxide interacts with the remaining oil to make it easier to remove. Some fields already make use of carbon dioxide to enhance the recovery of hard-to-get oil. Injecting carbon dioxide dislodges oil trapped in the pores of underground rock, and carbon dioxide’s presence reduces the friction impeding the flow of oil through the rock to wells.

Depleted oil and gas fields do not, however, have the capacity to store the amounts of carbon dioxide that eventually will need to be sequestered. By some estimates, the world will need reservoirs capable of containing a trillion tons of carbon dioxide by the end of the century. That amount could possibly be accommodated by sedimentary rock formations with pores containing salty water (brine).

The best sedimentary brine formations would be those more than 800 meters deep — far below sources of drinking water, and at a depth where high pressure will maintain the carbon dioxide in a high-density state.

Sedimentary rocks that contain brine are abundantly available, but the concern remains whether they will be secure enough to store carbon dioxide for centuries or millennia. Faults or fissures in overlying rock might allow carbon dioxide to slowly escape, so it will be an engineering challenge to choose, design, and monitor such storage sites carefully. 

Concerns about leaks suggest to some experts that the best strategy might be literally deep-sixing carbon dioxide, by injecting it into sediments beneath the ocean floor. High pressure from above would keep the carbon dioxide in the sediments and out of the ocean itself. It might cost more to implement than other methods, but it would be free from worries about leaks. And in the case of some coastal sites of carbon dioxide production, ocean sequestration might be a more attractive strategy than transporting it to far-off sedimentary basins.

It is also possible that engineers will be able to develop new techniques for sequestering carbon dioxide that are based upon natural processes. For example, when atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increased in geologic times to a certain unknown threshold, it went into the ocean and combined with positively charged calcium ions to form calcium carbonate – limestone. Similarly, engineers might devise ways of pumping carbon dioxide into the ocean in ways that would lock it eternally into rock.

It may well be that multiple strategies and storage locations will be needed to solve this problem, but the prospect for success appears high. “Scientific and economic challenges still exist,” writes Harvard geoscientist Daniel Schrag, “but none are serious enough to suggest that carbon capture and storage will not work at the scale required to offset trillions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next century.” [Schrag, p. 812]

 

References

Herzog, H., and D. Golomb.  2004.  Carbon Capture and Storage from Fossil Fuel Use.  Encyclopedia of Energy, ed. C.J. Cleveland.  Vol. 1.  Elsevier Science: .

Lal, R.  2004.  Carbon Sequestration, Terrestrial.  Encyclopedia of Energy, Vol. 1 (Elsevier Inc.).

Schrag, D.P.,  et al.  2007.  Preparing to Capture Carbon,” Science 315, p. 812. DOI: 10.1126/science.1137632.

Socolow, R.H.  2005.  Can We Bury Global Warming?  Scientific American (July 2005), pp. 49-55.

Zenz House, K. et al.  2006.   Permanent carbon dioxide storage in deep-sea sediments,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103 (15 August 2006), pp. 12291-12295.

March 22nd, 2011

IMI Bhubaneswar building design and the philosophy behind it

Following is from http://www.e-architect.co.uk/india/imi_campus_bhubaneswar.htm.

March 15th, 2011

List of faculty at IIIT Bhubaneswar and their qualification

The following is compiled from http://www.iiit-bh.ac.in/faculty/faculty-list and http://www.iiit-bh.ac.in/downloads/AdmissionBrochure2011.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1.

Computer Science:

1. Dr. Gopal Krishna Nayak, B. Tech (IIT Kharagpur), PGDM (IIM Bangalore), Ph.D. (IIT Kharagpur), Professor & Director
2. Mr. Ajit Kumar Das, B. Tech (IIT Kharagpur), M. Tech (UU), Ph.D. Continuing (UU), Professor & Dean
3. Dr. Rakesh Chandra Balabantaray, M. Tech (UU), Ph. D. (UU), Assistant Professor
4. Dr. Anjali Mohapatra, M. Tech. (UU), Ph. D. (UU), Assistant Professor
5. Ms Puspanjali Mohapatra, M. Tech.(UU), Lecturer
6. Mr. Muktikanta Sahu, M. Tech. (BPUT), Lecturer
7. Dr. Debasish Jena, BE, M.Tech.(UU),Ph.D.(NIT, Rourkela), Assistant Professor
8. Mr. Alok Chakrabarty , Ph.D. thesis submitted (Assam Univerisity), Lecturer
9. Dr. Hemanta Kumar Pati , Ph.D. (IIT Kharagpur), Assistant Professor
10. Mr. Suvendu Rup ,B.E(UU) , M.Tech.(Jadavpur University), Ph.D. continuing (NIT Rourkela), Lecturer
11. Dr. Sudarsan Padhy, Ph.D, Emeritus Professor (Retired from Utkal University)

• Dr. Shakti Ranjan Mohapatra, Ph.D, Visiting Faculty, from CITE Bhubaneswar
• Dr. Ajit Nayak, Ph.D, Visiting Faculty, from ITER, SOA University Bhubaneswar

Electrical Engineering:

1. Ms. Usharani Rout, M. Tech.(BIT, Mesra), Lecturer
2. Mr. Tapas Kumar Panigrahi , M. Tech.(Bengal Engineering College), Senior Lecturer
3. Ms. Umamani Subudhi , M.Tech.(UCE, Burla), Lecturer

Electronics:

1. Mr. Harish Kumar Sahoo ,M.Tech.(NIT,Rourkela),Ph.D. continuing (Sambalpur University), Senior Lecturer
2. Mr. Ratnakar Dash , M. Tech.(UCE, Burla), Ph.D.continuing (NIT, Rourkela), Lecturer

• Mr. Tapas Patra, Visiting Faculty, From CET Bhubaneswar

Mechanical Engineering:

1. Mr. Bamadev Sahoo, M. Tech. (IIT Kharagpur), Senior Lecturer
2. Mr. Biranchi Narayan Padhi , M. Tech.(UCE, Burla), Ph.D. continuing (NIT Rourkela), Senior Lecturer

• Dr. L. N. Panda, Ph.D, Visiting Faculty, From CET Bhubaneswar
• Dr. P. K. Satapathy, Ph.D, Visiting Faculty, From CET Bhubaneswar

Physics:

1. Dr. Monalisa Ray, M.Phil., Ph.D.(UU), Senior Lecturer
2. Dr. Biswajit Pradhan, Ph.D.(IIT Bombay), Lecturer

• Mr. R. K. Parida, Visiting Faculty, From ITER,  SOA University

Chemistry:

1. Dr. Satyanarayan Pal, Ph.D.(CU, Hyderabad), Senior Lecturer
2. Dr. Hiranmayee Satapathy, Ph.D.(IIT Kharagpur), Lecturer

Mathematics:

1. Dr. Rupaj Kumar Nayak, Ph.D.(UU), Assistant Professor
2. Dr. Manas Ranjan Tripathy , Ph.D .(IIT Kharagpur), Lecturer

Humanities:

1. Ms. Lipika Das, Lecturer, M. A., M.Phil., Ph.D.continuing (UU) – Communicative English, Lecturer
2. Dr. Tanutrushna Panigrahi, Ph. D. (Berhampur University) – Communicative English, Senior Lecturer

22 comments March 5th, 2011

2011-12 budget allocations for various HRD institutions

The 2011-12 budget is available at http://indiabudget.nic.in/ebmain.asp. The HRD budget page is http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2011-12/eb/sbe59.pdf. Following is from those pages.

MHRD: Higher Education:

• Total budget for Higher Education: 21912 crores.   (2010-11: 18206 crores)
• UGC: Total budget is 8675.66 crores. (2010-11: 7530.19 crores) [Includes the budget of the old and new central universities.]**CUO Koraput**
• Educational Loan interest subsidy: 640 crores (2010-11: 500 crores; this program was introduced in 2010-11.)
• 7 old IITs: 2081.68 crores (2010-11: 1771.71 crores)
• Setting up of 8 new IITs: 500 crores (2010-11: 250 crores)**IIT Bhubaneswar**
• IISc Bangalore: 290.41 crores (2010-11: 267.65 crores)
• ISMU Dhanbad: 138.68 crores (2010-11: 122.47 crores)
• 5 IISERs: 580 crores (2010-11: 450 crores)
• 20 NITs: 1378.58 crores (2010-11: 1292.51 crores)**NIT Rourkela**
• Setting up of new NITs: 40 crores (2010-11: 16.81 crores)
• IIEST: 25 crores
• 7 old IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore, Shillong): 148.93 crores (2010-11: 108.8 crores)
• Setting up of new IIMs: 60 crores (2010-11: 13 crores)
• IIITs:  Gwalior – 39.38 crores; Allahabad  – 52.35 crores; Jabalpur – 40 crores; Kanchipuram – 70 crores.
• New IIITs: 29 crores **IIIT Berhampur ??**
• SLIET: 39.03 crores (2010-11: 27 crores)
• NERIST: 39.66 crores (2010-11: 36.34 crores)

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare:

• Total: 26897 crores (2010-11: 23300 crores)
• Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi: 345 crores (2010-11: 330.69 crores)
• Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi: 283 crores (2010-11: 257.54 crores)
• Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi: 67 crores (2010-11: 52.03 crores)
• All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai: 14.5 crores (2010-11: 11.6 crores)
• Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital, New Delhi: 56.22 crores (2010-11: 53.91 crores)
• Vallabh Bhai Patel Chest Institute, Delhi University: 33.4 crores (2010-11: 30.72 crores)
• Lady Hardinge Medical College & Smt. Sucheta Kripalani Hospital New Delhi: 194 crores (2010-11: 174.72 crores)
• NIMHANS Bangalore: 166.23 crores (2010-11: 140.46 crores)
• All India Institute of Speech & Hearing, Mysore: 41 crores (2010-11: 34.35 crores)
• PGIMER, Chandigarh: 470 crores (2010-11: 407 crores)
• JIPGMER, Puducherry: 250 crores (2010-11: 266 crores)
• AIIMS New Delhi: 1022.35 crores (2010-11: 985 crores)
• 6 New AIIIMS-like institutions and upgrading of state govt. hospitals: 1616.57 crores (2010-11: 747 crores)**AIIMS-like Bhubaneswar**

Department of Atomic Energy:

• Total: 7602.41 crores (2010-11: 6535.29 crores)
• BARC, Mumbai: 2554 crores (2010-11: 2338.20 crores)
• IGCAR, Kalpakkam: 711.70 crores (2010-11: 454 crores)
• RRCAT, Indore: 248.15 crores (2010-11: 226.25 crores)
• VECC, Kolkata: 155.69 crores (2010-11: 106.54 crores)
• TIFR, Mumbai: 510.38 crores (2010-11: 417.30 crores)
• Tata Memorial Center, Mumbai: 289.78 crores (2010-11: 286.60 crores)
• Saha Institute, Kolkata:  117.05 crores (2010-11: 116.9  crores)
• Institute Of Physics (IOP), Bhubaneswar: 239.6 crores (2010-11:  76.86 crores)
• Harish-Chandra Institute, Allahabad: 25.8 crores (2010-11: 19.74  crores)
• Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai: 28 crores (2010-11: 27.5  crores)
• Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar: 564.48 crores (2010-11: 384.63 crores)

(IOP’s budget used to be around 20-25 crores, close to the budget of HCI Allahabad and IMS Chennai. The substantially higher amount is because it includes the budget of NISER, Bhubaneswar. I wonder why NISER does not have a line item budget.)

Ministry of Statistics and programme Implementation

• Indian Statistical Institute: 141 Crores (2010-11: 131.76 crores)

Ministry of Textiles

• National Institute of Fashion Technology: 167 crores (2010-11: 108 crores) [Several campuses, including one in Bhubaneswar]

Ministry of Environment and Forests

• Indian Institute of Forest Management: 12.5 crores (2010-11: 12.5 crores)

Department of Space

• Vikram Sarabhai Space Center: 686.03 crores (2010-11: 603.05 crores)
• ISRO-Inertial Systems Unit: 39.74 crores (2010-11: 29.63 crores)
• Liquid propulsions systems center: 314.33 crores (2010-11: 271.32 crores)
• Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology: 100 crores (2010-11: 100 crores)
• ISRO Satellite Center (ISAC): 320.69 crores (2010-11: 348.10 crores)
• Laboratory for Electro-Optics System: 42.85 crores (2010-11: 36.71 crores)
• Semi-Conductor Laboratory: 80 crores (2010-11: 58 crores)
• Satish Dhawan Space Center: 434.77 crores (2010-11: 364.41 crores)
• Space Application Center: 420.75 crores (2010-11: 300.86 crores)
• National Remote Sensing Center: 223.80 crores (2010-11: 222.2 crores)
• Physical Research Laboratory: 80.7 crores (2010-11: 47.13 crores)
• National Atmospheric Research Laboratory: 19.34 crores (2010-11: 9.1 crores

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

• Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology:  39 crores (2010-11: 36 crores)

Ministry of Chemical and Fertlizers

• NIPER (old and several new ones): 132.31 crores (2010-11: 71.22 crores)
• CIPET: 44.32 crores (2010-11: 74.55 crores) [*Several campuses including one in Bhubaneswar*]
• Institute of Pesticides Formulation Technology: 4 crores (2010-11: 3.19 crores)

Ministry of Agriculture

• National Institute of Biotic Stress Management: 20 crores (new)
• Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology: 30 crores (new)
• Central Agricultural University, Bundelkhand: 30 crores (new)

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports

• Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development: 10.8 crores (2010-11: 9.9 crores)
• Laxmi Bai National Institute of Physical Education: 24.63 crores (2010-11: 36.63 crores)
• Laxmi Bai National Institute of Physical Education – NE area and Sikkim Initiative: 15 crores (2010-11: 3 crores)

Ministry of Science & Technology

• 23 autonomous S & T institutions and professional bodies: 713 crores (2010-11: 589 crores)
• 14 autonomous Biotechnology R & D institutions: 378.35 crores (2010-11: 330.1 crores) **Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar**
• 37 CSIR National Laboratories and 38 field centers: 2312.68 crores (2010-11: 2083.84 crores)
• Institute of Translational Research (Innovation Complexes): 10 crores (new) [To be created at strategic locations.]

Ministry of Culture

• National School of Drama: 21.2 crores (2010-11: 21.95 crores)

Ministry of Shipping

• Indian Maritime University: 41 crores (2010-11: 26 crores)

Ministry of Tourism

• Training (22 institutes of Hotel Management; 5 Food Craft Institutes; IITTM; National Institute of Water Sports): 123 crores (2010-11: 109.22 crores)

Department of Information Technology

• National Informatic Centers: 679 crores (2010-11: 628 crores)
• C-DAC: 185.4 crores (2010-11: 163 crores)

Ministry of Corporate Affairs

• Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs: 28 crores (2010-11: 87.36 crores)

Ministry of Commerce

• National Institute of Design: 9.5 crores (2010-11: 11.49 crores)
• National Institute of Intellectual Property Management: 8.4 crores (2010-11: 10.3 crores)
• Central Manufacturing Technology Institutes: 5.5 crores (2010-11: 4.24 crores)

I have not been able to figure out which ministry funds the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. Also, if I am missing some institutes which I should include, please let me know.

1 comment March 1st, 2011

Odisha Power Technology and management Institute (OPTMI)

We earlier wrote about this proposal in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4781. There is a new article about it in tathya.in. Nothing much new in this article except it gives the name of the institute. Nevertheless, the new article suggests that that authorities are thinking about its implementation. Following is from this tathya article.

With 40 000 Mega Watt (MW) power production being lined up, the Government of Odisha is mulling to set up a Power Technology Management Institute in the state. 

So the Government of Odisha has decided to set up the Odisha Power Technology and management Institute(OPTMI), which will be of international standard, said official sources. 

More than 30 Independent Power Producers (IPP)s are setting up their plants in the state, major share of such capacity addition is expected within Twelfth Plan Period(2012-17), foresee officials in Department of Energy(DOE).

In fact increase in power generation capacities also requires commensurate development of transmission capabilities as well as enhanced techno-commercial and  management skills as well as modern Grid management and Energy metering, said Pradip Kumar Jena, Secretary DOE.

Mr.Jena said that it would increasingly become necessary to adopt highly efficient technologies, commercial and management practices to handle such high volume of power generation, transmission and distribution. 

Needless to say that this would also require a vast pool of human resources having skillsets and competency of a nature not widely available today, said an expert in Power Sector. 

So the Power Administrators have felt the necessity to simultenously plan an accelerated growth of human resources having right competence . 

Moreover, in order to utilize newly emerging frontier technology and management concepts it would be necessary to develop an advanced facility to undertake research in such high technology and management sectors with continuous focus on Power Sector of Odisha.

Keeping this in view OPTMI is being planned to be set up on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, said an official. 

This institute will be set up with active participation of the upcoming power projects in the state and the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU)s of the Power Sector, said the official.

1 comment February 23rd, 2011

Odisha must push for an ISMU branch

Following up on our earlier article, Odisha must push for an ISMU branch. The logic behind Assam getting an RGIPT branch is that Assam has a lot of petroleum related oil wells and refineries. By the same logic, Odisha tops the states in India with respect to its mineral output. Following is from a report in Business Standard.

With minerals produced in the state in 2009-10 valued at Rs 15,317 crore, Orissa has 13.10 percent share of the total value of minerals produced by major states in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (7.70 percent), Andhra Pradesh (7.21 percent), Maharashtra (4.92 percent), Gujarat (4.65 percent), Karnataka (3.96 percent), Tamil Nadu (3.21 percent), Rajasthan (2.99 percent), Assam (2.96 percent), West Bengal (2.78 percent).

According to the Economic Survey report (2010-11), the value of minerals extracted in Orissa has gone up by more than four times from Rs 3694 crore to Rs 15,317 crore between 2002-03 and 2009-10 coinciding with the boom in the mineral market during this period.

Orissa boasts of 95 percent of country’s chromite deposit, 92 percent of nickel ore, 55 percent of bauxite and 33 percent of iron ore. Besides, the state has substantial quantity of other minerals and ores like coal, manganese, dolomite, graphite and limestone.

With the iron ore prices spiraling, this commodity naturally leads the pack of minerals in terms of production and value. The state produced 79.7 million tonnes of iron ore in 2009-10 valued at Rs 7976 crore. This is followed by coal (105.5 million tonnes valued at Rs 5548 crore and chromite (3.4 million tonne valued at Rs 1167 crore).

Similarly, iron ore constituted 95.4 percent of the total exports of minerals from the state. About 15 million tonnes of iron ore was exported in 2009-10 valued at Rs 4224 core compared to exports of 0.46 million tonnes of chrome ore valued at Rs 464 crore and 0.25 million tonnes of mineral sand valued at Rs 72.32 crore.

One of the disturbing factors highlighted by the report is that with mining and quarrying sector gradually shifting to labour saving and capital-intensive technology, the total employment in the sector has been decreasing over the years. As a result, the number of direct employment in the mineral sector in Orissa has come down from 55764 in 2005-06 to 43705 in 2009-10.

It may be noted, with mineral deposits mostly occurring in the tribal belt of the state, this sector employs substantial number of tribals.

When ISM was made in Dhanbad, that region was perhaps the leader in mineral output (mainly coal) in the country. Odisha with a variety of minerals needs an ISM branch and we must push for it hard.

Related to that recently the Chief Minister has been concerned about the coal block allocation in Odisha. Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times on that.

Orissa government has taken strong exception to the coal ministry’s unilateral decision to allot coal blocks without consulting the state.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh urging him to review the allocation of coal blocks in Orissa. The coal ministry has allotted 32 coal blocks with an estimated reserve of about 15,000 million tons to 56 private and government agencies.

Mr Patnaik made it clear that a comprehensive regional master plan should have been prepared prior to allotment of huge number of coal mines in inhabited and environmentally sensitive areas in the state. Focus has to be given for infrastructure development, logistic planning, land requirements, rehabilitation and resettlement, environment impact studies and mitigation measures, the letter said.

Expressing serious concerns over the adverse environmental impact in post operationalisation of such a large number of coal blocks, Mr Patnaik pointed out that coal mining would cause deforestation and air pollution. Sources close to CM’s officer said, the letter also had pointed out that it might not be possible for the state to accommodate new coal mines by jeopardizing its environmental stability. The coal ministry needs to be advised to take a pragmatic and planned approach, keeping the interests and concerns of all stake holders including the state government in mind, the letter said.

For making the 32 coal blocks functional, 325 sq km shall have to be acquired within few years and another equivalent amount of land would be needed for allied activities like coal handling plants, siding, workshop, and residential colonies for project affected people, compensatory afforestation and other infrastructural facilities including roads.

This would lead to massive displacement and consequent socio-economic and environmental crisis, the chief minister is understood to have stated in his missive to the PM. However, such large-scale land acquisition and displacement could be avoided if coal blocks are allotted and developed in a planned and phased manner, Naveen added.

Incidentally, Orissa is already on the throes of severe climate change due to setting up of huge number of coal fired power plants threatening the livelihood of farmers and fishermen who form 70 % of the state’s population shall be severely hit due to irregular monsoons and erratic rainfall patterns.

Most of the power produced shall be transmitted to other states while the people of the state shall be the unwilling victims of the effects on climate change and pollution caused by the huge quantities of green house gases (GHGs) and fly ash generated.

“Coal mining is done either underground or open cast. In Orissa mostly open cast mining is done. When coal surfaces are exposed, pyrite (iron sulfide), comes in contact with water and air forming sulfuric acid. As water drains from the mine, the acid moves into the waterways, and as long as rain falls on the mine tailings the sulfuric acid production continues, whether the mine is still operating or not. Proper and holistic environmental protection measures are not taken by the owners of coal mines”, former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR] and currently, chairman, Institute of Advance Technology and Environmental Studies (IATES), P. K. Jena on Thursday told “The ET”.

This reinforces our thought that the civil society andthe government of Odisha must together push for  an ISMU campus in Odisha that will specialize in all the issues mentioned above.

Please add aditional pointers in the comment section. As soon as the Malkangiri sutiation gets resolved we will start a movement to get an ISMU campus to Odisha.

1 comment February 21st, 2011

Institute of Mathematics and Applications (Bhubaneswar) comes of age; has 9 regular faculty now

The Institute of Mathematics and Applications Bhubaneswar now has 9 regular faculty and several guest faculty. Its 9 regular faculty are:

In comparison, the more established Institute of Phyiscs (IOP), Bhubaneswar currently has 18 regular faculty and 4 open positions and the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar has 13 regular faculty and is recruiting.

In terms of academic programs, IMA offers a B.Sc(Hons) in Mathematics and Computing and an M.A/M.Sc in Computational Finance. It also supervises Ph.D and post-doctoral students. It has plans to introduce a 5 yr integrated Computer Science program and a 5 yr integrated B.Math/M.Math program. The National Board for Higher Mathematics, Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India has agreed to fund the B.Math/M.Math programme. It is also involved in Math olympiads, RMTS (Rural Math Talen Search) and mathematics training camps for school students to prepare them for olympiads.

In contrast IOP offers predoc (M.Phil), doctoral (Ph.D) and post-doctoral programs and ILS offers only Ph.D and post-doctoral programs.

2 comments January 31st, 2011

Private State Universities of India as listed in the UGC site as of 18th Jan 2011

Following is from http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/privateuniversity.html.

January 24th, 2011