700 acres needed for the world class central university
April 22nd, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.
The Human Resource Development Ministry has asked the State Government to identify land for the proposed Indian Institute of Technology and the Central University (CU) announced by the Centre.
In a communique to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Ministry has requested for 700 acres of land free of cost near the Capital for setting up Central University. …
The contour and the shape of the institutions, however, will be defined shortly. The new
ITIIT and the CU will be set up during the 11th Plan period.
Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),IIT, oDishA,IITs, IISc, IISERs, NISER, IIMs,Universities of Innovation,University of Innovation Bhubaneswar
4 Writeup
1. Sanjoy Das | April 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
From that Indian Express article, it appears to me that the 700 acres are for the Central University (CU), NOT the Word Class Central University (WCCU(/i>).
2. Chitta Baral | April 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 am
The WCCU is near the capital not the CU.
3. Sanjoy Das | April 24th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Chitta babu, If you look carefully, the article also carries some more details about those CUs:
HRD Minister Arjun Singh announced last month about establishment of four IITs and 16 CUs…….The new CUs will be located in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Panjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
The article specifically says 16 CUs (whereas only 14 WCCUs are planned). Furthermore, the states listed are those listed to get CUs, not WCCUs (for example, W. Bengal and UP get WCCUs but no CUs; while HP, Haryana, J & K, Jharkhand, will get CUs, but not WCCUs).
Hence it appears to me that the center wants 700 acres of land near Bhubaneswar for the regular CU. Earlier, the center had identified Bhubaneswar as the specific spot for the WCCU also. Hence it looks like the center wants both the CU and the WCCU to be located in or around Bhubaneswar!
On the whole, that is not a bad idea in my opinion to locate both in Bhubaneswar, even though Western/Southern Orissa may have been a better location for the CU from the political standpoint. Quality educational institutions located in metropolitan areas are more likely to recruit top notch faculty. Furthermore, institutions located near one another are more likely to collaborate and foster cross-disciplinary research.
4. Chitta Baral | April 24th, 2008 at 7:42 am
I think the reporter made an error. The CU should not be in Bhubaneswar. If at all it has to be in a metro area, Rourkela would be a good choice for that. However, if the central govt. allows it then the CU should be in KBK, perhaps in Bhawanipatna.