Proposal for three new PPP based Central Universities for minorities
January 18th, 2010
Thanks to kalahandia.blogspot.com for the pointer. Following is an excerpt from a report in indiaedunews.
… the country could soon have a new model of central universities that offer preferential admission to students from minority communities which is not followed by any central varsity until now.
The proposal forwarded to the law Ministry for inspection explores a central university model in public-private partnership mode (instead of total central funding), to come up on land donated by the Wakf Board in Rajasthan, Bihar and Karnataka.
Although offering admissions to both majority and minority students, the land for these universities will be given by the Musilm communities with the minorities getting the maximum share of seats.
They are expected to come up at Ajmer, Kishanganj and Mysore and are expected to get the maximum share of seats in these new varsities.
The Minister of Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed confirmed that the concept has been borrowed from Dr B.R Ambedkar University, which came up to educationally empower SC students.
Odisha must take a cue and push for PPP based central universities – in addition to branch(es) of IGNTU – for its tribals.
Entry Filed under: HRD of Tribals and/or Tribal areas,KBK education,Learning from others,SC/ST/OBC/minority schemes
1 Writeup
1. Devasis Sarangi | February 1st, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Koraput to acquire global farm heritage status
The unique hilly floral and faunal diversity of Koraput, presumed as the origin of rice, will soon be designated a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), on the lines of World Heritage Site, by Unesco.
The sad part of the whole thing is that Orissa Government did nothing to get this status but a private trust M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has asked for this status and the IPR or Patents of the study would rest with this institute which is a Chennai based Origanization. PLease refer to the FAO site for the details on this.
The agrobiodiversity recorded in the region includes:
• 340 landraces of paddy, (24 aromatic, 27 flood resistant, 2 deep water and 1 drought resistant and some others are having characters like insect/ pest resistant, puffing quality, etc.)
• 8 species of minor millets,
• 9 species of pulses,
• 5 species of oil seeds,
• 3 species of fibrous plants,
• 7 species of vegetables
The tribal groups have rich traditional knowledge about forest species too. They identify and use plants for food, fodder, firewood, medicine, etc. for their subsistence. The Jeypore area is rich in genetic resources of medicinal plants: more than 1200 medicinal plant species are available in this area. Some of the endemic medicinal plant species of the region are used for curing different diseases like gastrointestinal disorders, malaria fever, bone fracture, etc. The healing system of the Jeypore area is apart from the Indian traditional medicinal system. Bioprospecting of such precious germplasm is likely to lead to the development of new drugs.
This should give enough and good reason for a Tribal University at Koraput and the IPR should be going to this kind of university in the state other than a private trust