Odisha HRD

44 Writeup

• 1. Purna Mohanty  |  March 30th, 2011 at 5:02 am

  I do not see a problem in getting these institutions to Odisha – that is the easy part….. The problem that I see the leadership/management that is put in to run such institutions…… Are they self-driven? Does the top guy of the institution has the vision? Even if the person make an honest attempt, the person may not have seen the world. These are the fundamental problems that I see in taking such institution with good funding to the next level, work hard to put the institutions at the top. So an high quality leadership is key to success of these institutions – especially the ones that are outside of Bhubaneswar.

• 2. Siba Prasad  |  March 30th, 2011 at 9:59 am

  People in Puri who made sure that Vedanata University doesn’t come up there at any cost would only turn back and allege that State neglected them in Higher education, the same way as some people quite successfully tried to stop all honest attempts to bring private investment to Kalahandi, later blaming the state to be againt industrialisation of the place.
  It is a fact that all higher education initiatives can’t happen through the Govt alone. People must accept that Pvt Investment is here to stay and they must trust the Govt. more in case of Pvt Investment then the people who are out to sabotage such projects.

• 3. Chitta Baral  |  March 30th, 2011 at 10:35 am

  Indeed. People should put their money where their mouth is. While government will take care of some issues, if people want their location to be something bigger, they should (a) be welcoming of private enterprise and (b) should themselves invest and/or convince their friends and others in the area to invest in educational ventures.

• 4. Sailen Routray  |  March 30th, 2011 at 11:27 am

  Over the last couple of decades there has been a considerable fragmentation of the higher education space in India with many super-specialised universities being set up in both the public and private sectors. This is harmful. For example, BPUT is nothing but an examination conducting body. Odisha as a state is a late entrant in the higher education space, and we need not imitate other, more successful states, such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Odisha can in fact start an alternative path.

  One key initiative in this regard can be the creation of a University of Kalahandi that can build on existing educational institutions in the district by following the ‘constituent college’ model. The district already has the Bhawanipatna autonomous college, a government engineering college, and a college of agriculture. To begin with these three colleges can be federated into the University of Kalahandi, and later, more colleges (such as a government medical college, a fine arts college etc) can be pushed for as constituent colleges of this university. This will create a ‘real university.’ This then can become a model for other districts.

  Regards,

  Sailen Routray

• 5. mihir  |  March 30th, 2011 at 3:31 pm

  How many central funded Institute are or (shall) setup outside of BBSR ? Nothing .

  Editor: Wrong. See the list.

  Nalco or mcl or ntpc or sail are not doing big for setup medical college at locals. There all are CSR scheme .

  Editor: So. Without the state govt. pushing it they may not have done it. SAIL and NALCO have not agreed to do it yet.

  They all are used water and mines and replace they are giving polution to peoples. After 20 or 30 years established now they are commited for halthcare. Central university in Koraput due from guidelines from centre (must in Tribal Location).

  Editor: There was no such guideline.

  Unless it has gone to BBSR. If state govt has love to other disticts then why it not ask for world class university or railway medical college in other disticts of Odisha.

  Editor: Both locations wre proposed by the center.

  Big and mega example is Esic medical college in Rourkela. why govt .

  Editor: What kind of example. Elaborate with facts.

  shifted location for wagon plant from Kalahandi(most tribal and poor location in world) to Berhampur ?

  Editor: State govt. is guilty here.

  Why state govt not interested for kalahandi ?

  Editor: See the list. After the capital region Kalahandi is a big benificiary among the remaining districts.

  90% central funded institute at setup in bbsr,cuttack by this govt.

  Editor: A high percent.

  Only pvt institutes govt are giving +ve respond for other distists. If we really want for New and wonderful Odisha then we have to talk only but without involve any politics.

  Editor: Its good that people from other districts have now become vigilant and are pushing for their region. But they must argue with correct facts.

  Editor: Please comment with proper facts. Otherwise your comments will be deleted.

• 6. Rashmiranjan Nayak  |  March 30th, 2011 at 8:03 pm

  Districts like (Boudha, Deogarh, Kandhamala, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur) are yet to get a single educational institute.

  State govt should push the PSU/Private sector companies like Vendata/POSCO to go for technical/management institutions on PPP mode.

  Central Govt. should open new campuses of institutions like CIPET/CTTC and any new IIIT should go to any one of these districts.

• 7. Purna Mishra  |  March 31st, 2011 at 12:18 am

  Most of the people who write here are shooting from their hips without any thinking whatsoever. The guy who wrote IIIT should go to Boudha or Kandhamala or Malkanagiri probably does not know what an IIIT is?

  Also Chitta babu you are saying Government at fault for moving the wagon plant from Kalahandi to Ganjam is wrong. The wagon plant was never proposed for Kalahandi alone. It was proposed for Bhubaneswar or Kalahandi. Also before people shoot cheap comments against the government decision for Wagon factory in Ganjam they should review the details. I was the guy who wrote several times opposing IIIT for Berhampur. I do not base my decision on emotion or narrow regionalism. Here I must say the Wagon factory for Ganjam is absolutely the right decision, and here are the facts:

  1. The wagon factory with 100+ acres will become a real wagon factory rather than the 2-3 jokes Mamamta Didi is building for Bengal on 10-12 acres.

  2. It will be a part of the Tata Industrial Zone they are developing at Goplapur. This will attract serious PPT representations.

  3. Raw materials and parts will be more readily available in this industrial park than some remote areas in Kalahandi.

  4. You disagree, check the coach repairing at Mancheswar. It is over 300+ acres. From a smaller foot print, now it is one of the largest in the country and with the new upgrade it will repair all the coaches for EastCoast, South East Central (Bilarpur), and East Central (Hajipur). It is highly profitable. Compare this against the performance of the Liluah repairing facility. Check Liluah’s latest audit report and lack of facility (available in internet).

  5. God has given us a brain and yet a narrow vision where we do not look beyond our back door. Even with our education we still say my mama is prettier than your mama and she cooks better food as we used to do back in first grade.

  My 2 cents to these narrow vision people Grow up and look at Odisha as a whole. You do not need a job or school in your backyard. The gap will be removed by building right things at the right location. The Jagannath temple looks good in Puri and the steel making companies look good in Keonjhar, Jajpur, and Sundargarh. BPUT looks good in Rourkela and so does VSSUT.

  Internet has not given anyone a right to champion narrow regionalism.

  — Purna

• 8. Chitta Baral  |  March 31st, 2011 at 3:23 am

  In regards to the Wagon factory: My point was I do not believe that they could not find appropriate land in Kalahandi. That excuse is a bad one. They could have said the real reason. Also, Mamata Banerjee specifically offered (in the parliament; I have the transcript.) a second wagon factory if it is located in Kalahandi. I don’t see any reason why the government is not taking up on that offer.

• 9. Chitta Baral  |  March 31st, 2011 at 3:42 am

  Purna babu: You are right regarding the initial proposal for the Rail factory location was: Bhubaneswar or Kalahandi. So one can not say that it was shifted from Kalahandi.

  The location that they found near Berhampur is an excellent one. However, they should take up on Mamata Banaerjee’s offer and offer a second location in Kalahandi.

• 10. Purna Mishra  |  March 31st, 2011 at 4:20 am

  Chitta Babu,

  Your suggestion is a smart one. In fact, Indian railway suffers from serious lack of wagons. Indian railway is building these in PPP schemes. Odisha Government earlier sold Hirakud Industrial works to a business house in Kolkata to build wagons for railway at Hirakud. i believe they got into serious labor disputes or something like that at Hirakud.

  People must ask the state Government to find another 100 acres of land in Kalahandi and deliver that land to EastCoast Railways to build another wagon factory with some other industrial house on PPP scheme.

  Nalco produces huge quantity of aluminium and aluminum based wagons are the latest craze in the industry. Our state government and the people both could start aluminum based wagon making factories near Angul and could build high profit enterprise. Instead of working like Gujaratis, we fight over trivial issues. We kicked Vedanta out of Kalahandi claiming we do not want Vedanta and now we are fighting over a peanut. This is what we Odias are! We kick the incoming Laxmi and fight over nonsensical issues.

  The people who are saying this wagon factory should be on Kalahandi instead of Ganjam need to seriously think and revisit what they right.

  — Purna

  — Purna

• 11. mihir  |  March 31st, 2011 at 10:33 am

  IIIT AND wagon factory both are different .Here Iam not giving any focus on particular region(Distict). Here Iam clearly saying that Iam belong from Cuttack (Native place). But always Iam supporting for development of backwards areas and tribal areas in Odisha. Please don’t give any -ve remark to others personal views.Yes we can clarification on others -ve views. Only Iam giving THANK
  TO MR.Purna Mishra for his comment. His most elder and most experience then me.

• 12. jitu  |  March 31st, 2011 at 10:55 am

  just declaring some old colleges to university status will not change their fate. govt. has to provide more nd more financial aid to that institution. one big example is VSSUT. though it has a very dyanmic VC and it has the capability to become a top institution but with out sufficient financial aid it is like paralyzed one. what has change in VSSUT is the name plate of the college and a beautiful silver jublee gate.

  Therefor just declaring state aided colleges in backward dist is not the real HR devlopment of that area. govt have to make them a worthy college.

  and one more request to state government. plz… improve the condition of VSS medical. 10 dist of odisha, 2 dist of chattisgarh and some part of jharkhand are fully dependent on it. The death rate in burla medical is higher then any other medical colleges in india. so.. plz..plz.. establish a super- specialty ward and improve the condition of every deperment.

• 13. sitaram meher  |  March 31st, 2011 at 11:54 am

  @purna
  …

  Editor: Personal attack deleted.

• 14. mihir  |  March 31st, 2011 at 1:18 pm

  Mr. Purna Sir
  IF you love and any + attraction with Odisha why you are not shifted to Odisha. There is lot of world class and well known Institues are going to setup in Odisha .Particular in bbsr, cuttack,Berhampur,Rourkela . You are most welcome .. to attracts with these organisations. only witten on blog not implement on that is not Grow up and look at Odisha as a whole. If you really want for develoment of odisha or care peoples of Odisha please try to implement that issues (Any location of odisha) not only give big suggestion on Blog. Please chitta sir don’t delete this.

• 15. Abhisek  |  March 31st, 2011 at 1:44 pm

  Which state Govt would like to set up an industry in PPP mode in a place after a hostile political environment over a previous attempt. Will Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will ever think of establishing industries in Singur or Nandigram? It is not as if serious efforts were not made by the state Govt for industry in Kalahandi. It could have well turned out to be an industrial zone like Angul-Talcher and that itself would have taken care of higher education institutions. But, no, the politics of the place was such that every opposition party made it a prestige issue to shut down Vedanta and there by emberass the state Govt.
  Similar is the case with Jagatsighpur where the highest FDI into the region is being seen with suspicion and efforts are on to scuttle it. There is every reason to raise issuesof displacement and propoer compensation but opposing industrialisation is quite an alarming trend caching up in Orissa.
  In contrast, even the CPI and CPM are infavour of TATA Industrial Park in Gopalpur and Chatrapur area. Is the state wrong in favouring a region that isequqally backward in industry but there is no major opposition to land acquisition and rehabilitation. But, having said that, if the railway minister herself says that she has no objection for a second industry, the door is not shut for any place. It is not IIT or IIM that every state can have only one. If asmall typo in the speech of the Finance Minister can give an IIM to Rajasthan, there is no reason to ignre the consciousness statement of the Railway Minister for a Second Wagon factory in Orissa.

• 16. Purna Mishra  |  March 31st, 2011 at 9:26 pm

  Mihir Babu,

  Let me answer your question by asking a question? Why are you participating in these discussions? Any one who participated in these discussions rather than watching TV of course feels a sense of commitment towards Odisha. It does not matter if I agree with you or disagree with you. The key is we all agree we believe in Odisha and this a channel to share our energy.

  Now why should I only write in Blogs and not do some actions? That is a fair question and I appreciate your confidence in me and your desire me to play a bigger role. I must thakn you for that level of confidence in me.

  I do what I say may be the degree is different. I tried for 2 years (2005-07) to develop an offshore branch of my software development company in Bhubaneswar. The people who knows me knew what I did. I had few meetings with the people back home. I had a lot of buzz words and saw no help, no assistance, and no action. What the head of OCAC (Mr. Panda and he is no longer there) told me the government i doing for SME and setting up SME support back then, I have not seen anything happened till today. Odisha Government does not have a SME policy and no policy for attracting software development companies (I am not talking about IT companies here) to Odisha. It has a land for IT policy and that is not working and that is why Chandigarh and Kerala surpassed us and without Infosys we are not even in top 100 in India. I write on this fairly regularly.

  Someday I will go back to Odisha and I have made other investments in Odisha also and I do not need to blow my own horns.

  World has become a smaller place. It does not matter where we work and make our little contributions. Some contribution is better than no contribution.

  If you disagree with my content, please challenge me, ignore me, or critic me. It makes my thinking better if you and others challenge me with my basis and understanding. It does not matter if I am right or you are right or no one is right. What the stake is Mother Odisha be benefited with our discussion. If I help even one man or woman through my postings, I considered my little drop worth the nights I spent.

  Hope I answered your question.

  Thanks for asking,

  — Purna

• 17. Siba Prasad  |  April 1st, 2011 at 2:37 pm

  It is not fair to club principal cities of the state (outiside the capital) like Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur alongside their respective districts and make a comparision between the non-capital districts. More than their respective districts these cities represent bigger regions and they will certainly have more institutions compared to other distrcts. When VSS or MKCG were established they were supposed to cater to their respective regions than any particular distrct. Yes, decades ago with meagre Govt resources, govt couldn’t taken Dist as a unit. But, big urban centres are an asset for any state and while promoting them it cn’t not be expected that the number of Institutes they have should be only be equal to the avg number of institutes for a District. Kanpur, Lucknow, Banaras and Allahabad are located close to each other and in Eastern U.P and yet have allmost all the major institutes in U.P because they are their major urban centres. So, is the case with Rourkela, Berhampur and sambalpur in Orissa and there is no harm if more institutes come up in these places. But, every Distrct must have some Higher Institute and not necessarily a University.

• 18. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 12:31 am

  @Siba Prasad: Good observations. The motivation behind the listing was to show how various districts as well as urban areas compare with respect to developments in the last few years.

  The one urban area that has not received its due share (recently as well as over the years) is Rourkela. It needs a regular university at the earliest.

  If I had the power to do one thing, I would establish a Rourkela University with all the departments a traditional university has.

• 19. jaga  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:48 am

  rourkela was the pride of odissa
  still if bhubaneswar people will see rourkela as brother insted of enemy,in that way we both the metros can change achieve more and we can change face of odissa into “MO SUNARA ODISSA”

• 20. jaga  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:49 am

  maharastra will be nowhere after that

• 21. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 2:10 am

  I don’t know of any Bhubaneswar people who see Rourkela as enemy.

  However, in the Odisha power structure (govt as well as bureaucracy) there are strong supporters of some areas and unfortunately Rourkela is left out. For some reason the current Rourkela MLA, even though a minister, is not able to convince the power structure in Bhubaneswar.

  On the ESIC thing, which has made many people in Rourkela unhappy, there are two concerns: (i) There is politics as the main champion in Rourkela is from an opposition party (both at center and state). (ii) The supporting data is not well laid out. I have seen a lot of claims in news papers but have not seen hard data from an authentic source that shows it in B & W that the claims made in the newspaper is true.

  If they are true then I don’t know why the data is not being showed publicly.

  If they are not true, making arguments based on falsity or exaggerating what the real data shows, harms the cause.

• 22. Sangram Keshari Mallick  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 2:33 am

  Mr Baral: ” Any capital-bashing comments will be deleted” I am sorry did i read that right ? (Editor: rest of the comment deleted.)

  Editor: In this blog the editor sets the discussion parameter and comments outside of that could be deleted.

• 23. Purna Mishra  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 7:44 am

  Rourkela is truly the orphan city of Odisha. Neither the limited vision Coastal people nor the Koshali people supports Rourkela. I have written in favor of Rourkela several times and yet no one in the state really fights for Rourkela.

  If I have my way, these is what i will like to do

  1. Build the first knowledge city of Odisha at Rourkela.

  2. Adequate funding for BPUT to build a true teaching/research university. There are only 2 universities in Odisha that are in the top 100 in India. Guess who those two universities are? NIT and BPUT both based out of Rourkela.

  3. Funding for close collaboration between BPUT and NIT. NIT Rourkela is one of the top NIT. They have some land issues and the state government should give them additional land to build a second campus for management, OR, Engineering Science, Financial Engineering. NIT has started a PG Diploma in Management already.

  4. Fund NIT to open a second campus at at Baripada or Balasore or Angul.

  5. Bring life to STP at Rourkela.

  6. Make sure the ESIC Medical College and another under SAIL to start at Rourkela.

  7. Fund additional money for extending the runway as the existing runway will not be big enough for 737 or 319/320 the work horse of domestic airlines.

  8. Assign the NREGA money to compensate Indian Railway to fund Talcher Bimlagarh line. It will cut down the traveling time between Bhubaneswar to Rourkela or back to less than 4 hours.

  9. Remove the Jharsuguda-Raipur segent from South East Central railway and the South East Railway segments of Odisha and put those under a new railway division under East Coast railway and let the division be based at Rourkela.

  10. Without a second city to complement Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar will not grow s a leading Tier-II city. Rourkela is the only city in Odisha that could complement Bhubaneswar.

  All my wishes are pipe dreams as I do not see fellow Odias to shed their narrow regional vision and everything in my backyard mentality. Unfortunately Rourkela paid the price for our limited vision.

  — Purna

• 24. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 8:57 am

  Purna babu:

  http://www.rourkelacity.com/ led by Prashant babu has become a good rallying point for Rourkela’s interest. But he needs more help.

  cheers
  Chitta

• 25. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 9:06 am

  My priorities for Rourkela, considering the impasse with respect to ESI Medical College, would be:

  1. Push for a standard university with all kinds of departments.
  2. Push SAIL for a medical college.
  3. Push the center (12th plan) for a sports institute/university.

  I think all three are doable and for 2 and 3 the state government will fight together with the people. For 1, the logic is simple and I think it would not be hard to convince the state. (The logic is that Rourkela is probably the biggest urban area of its size in India, and perhaps the world, without a regular university.)

• 26. stingidea  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:00 pm

  I too think that Rourkela can definitely be a complementary city to Bhubaneswar. It has the necessary spending power. It is quite multi-cultural because of decades of cross pollination from people outside the state who have come to work in the city. It has quite some visibility in the tech/engineering space as a result of generations of people who have studied at NIT, Rourkela. However, for some reason the city does not have any airport nor any university…If I were (I had to add this one considering how narrow some of us are!) from the city I would definitely be more vocal about the establishment of institutions that Prof. Baral has mentioned about.

• 27. jaga  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:03 pm

  @chiita baral sir
  we can push for an IINFOCITY 3 at ROURKELA
  is that possible??

• 28. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:12 pm

  Yes. But the airport issue could be a problem as IT companies need fast movement of their employees. So in terms of infrastructure, airport (with regular inexpensive flights) in Rourkela or Jharsuguda or both should be the highest priority as many other things will depend on that.

• 29. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:19 pm

  One lesson that should be learned from the ESI campaign is that with the structure that we have in India, its much easier to achieve a goal if the state government is co-opted. Going against the state government to get things done is very difficult and going against both the state and the central govt is hopeless.

  So for the airport at Jharsuguda the tussle is between the state and center. Center says we need more land; state says we don’t have more. Thats where it is stuck. My suggestion was to co-opt the state and argue with the center that there are many airports in India and the world with less land than what Jharsuguda airport has. But unfortunately, many people of that area want to and are doing the opposite and as a result their is an impasse. (More land is definitely good for the future, but if the state says we don’t have more land at that location, what can be done?)

• 30. jaga  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:24 pm

  you will be happy to know that rourkela airport is almost ready,modernaisation work is going on full swing,alredy path is clear.rourkela airport is going to start with in few week if people wil slight push them..but now rourkelities are trying for a railway divison and esic.a railway strike will be on 17th.so this airport issue is now in the pause condition..

• 31. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:36 pm

  Please elaborate on the Rourkela airport situation. Once it has regular flights, Infocity 3 is an achievable target. However, railway division and esi are much harder targets.

• 32. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 1:36 pm

  Please elaborate on the Rourkela airport situation. Once it has regular flights, Infocity 3 is an achievable target.

• 33. ashish rout  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 4:54 pm

  @Sir
  The mission of Esic medical college in Rourkela will go for sucess within next 3 months. Already Esic co. delhi requested to state govt. for land at Rourkela. But state govt. is not showing any interest for this. we are trying to collect that official letter. Already we have enough proof for favour of Rourkela. There is big story behind of esic medical college.Just wait we are going to disclosed all the data . You will surprised to know 27 RTI has been filling against this issues. The construction works at bbsr already stoped by centre. The fund which allotted by esic co, for bbsr (medical college building) already reversed and this fund allotted to kota Rajasthan (esci medical college kota).I think , this is first time in Odisha history where people of Rourkela bring a revolution againest the state govt’s wrong decision. Again I Salute to Rourkela peoples who were bring this type of revolution.

• 34. Chitta Baral  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 6:24 pm

  @Ashish: That is wonderful news. Mega-Kudos to all the people involved.

• 35. Purna Mishra  |  April 2nd, 2011 at 9:50 pm

  Putting a regular university in Rourkela won’t make any difference. Bhubaneswar has one teaching University. What difference has it done to Odisha or Bhubaneswar in the India educational map. It is not even in the top 100 university. Why to build a new one when we have a BPUT and it would be lot cheaper to make it a teaching university in addition to conduct the exam and award degrees for all other engineering colleges. BTW, BPUT is a rich university also thanks to the private engineering colleges?

  BPUT can offer M. Tech courses for the constituent engineering colleges over internet and with lab work in summer to help develop the right faculties for Odisha.

  Rourkela airport has a tad smaller runway. It is 5,957 feet. The right size is 6,500 feet. We all know what happened at the Mangalore airport with that Air India express. Still it is long enough for all regional jets which needs around 4,000 feet. But that airport is under Steel Authority. It needs to move under National Airport authority.

  Odisha government did the worse when they buckle under the law suit for Jharsuguda airport. They could acquire the land under the law.

  I hope and pray ESIC and also ESIC dental; college both happen at Rourkela. The state does not provide a penny for that. It is the ESIC members who pay and they should get what they pay for. To put that medical college in Bhubaneswar is what happened now, Odisha pays for the Indian railway and the railway takes the money and put it in Bengal, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu.

  — Purna

• 36. Chitta Baral  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 1:18 am

  Any reasonable sized city needs a comprehensive university with all disciplines. Not everyone should or wants to study engineering. There has to be options outside of that.

  BPUT as a university has very little value. Its main role has been to set questions and grade answers. That also it has done very badly in recent years. In the early years it had a set time table and it had some innovative qualities. Now there are frequent postponements of exams. It was established in 2002 and it still has not obtained eligibility to get UGC funding. It is supposed to have some research centers. I am not sure where they are. Check out its web page at http://www.bput.ac.in/ and you will soon understand why it is really not a university. It is a glorified registrars office that one will find in a real university.

  It is almost 10 years since BPUT was established in 2002. Please explore its web page. Can you find any departments/schools/centers that it has? Can you find any faculty that it has? None. Nada. Zero. Zip. It just claims some of the government colleges as its constituent colleges. So calling it a university is a misnomer and rightly UGC has not given it 12 B eligibility to be able to apply for UGC funds.

  BPUT like universities that focus *solely* on exam conducting and degree granting are no good in other states either. (WBUT established in 2000 is equally pathetic. http://www.wbut.net/) I hope BPUT transitions to a real university with its own programs.

  It is unfortunate that Rourkela people in their desperation wanted BPUT and not a real university. Anyway, lets hope that it will some day become a real technical university (like CUSAT or JNTU), but one needs to make a strong demand for a real university that has disciplines besides engineering. The city needs that.

• 37. Chitta Baral  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 1:24 am

  Purna babu:

  If by teaching university, you are referring to Utkal University, it has made a tremendous difference to Odisha. Before it was there, Odias had to go to Patna University, Calcutta University etc. and that meant only a few could do that. After Utakl University was made lot more Odias could get the opportunity to pursue a Masters and Ph.D degree in Odisha. No, it is not Harvard or even JNU or BHU, but multiple generations of teachers, lecturers, administrators, etc. have graduated from Utkal.

  Similarly, now in Rourkela, to pursue Masters and Ph.D in many disciplines one has to go out of town and few ever come back. May be that is one of the reason Rourkela lacks a good sized civil society which can look after Rourkela’s interest.

• 38. Purna Mishra  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 2:40 am

  Chitta Babu,

  I seriously disagree with your statement that BPUT as a university has little value. If academic people like you will think this way, then definitely BPUT will not grow where it can grow.

  This is where I disagree with you:

  1. BPUT as a university is in top 100 league in all India ranking of universities. Utkal is not even in top 100.

  2. When JITM’s management decided to put JITM under their new university, there was a riot and the top management have to resign. The students wanted to stay under BPUT for better placement.

  3. As Rourkela is an orphan city, no one neither the people of Odisha nor the administration took any interest to build BPUT. With faculties lacking advanced education and training, the opportunity to develop BPUT as a teaching and training university was not explored.

  4. The state government look BPUT as a cash cow to drain the money out of private engineering colleges.

  5. Where I see a lanky kid that could grow into a healthy grown up, you are asking to drain energy out of the lanky kid so it become more malnutritioned.

  Now back to Rourkela, you say there is no facility for masters and Ph. Ds in Rourkela. That is not correct. NIT Rourkela has a full blown masters and Ph. D. program for many of the science and applied science programs including Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics etc. They have Ph. D.s in applied math, psychology and other subjects also.

  Now back to Utkal University, let us see what they have produced in their last 60 years? If you move colleges from Angul district to Sambalpur university there will be no complain. In 60 years of her life, that is what Utkal University has grown into. When I was a student back in Odisha it was considered one of the top 30 university. A top academician like Professor Binayak Ratha (current VC) cried before the journalist lamenting at the lack of discipline in the university.

  The way I see future, India will become the service provider for the world. Lawyers, accountants, back office staffs, insurance adjusters and claim processing in next 20 years will all be done from India. Do you want Andhra to become the de facto provider again? 70% of the IT in USA are from Andhra. Don’t we want Odisha to have a pie?

  When NISER’s director talks about the average students at NISER, do you expect the top students from Odisha to go for a Masters in History or Political Science?

  Thanks for a good discussion<

  — Purna

• 39. ashish rout  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 9:42 am

  @sirs
  Thing is that our govt. has been giving focus on some particular location. it is time for govt. to developed more to more 3 tiers city. unless Odisha is much behind then other states. Govt. setup stp in Rourkela,Stp in Berhampur. But what happened. Only name plate is there . Govt has been not showing any interest to impress IT companies in this Stps. As per my knownledge max. computer hardware dealers are members of this Stps. We don’t gain any profit or fullfil the basic concept of this stps. Our IT policy is much poorer then normal standard.Software companies was attracted or interested to Odisha on year of 2007-2009.But now they are not showing that type of interest now. Infosys II has been under construction last 5 years.There is no eye touch building at STP Rourkela. This stps are totally failed to generated local jobs. Local It Companies in west bengal and andra pradesh are rushed to Odisha for take benefit of companies(3rd party job from wipro,infosys,tcs) requirement.Mindtree withdraw its project from Odisha. No single it companies are not been giving interest on year 2010-11. Our It policy totallly failed. It companies are turned their steering for andra,haryana,south states,UP,maharasta even given brake for surat,indore,gwalier,chandigarh and they are planing for fill fuel at patna and haridwar.we are giving seat to non it man who has lack of IT vision but make state It policy.we are giving channa to donkey(for eating) rather then horse.Everybody has make policy for their own profit not Profit of Odisha.We are celebirty utkal divas (April 1) but lack of knownledge about this date. we are bring new Institutes or give suggestion to govt for setup new Institute where our own land cost will increased or profit of real esates owner. Only we are feeling new light has come in Odisha but still we are far behind on that light. we all have to search that person who will bring this light.

• 40. Chitta Baral  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 12:00 pm

  Purna babu:

  BPUT: If a university has no faculty after 9 years of its establishment, should we really call it a university? and What does its ranking mean?

  It does have value. But in its current compositions (no faculty) its value to the place where it is located is almost zero. If and when it becomes something like CUSAT or JNTU it will have value to its location.

  And skipping over Utkal, Berhampur and Sambalpur universities all of which have immense contributions to Odisha; you can even find graduates of the fledgling FM University and North Odisha University around the world pursuing higher studies. See for example http://www.facebook.com/chitralekha.mohanty?sk=info .

  NIT Rourkela does have a few programs in science and humanities. But being focused on technology/engineering its total seats and its program offerings is much less than a regular university like Utkal/Sambalpur/Berhampur.

  Also, now-a-days companies have started visiting general universities and colleges for direct recruitment.

  I strongly believe that Rourkela has lost a lot of its good people by not having a general university.

• 41. Purna Mishra  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 2:11 pm

  Chitta babu,

  Who is responsible for the state that BPUT is right now? The state other than draining money, what has been done to make it a teaching university? I have met many students from BPUT who are in similar if not better institutes doing their higher studies.

  Also about the students being hired, please share who hires from general universities and colleges? Please share a few of these companies? I will tell you a few the IT/ITeS companies and the typical pay is between 1 lakh to 2 lakh rupees per annum. Most of these jobs are in BPO sectors. A degree in Pol science or history does not enhance your ability to get a job in India.

  I am not saying the people should not study social sciences. But in the job market in India, a degree in social science will not get you a good paying job. We all know if Indians are interested in education vs education is a means to a good job. Even the ceramic engineers graduating from NIT are opting for IT jobs.

  About the ranking of BPUT, please check:

  http://www.4icu.org/in/

  Also see which two universities of Odisha are in top 100 and where does Utkal University stand in that list.

  — Purna

• 42. Chitta Baral  |  April 3rd, 2011 at 9:29 pm

  About the ranking: there methodology as hinted in http://www.4icu.org/menu/linktous.htm is

  “4 International Colleges & Universities is an international higher education search engine and directory reviewing accredited Universities and Colleges.”

  So basically they ranked based on the web site visits of the universities/institutes.

  All that means is students in colleges affiliated to BPUT visit BPUT website more often than say students in Utkal. Actually Utkal univ’s web site is terrible.

• 43. Purna Mishra  |  April 4th, 2011 at 7:30 am

  Here is a link to the pathetic situation of IT in Odisha: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/mindtree-scraps-its-bhubaneswar-project/430842/

  It was in today’s edition. Pretty much many of us are talking about the IT situation is collaborated by the top Indian financial people.

  We have an IT minister who knows nothing about IT. We have a few IAS officials who knew nothing either and yet they came to USA and there was a lot of noise about bringing 1 billion dollar investments to Bhubaneswar.

  We need to have an IT policy and package to attract big fish and SMEs. Kerala took the path of SMEs and is reaping the benefit now.

  It is so unfortunate we do not learn from our neighbors.

  — Purna

• 44. pila  |  April 4th, 2011 at 11:18 am

  we want rourkela divison under ecor,insted of satisfying the hungry poor ckp divison,who are enjoying all facilities by getting the profit from odissa reason