Orissa government’s delay in responding may cost Orissa a world class central university
December 28th, 2007
Update: A report in Samaja and Pioneer are given below.
Following is tathya.in’s take on it.
Orissa is yet to send the proposal for setting up a World Class University (WCU) in the state.
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has written to State Government to send a Detailed Proposal for a WCU in Orissa.
MHRD wrote the letter sequel to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s historic initiative on higher education includes 14 world class central universities each with an approximate initial budget of Rs. 1000 crores.
Besides traditional disciplines, these universities are supposed to have a medical school, an engineering school, a business school and a law school.
Currently India does not have any such world class university, and the central government, serious about the "world class" label wants these universities in locations that will create synergies.
Various news items have mentioned proximity to research labs such as CSIR labs as one of the qualifying locational attributes.
Orissa, at 6.1 per cent is at the bottom of the higher education enrollment among all major states, and needs to cover the biggest gap to make it to the 11th plan target of 15 per cent.
Moreover, Orissa is the 9th largest state of the country in terms of area and 11th largest in terms of population.
It also does not have any existing central universities.
Thus one would expect that Orissa would be in the front of the line making its case for one of these world class universities.
Unfortunately that is not the case.
Even after receiving communication from MHRD on this count Orissa has not yet responded, admited a senior official.
It would be a shame if Orissa loses out on this because of not making a proper and timely case, lamented an educationist.
Insiders say that the BJD-BJP Government is doing this deliberately so that when Orissa does not get one of these world class universities, than the government will again accuse the UPA Government of neglecting the state.
It is true that in recent past the UPA Government has created havoc by taking away a previously announced IIT from Orissa.
But in this particular case, the PM himself has stated categorically that there will be a competition between states in making decisions regarding the locations of the world class universities.
So if Orissa does not even send a timely proposal how can we blame the UPA government for Orissa not being given one of the WCU.
Chandrasekhar Sahu, Minister of State, Rural Development has written to MHRD about Orissa getting one of the WCU.
But one wonders if this will turn out like the NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) case.
Mr. Sahu was promised consideration for a NIFT by the Union Textiles Minister Sankar Sinh Vaghela, but the whole state was embarrassed in the Parliament when it was stated in a reply that Orissa government has never submitted a request for a NIFT.
In case of NIFT, Bihar took the lead in sending a proposal and snatched it from Orissa.
If Orissa loses out in getting one of the 14 world class university because of the current government’s laziness or because of its devious strategy to win elections at the cost of harming Orissa so that it can blame the Center, the people of Orissa will never forgive this Government, feel educationists.
Entry Filed under: Eleventh plan,Learning from others,Odisha, others and the center,Universities of Innovation
2 Writeup
1. bibhu | December 28th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
lets have a rigouros campaign and presurrize the government to send the proposal as soon as possible. if still the government is not doing that then we can take some initiative in designing the proposal and submit it to the government and press them to send that as it is. we have so many educationists in our state and i think we can involve many of them in this work. We just can’t leave everything to the government. We have lost many things in last 60 years for such politicians and lets not lose this chance of having an central university in the state. if we will not take any intiative may be our generation next won’t pardon us.
2. Sandip | December 29th, 2007 at 7:27 am
It is indeed a shame if jockying for poll advantageous position Orissa looses out again.
It will be easy to recommend the prime institute of the state Ravenshaw University as the candidate for the same. With allotment of land for a 2nd campus on the outskirts of Cuttack, this 150 year old institute is uniquely located to avail the opportunity and to be again a leader in both intellectual pursuit and prime research center that it used to be before eyes were taken off it in the later half of the last century. Instead of running after all kinds of premature efforts before primary and secondary education are taken care of and fixed, this one effort will put Orissa on par and flourish as a global intellectual center, if done. All it needs is the money and vision of a central University – beyonds the realm of a state bureaucracy, with it’s lack of vision and dreams.
Will it happen? Or the GOO will fail again to take timely action?