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Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.
… The Union Minister for Forest & Environment has approved the first ever National Research Institute for Management of Wetlands and Coastal Ecosystems to be set up in the state.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik last year requested for the same.
… Minister Mr.Ramesh has favored an investment of Rs.30 crore for the project.
Upendra Nath Behera, Principal Secretary Forest & Environment was informed by V N Kaul, Director Environment in the Ministry of Forest & Environment (MOEF) about the decision of the Union Government here on 26 March.
Mr.Kaul said the Union Minister recently has green signaled not only for the project, but also funding for the same.
Rs.10 crore recurring grant will be available for the institute for research and development of eco-system of coastal zones and wet lands.
… Located 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Chilika is known to support the largest concentration of migratory waterfowl in India.
At least a million birds are seen at the lake every winter.
They belong to 165 species, of which 93 are migratory and 72 are residential.
The Institute will have one campus at Chilika and another at Capital City, said sources. While Chilika Campus will look after wetland research, the Bhubaneswar Campus will be dedicated for Costal Eco-Managment researches, said an official.
March 27th, 2010
Update2: Excerpts from Expressbuzz.
An MoU was signed between Ravenshaw University Vice- Chancellor Devdas Chotray and AIPH founder secretary Dr Pinaki Panigrahi for the launch of the Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme. Besides imparting comprehensive skills in public health, the course would turn students into experts on occupational and environmental health, public health informatics and clinical and behavioural sciences. With an extensive hands-on experience, they will pass out as professionals ready to shoulder the challenges of the rise of chronic, infectious, occupational and environmental health problems that are vital contributors to high infant and maternal mortality in the State.
The first of its kind programme in Orissa is accreditated by the Council of Education on Public Health (CEPH) under the USA Government. The students would also gain credit points that would facilitate pursuance of higher studies in the US if they so willed.
But, foremost, the programme would churn out the much needed manpower in the State. There are at least 10,000 jobs for public health professionals in the district and block level under the National Rural health Mission. This apart, public health professionals are much sought after by private health sector enterprises, national and international agencies.
Update: Dharitri’s take on this.
The Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhubaneswar has announced a PG Diploma program in Public Health Informatics. This course will start in September 2010. Some details on the course obtained from their page http://www.aiph.ac.in/academics.html is as follows:
Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics (24 Credits, 12 months course begins 1st September, 2010)
The objective of this course is to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in informatics concepts and applications and advance the use of informatics in risk assessment, disease monitoring and disease surveillance. The course provides an opportunity for the students to understand the information system architecture in public health, privacy, confidentiality and security issues related to health information systems. Graduate students from all disciplines are eligible for this course that will be offered online three times a year. The course consists of the following modules:
· Introduction to Public Health Informatics (IPHI) – Basics of public health informatics, core competencies of public health professionals, and systematic review of public health information systems.
· Foundation of Health Information Systems (FHIS) – This course is designed to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in public health standards, databases, privacy, confidentiality and security issues relevant to public health information systems.
· Applications of Public Health Informatics (APHI) – overview of clinical decision support systems, Geographic Information Systems, public health surveillance systems.
· Computer mediated Health Education and Health Promotion (CMHEHP) – Web based approaches to health education and health promotion, role of health literacy and varied learning needs of public health consumers and different stakeholders.
· A 12 credit informatics research project will be required to get the Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics.
The institute seems to have a strong faculty. See http://www.aiph.ac.in/Indian.html.
Surendra K. Mishra, MSc, PGDA, DCS
Health systems, behavioural sciences research and communication, reproductive health
Ashish Joshi, MD, MPH
Public health informatics, health outcomes research, design of multi-component interventions
Niharika Khanna, MD, DCH
HPV epidemiology, cervical cancer, cancer vaccines
Prasanna Nair, MD, MPH
Maternal and child health, epidemiology, HIV/AIDS
P N Padmanabhan, PhD, FAAASc
Nutrition, non-invasive methods for monitoring gastrointestinal health, cancer prevention
Seba Mohapatra, MD
Maternal health, health systems
Pinaki Panigrahi, MD, PhD
Epidemiology, field surveillance, human research protection, clinical trials
P. K. Senapati, MD
Health systems, health care delivery and administration
S. Ramanathan, MPhil
Health economics and finance, reproductive health, gender and equity
Preethy Nayar, MBBS, MPhil, PhD
Health services research & administration, program and policy evaluation
Shireen Rajaram, PhD
Social and behavioral sciences, access to health care, health care disparity
Pritish Nanda, PGDHM, MPH
Health communication, hospital management, social mobilization, program management
E. Venkata Rao, MD
Epidemiology, financial management
U.S.-based faculty teaching at AIPH, Bhubaneswar
Patrik Johansson, MD, MPH.
Health communication, community-based participatory research
Ayman El-Mohandes, MD, MPH
International health, program evaluation
J. Glenn Morris Jr, MD, MPH&TM
Infectious diseases, Cholera, emerging and re-emerging diseases
Ira H. Gewolb, MD
Newborn health, biostatistics
Judith A. Johnson, PhD
Infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance, clinical microbiology
Magda G. Peck, ScD
Leadership development and practice, childhood well being evaluation
Chandran Achutan, PhD
Occupational and environmental health
Hala Azzam, PhD, MPH
Workforce development and training, field assessments, HIV/AIDS
Hrishikesh Chakraborty, DrPH
Biostatistics, epidemiology, cluster randomized trials
James Sherry, MD,PhD
Health policy, international health
Jaime Gofin, MD, PhD
Program evaluation, community-oriented primary care
Li-Wu Chen, MHSA, PhD
Health economics, cost-effectiveness analysis, health care utilization by underserved population
KM Monirul Islam, MBBS, PhD
Epidemiology, international health, development of surveillance system and evaluation
Ge Lin, PhD
GIS and spatial statistics, statistic methods for defining and quantifying their spatial signals
This instiute will add to the public health offerings in India which include various IIPH offerings such as:
- IIPH Delhi: PG Diploma in (a) Clinical Research (b) Public Health Management and (c) Health Economics, Health Care Financing and Health Policy
- IIPH Hyderabad: PG Diploma in (a) Biostatistics and Data Management
- IIPH Gandhinagar: PG Diploma in (a) Public Health Management
The IIPH in Bhubaneswar (different from the AIPH) is also scheduled to start in July 2010. The AIPH and IIPH in Bhubaneswar will make Bhubaneswar a strong public health education destination. I hope both will spread their wings across Odisha so that some of the current public health issues of interior Odisha are adequately addressed. I am told AIPH is already doing that and has research projects involving interior and tribal Odisha.
Pioneer reports today that AIPH has signed an MOU with Ravenshaw University. This is a great partnership and beneficial to both.
March 27th, 2010
The web site of this event is http://www.almafiesta.com/. Their blog is at http://almafiesta.com/blog/. Following are some planned highlights of this festival.
We start with the most important one:
Alma Fiesta, IIT Bhubaneswar and Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust Presents
Perspective: The Social Case Study Competition
Problem Statement:
Politics in India continues to be a murky and tabooed business which is being rarely taken up by the youth of present generation. Youth owns the key to dynamic thinking and action and thus are the indispensable part of a country’s politics. Present your views highlighting the current scenario of the youth participation in politics, the plan to increase this participation and also the plan to bring out the transparencies in the work of a politician.
Method of Submission: The participants are required to submit online their aforesaid visionary plan in form of a presentation in .pdf format by 25 March 2010 before 11.55 PM. The selected participants will present their plan before judge and audience on 27 March 2010. The presentations can be mailed to submissions@almafiesta.com before the deadline. No registration fees are required for submitting your presentations. So pen down your ideas and get the title of ‘SNSMT-IIT BBS Social Change maker of 2010’ along with various exciting prizes. For any queries contact: Mudit Sharma mudit@almafiesta.com +91 93385 75352.
Following are the rest of the events.
- Topsy Turvy : Inter College Group Dance Competition
Topsy Turvy, Put your best foot forward, because Topsy Turvy inter-college dance competition is sure to excite everyone to put on their dancing shoes. Be a part of our fiesta and drink in from the excitement.
- Face Off
Imagination is reality; dreams, thoughts and delusions are no less real than the "outside" world. Reality is a consensus, the same consensus the audience accepts when they enter a theatre to see a play and, for a time, pretend that what they are seeing is real. FACE OFF, an intercollegiate stage play event, is one of those platforms to experience the "reality”. So come, witness the reality on the stage and the director’s mind at work behind the scenes.
- N-Circled
Give the audience a hint of a scene, no more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the Street Play meaning: when it becomes a social cause. So be there to be a part of a social causes @ N-CIRCLED – an intercollegiate street play competition.
- EUPHONY
In the Iron Maiden edition of the Dream Theatre pluck the MetallicaStrings to elevate from the System of a Down and let the world Parikrama around you to attain Nirvana. If music is your passion and life then euphony, an inter college band competition for both eastern and western genres, is the right chance to test your ardor. The vim and vigour of music bands will be at its peak and the spirit of music is going to fill the entire ambience with a tone of mesmerisation.
- TRACK THE TRACK
Music is the harmony between melody, rhythm and expressions and thus for a song to touch the soul one needs to properly ‘Track the Track’. This sing-along karaoke event is a unique opportunity for the music enthusiasts to show up their talent. So hit the music loud and prove your mettle.
- ANTAKSHARI
A contest for the movie track fanatics who are experts in the lyrics. A common, Classic game yet can be mind-boggling at times. To triumph in the event means to be quick and sharp enough to get the right song. It is time to fine tune your musical knowledge and portray it to the world.
- Decoding Shakespeare
- Gone in 60 seconds
- Lit-Spree
- IIT Bhubaneswar Youth Quiz
A Quiz on Pan Youth Topics. Be it movies, music, gadgets, ads or IT-this quiz comes as a whole some package of fun entertainment.
- Heads or Tails: Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Bored of traditional quizzes of Tech, Biz, India…? Want a change? We could sense that. So here is an offbeat quiz purely dedicated to the Sports Turf. For all Sports Frenzied Junta Heads or Tails? Call it right!
- Youth Marathon
- Your Honour: The mock board room event.
Motion:
Ostracism, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of family members, community and the medical fraternity are increasing in Orissa. Not only people living with HIV and AIDS but also their family members are equally suffering and facing the challenges in different setting. The question is whether we need to practice a differential treatment/approach to address the issue of people living with HIV-AIDS or not?
- PALETTE
With the brush in your hand swipe the fog out of the sky and give life to your imaginations. Let the world acknowledge your endless dreams. Colours being your mouthpiece tell the unspoken and leave the beholder standstill. Mismatch the colours on this palette and paint life.
- LEAF COLLAGE
Attention!!
Dare not miss this opportunity to expose your ingenious dexterity. Let the foliage mirror your imagination and creativity in your grey cells. Leaves are waiting to reflect your artistic thoughts. Share your ideas, feelings, no matter what you want to express, through leave collage. Give a shape to your imagination and let the clutters of leaves take the pride to represent the artist in you.
- Mahfile-E-Hansi: Dr. Kumar Vishwas
- Classical Reloaded: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt; Akram Khan
- Leela: Orissa Dance Academy led by Aruna Mohanty
- Headbang: Kryptos
- Celebration of World Theater Day on 27th March in collaboration with Natya Chetana
- Commemoration of Earth hour on 27th March
One important aspect of this festival is that it is mainly organized by the students with some (minimal) guidance from the faculty and a very small percentage of funding from the IIT. The students find sponsors who cover most of the budget. They organize the events.
March 26th, 2010
Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59877.
Subject: Proposal for Setting up of National Knowledge Network (NKN)
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14:24 IST |
CCI Decision
Decision: Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure has approved the establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) at an outlay of Rs.5990 crore to be implemented by NIC over a period of 10 years.
Point-wise details
1. Background:
1.1 One of the important recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is to inter-connect all knowledge institutions through high speed data communication network. This would encourage sharing of knowledge, specialized resources and collaborative research.
1.2 The Government’s decision to set up such a National Knowledge Network was announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget speech of 2008-09. An initial amount of Rs.100 crore for FY 2008-09 was allocated to the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT for establishing the National Knowledge Network. A high level committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Dr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, to coordinate and monitor the establishment of the NKN.
2. Implementation strategy and targets:
2.1 The architecture of the National Knowledge Network will be scalable and the network will consist of an ultra-high speed core (multiples of 10 Gbps and upwards). The core shall be complemented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can connect to the NKN at speeds of 1 Gbps or to the distribution layer through a last mile connectivity bandwidth.
2.2 The NKN will provide nation-wide ultra high speed backbone/data-network highway. Various other networks in the country can take advantage of this ultra high speed backbone, with national and international reach to create independent and closed user groups.
2.3 The NKN will have about 25 core Point of Presence (PoPs) and 600 secondary PoPs. It will connect around 1500 institutions. The Physical Infrastructure (setting up of core network) is expected to be completed in a span of 24 months.
3. Major Impact:
3.1 NKN will enable scientists, researchers and students from diverse spheres across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas. NKN willcatalyse knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer between stakeholders seamlessly – that too across the nation and globally. NKN is expected to encourage a larger section of research and educational institutions to create intellectual property. NKN would enable use of specialized applications, which allow sharing of high performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms and very large databases.
3.2 Health, Education, Grid Computing, Agriculture and e-Governance are the main applications identified for implementation and delivery on NKN. Applications such as countrywide classrooms will address the issue of faculty shortage and ensure quality education delivery across the country. The crux of the success of the Knowledge Network is related to the education related applications, databases and delivery of services to the users on demand.
4. Current status of initial phase
In the initial phase, a core Backbone consisting of 15 Points of Presence (PoPs) have been established with 2.5 Gbps capacity. Around 40 institutions of higher learning and advanced research have already been connected to the network and 6 virtual classrooms set up.
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March 26th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
… An official confirmed the ministry met these institutes almost two weeks ago to discuss these plans.
Yale’s talks with the HRD ministry involve mentoring all 14 universities through its leadership programme. Since none of these universities have been built, the Ivy League university’s role is to act as consultant and conceptualiser,
“Minister Sibal has agreed to work with us on the new innovation universities for references and conceptualising. We will be developing leadership programmes for the deans and vice chancellors of these universities,” George Joseph, assistant secretary, Yale University, told Business Standard.
“We don’t plan to set up an India campus anytime soon … but we would like to mentor the new innovation universities just like the Indian Institutes of Technology were mentored when they were established,” he added.
Each “innovation university” is expected to focus on one area or problem of significance to India, such as urbanisation, environmental sustainability and public health.
MIT has expressed interest in mentoring one university that is focused on the energy sector. …
Meanwhile, Yale also plans to use part of the funds from its Yale India initiative for the leadership programme for these new universities. The initiative began in November 2008 and now has almost $75 million (Rs 338 crore).
March 22nd, 2010
Update: IIT Study Circle in partnership with Vidya Mandir has just advertised that it will offer a 2 year class room course in Bhubaneswar.
Fiitjee is among the top, if not the top, coaching center in terms of its student success in the IIT JEE. In the 2009 IIT JEE it had 35 in the top 100 ranks, 2307 in the main merit list and 5876 in the extended merit list. The next best was Bansal classes which had 22 in the top 100 ranks and 2175 total selections. At present Bansal is only in Rajasthan (Kota, Jaipur and Ajmer). Some of the other national coaching classes with presence in Bhubaneswar are Careerpoint and Narayana. We wrote about the coaching situation in Bhubaneswar in 2007 here. See also here. With FIITJEE and others coming to Bhubaneswar things have changed since then. Read on!
Another top coaching center, Resonance, is also starting a study center in Bhubaneswar. Its performance in IIT JEE is here.
Another top coaching center, Vidyamandir, now has a classroom course center in Bhubaneswar in partnership with IIT study circle; also some city schools such as Sai International School have teamed up with IIT Study circle which "would offer coaching to the IIT-JEE aspirants in the state in association with Vidyamandir Classes, its learning partner and 100 Percentile, its technology partner." The quoted part is from a Business Standard report.
Careerpoint now has operations in both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
March 22nd, 2010
Update: A picture courtesy Devasis Sarangi and Rajeswar Rao.
Update: Post-inauguration coverage from Dharitri.
Following is an excerpt from an older report in orissatv.
Renowned flute player, Hariprasad Chaurasia has decided to set up a training institute in Bhubaneswar to train students having penchant for classical music.
The flute maestro’s proposed institute has been christened as ‘Vrindaban Gurukul’ that would spread on two acre land at Ghatikia in the outskirts of the capital city. Nearly Rs 5 crore would be invested in the project.
His initial Vrindaban Gurukul in Mumbai came up in 1996. In this article in Hindu the reason behind a similar one in Bhubaneswar is explained. Following are some excerpts:
So the jet-setting flautist, who spends almost half-a-year in Holland as part of the Rotterdam Conservatory, realised the need to set up a gurukul. Situated in Versova (Mumbai), Chaurasia’s Vrindavan (the name of the gurukul) is where students with a passion for music live and learn sangeet free of cost. The students won’t come out of this gurukul armed with degrees and certificates. They will just have their talent to flaunt. Despite his hectic concert schedule, he takes time out to be with his students, guide and interact with them. “Though I stress on discipline; we laugh, crack jokes…there’s enough fun at Vrindavan. I share a good rapport with these youngsters.”
His second gurukul is coming up at Bhubaneshwar. “The progress has been really slow. Who wants to fund a gurukul?” But why Bhubaneswar? The maestro spent quite a few years in Cuttack working as a staff artiste for All India Radio. It is also where he met his wife Anuradha, then an established singer on radio.
Orissadiary reports that Amitabh Bachchan and his family will come to Bhubaneswar (first trip to Orissa for Mr. Bachchan) to "attend a program organized by internationally renowned exponent of the bansuri or bamboo flute Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. … They will attend in the inauguration ceremony of Brindavan Gurukul in Bhubaneswar." The older orissatv report also mentioned about the inauguration of the Gurukul in March 2010. The Orissadiary report has a nice description on what the Gurukul’s aims are. Following are some excerpts:
Brindavan Gurukul is dedicated to the teaching and promotion of performing arts of the world (music and dance particularly), yoga, and meditation techniques, in a serene atmosphere, along the ancient Indian "gurukul" principles.
BGI was established in 1996 by Pandit Hari Prasad and Dr. Shyamala Rajender, for promoting, presenting and teaching Indian classical music, Indian-Western integrated music, along with meditation techniques, yoga, and music theory. Focus will be on gifted or talented children and youth, especially underprivileged and needy children. Pandit Chaurasia’s mission is world peace, love and harmony through music, meditation and relaxation.
To create and inculcate in children and youth a love for and appreciation of Indian music, especially bansuri music as well as Indian-Western (jazz) fusion music. To provide for children at an early age, a constructive, disciplined, satisfying and creative alternative to the culture of drugs, gangs, violence and sex to which they are constantly exposed and to prepare them for the unique challenges of the 21st Century.
For the guru to work closely with sishyas (students/disciples) to identify, recognize, encourage and create a desire to learn and excel in the music or musical instrument of their choice.
To expose children at a very early age to different types and kinds of music and musicians and combination of styles; to expand their horizons and acceptability of styles new or foreign to them by encouraging them to attend various concerts and musical performances by great artists from all around the world.
To bring different artisans from India to practice their different art forms within Vrindaban Gurukul and to keep alive some of the great creative arts so unique to India which are being allowed to perish.
To build a library to house a large collection of books, audio and video cassettes, CDs, DVDs of Indian classical and bhajan music, literature, books, other types of recordings etc.
To promote other activities to make Vrindaban Gurukul an economically and emotionally self-supporting institution for the promotion of Indian classical performing arts, heritage and culture.
Following is an excerpt from an interview in Expressbuzz that adds more to the bond between Pandit Chaurasia and Orissa.
… After a sound training in Hindustani music, I learnt Odissi under great masters like Singhari Shyam Sundar Kar and Balakrushna Dash after I came to Cuttack for my college education.
Kabichandra Kali Charan Patnaik – the doyen of Orissa’s theatre, dance and music who was my maternal uncle – guided my music career. As a result I topped the State in the youth festival in 1959 and also became an AGrade singer for All India Radio (AIR) besides performing in many major music conferences in Orissa.
How was the first meeting with Chaurasia?
I was a student at Sailabala Women’s College and as a staff artiste of AIR he came there to play for a cultural programme.
He was only 19 then. I was mesmerised by the tonal quality of his rendition and you may say that it was love at first sight that grew up into courtship later during our association at AIR Cuttack. Finally we got married against the wish of my father and my mentor (Kalicharan Patnaik).
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Was it a choice or coincidence that your daughter in law is an Oriya?
A coincidence but we are really fortunate to have a caring, efficient and noble ‘bohu’ like her. She has an excellent academic record and was a gifted Odissi dancer. But she also loved to serve the family. She now takes care of Hariji and the family so nicely that I am able to go back to music. I teach at Hariji’s institution in Mumbai known as Vrindavan.
Do you miss your motherland Orissa at times?
Not only me, our whole family loves Orissa more than any other place on this earth. I am happy that Hariji decided to build his Gurukul here that would link all of us to Orissa for the rest of our life more intimately.
March 21st, 2010
March 20th, 2010
Expressbuzz has a report on the success of this program. A yahoo answers posting on this did not lead to any definitive answer. One of the answers there said:
The available course in IIT & IGNOU are not extensive and only covers macro level that to for few hours . This is a combination of Computing,Maths,Physics & Finance (Derivatives & Risk Management) . Let us wait for some more info.
Following is an excerpt from the expressbuzz report about the success of IMA Bhubaneswar’s program.
… With a student of the Institute of Mathematics and Application (IMA) at Andharua getting a job of financial analyst with SunGard Technology, Pune with a package of Rs 9 lakh per annum, the institute is hoping that more students will replicate the success in future with its PG course in computational finance.
In fact, IMA’s computational finance is the only such course offered by any institution in India. With risk and return constituting the major concern for every investor, mathematicians can try to capture patterns vis-a-vis predictability, which may help the former to decide on his/her plan.
Computational finance, otherwise called financial engineering, deals with portfolio selection, options and features, asset pricing, managing derivative markets and hedging uncertainty.
… While another student got a research offer from University of Antwerp, Belgium, another has received an offer from a leading insurance service provider as a risk assessment consultant, he added.
IMA’s bachelor-level course attracts applications from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar besides Orissa. It is encouraging to see applications by some students this year, who had participated in the Rural Mathematics Talent Search examination by the institute way back in 2003, he informed.
With 30 seats in each course, IMA has also got a research exchange programme with University of Western Ontario, Canada and has produced 50 researchers so far in the field.
March 20th, 2010
As per the report in http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59071 Grants Medical College, Mumbai is being upgraded to AIIMS level in the first phase and Govt. Medical College, Nagpur is scheduled to be upgraded to AIIMS level in the second phase. Following news item from Times of India mentions about a third proposal in the making with respect to BJ Medical College Pune.
Plans are afoot to upgrade the city’s B J Medical College and Sassoon hospital to the level of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
… The joint director of medical education and research has directed the dean of B J Medical College to submit a plan to this effect. Confirming this, BJMC and Sassoon hospital dean Arun Jamkar said the plan would cost approximately Rs 350 crore on execution.
… "We have started framing the proposal as directed by the DMER and the blueprint will be submitted in a few days. We hope that it will be translated into reality," said Jamkar.
As we have mentioned several times earlier, the Odisha government should propose the upgrdataion of one of its existing state medical college to the AIIMS level.
March 20th, 2010
Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59783.
Revised Cost Estimates for setting up of six AIIMS –like institutions and upgradation of 13 existing Government medical college institutions, in the first phase of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
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15:24 IST |
| The Union Cabinet today approved the Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) for setting up of six new AIIMS like Institutions and upgradation of 13 existing Government Medical College Institutions under PMSSY (Phase I) for an outlay of Rs.9307.62 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had earlier approved the Scheme for Rs.3975.99 crore. Due to substantial changes in the cost and scope of the works the requirement of funds has trebled necessitating a fresh Cabinet approval.
The allocation made for the PMSSY-Phase I projects for the XI Plan was Rs.3955 crore. Additional expenditure involved would be Rs.5535.62 crore. However, the allocation of XI Plan is sufficient to meet the expenditure in the remaining two years of the plan period
The new institutions/upgraded facilities in the existing medical colleges would provide tertiary health care facilities in and around the location and adjoining districts/States in the country.
The projects under Phase-I of PMSSY are spread over 19 locations in the 16 States of the country. The new AIIMS-like institutions are located at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand). The AIIMS-like institutions will be completed by the end of 2012. The upgradation components in Phase-I involves upgradation of Government Medical Colleges at Trivandrum, Salem, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu and Srinagar; NIMS, Hyderabad; SGPGIMS, Lucknow; B.J. Medical College, Ahmedabad; RIMS, Ranchi; IMS, BHU, Varanasi; SVIMS, Tirupati; and Grants Medical College, Mumbai.
Background :
The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) was initially started in March, 2006 with the object of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country. PMSSY has two components in its first phase – (i) setting up of six AIIMS-like institutions and (ii) upgradation of thirteen existing Government medical college institutions. CCE approved the proposal for setting up AIIMS-like institutions in March 2006 and upgrdation proposal in June 2006 |
March 20th, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in expressbuzz.
IIT Bhubaneswar will have four more schools with inter-disciplinary approach by 2011-end.
While the first one would be on mines, minerals and material technology, the other three would include school of chemicals, school of design and creative arts and earth and ocean sciences.
While the campus construction will start by the year-end, within 10- 15 days the contract would be ready for awarding the architectural and design side of the new campus, said IIT-B Director Prof. Madhusudan Chakraborty.
… Prof. Chakraborty said, however, the institute plans to have a marine campus on the coastline for research on rise in sea-level, effects of climate change, extreme weather conditions, changing ecosystems, air quality and pollution and human health.
… The marine campus will be called Centre for Climate Change and would be established on the lines of marine centres of University of Massachusetts and University of California, he said adding even the varsities have expressed their desire to have future collaborations in research and exchange of faculties and students.
As the marine campus will be very close to the sea, the State Government would be requested at an appropriate time to provide adequate land, he said adding it would have specialists in geology, geophysics, atmospheric and ocean sciences, he added.
Following are some excerpts from a report in Telegraph.
IIT, Bhubaneswar, is planning a marine campus as part of its upcoming School of Earth, Ocean and Environment Science.
The campus, probably be the first marine campus in the country, will study climate, sea level rise, extreme weather events, changing ecosystem, fishery development and wildlife, air quality and pollution, water shortage, human health and hydrological cycles.
Such a campus exists for schools in the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and University of California, Santa Cruz, said IIT, Bhubaneswar, director M. Chakraborty.
Expected to come up by 2011, the school will be “interdisciplinary”, conducting research focusing on geology, geophysics, marine sciences, ocean science, atmospheric science, atmospheric change, disaster mitigation and management, he said.
… The IIT also plans to open three other schools — school of mineral, metallurgy and material engineering, school of chemical sciences and school of design and creative art,” he said.
… “IIT, Bhubaneswar, believes in a border-less academic environment. We do not have departments like other IITs. We are trying to break the barrier so that people from various disciplines come together and work in tandem,” Chakraborty said.
The above plan of IIT Bhubaneswar opens up opportunities for the South Odisha people who wanted the IIT to be located there. If they co-ordinate intelligently (and even offer their own land) they could now have a piece of the IIT. Other parts of coastal Odisha may also go after this.
I think similar opportunities will open up with respect to NISER and AIIMS. In particular, a branch of either in Gandhamardan hill foothills of Balangir/Baragarh in Western Odisha focusing on medicinal plants could be a possibility. (Dr. Sanjib Karmee was championing for an institute like that in that area.)
Water and rain forests are big attractors.
Other locations (such as next to Hirakud or Mandira Dam) could vie for a pie of these national institutes by coming up with an idea about an appropriate research center and approaching the leadership of these institutes.
March 20th, 2010
(Thanks to http://www.rourkelacity.com/rdf/showthread.php?p=41#post41 for the pointer.) Following is an excerpt from a report in Ranchi Express.
State Health Minister Baithnath Ram on Monday informed the Assembly that approval letters have been sent to HEC, Ranchi and SAIL, Bokaro to start medical colleges at Ranchi and Bokaro respectively. About 250 students will be admitted in each medical college, Minister said.
Note that HEC Ranchi is a Government of India enterprise.
We have said this earlier but is worth repeating. Odisha must push the central public sectors that have large operations in Odisha, especially the ones that either use Odisha minerals, pollute Odisha or both to establish medical colleges in Odisha. So far they have pursued this strategy with MCL which has promised a medical college in Talcher.
Odisha government should immediately pursue with the other such public sectors.
- SAIL Rourkela should be pushed for a medical college in Rourkela.
- NALCO should be pushed for a medical college in one of the places it operates in Odisha.
- NTPC should be pushed for a medical college.
They should also do that with respect to some of the private sectors that have been using Odisha minerals. This includes:
- Tatas in the Kalinganagar area.
- Birlas in the Barbil area.
Some of our earlier articles on this topic:
March 17th, 2010
See https://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3365; in particular https://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/wp-content/uploads/image/20100315%20budget.JPG. The later shows that the 2010 budget has 32.5 crores for making the building and the foundation for the proposed medical college associated with the Capital Hospital. This was proposed and announced several years back. Good to see this in the budget. This is a good and inexpensive way to make a medical college as the hospital, beds, doctors and patients are already there. Adding a few more as required by MCI would lead to a medical college and at least 100 more students per year would then be able to pursue medicine in a government facility at an affordabale cost. These students and the future PG students would be beneficial to the patients. This is a win-win situation at comparatively small additional cost. (The total budget for this was earlier mentioned as 100 crores.)
This approach should be immediately replicated in all the other larger size hospitals in the state; if necessary in a PPP mode, as is being done in Karnataka. (There was a recent news that a team from Odisha was planing to visit Karnataka to find more about how it is being done there.)
In addition as mentioned before SAIL should do the same with respect to IGH in Rourkela.
March 16th, 2010
(Thanks to the Suryanarayanan’s comment number 147 in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/285).
The IISER admission site at http://www.iiser-admissions.in/ says that there will be three ways to get admission in the IISERs: (i) KVPY (ii) IIT JEE and (iii) Direct.
But by "Direct" they mean through an aptitude test that will be held on July 18 2010. They say:
Direct Admission is open to applicants who have Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and/or Biology in their class 12 board examination. Aptitude Assessment consists of a written test. It will have multiple choice questions on Physics Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology based on CBSE syllabus up to class 12.
The NISER NEST exam will be on June 6th. Details at http://www.nestexam.in/index1.php.
IISERs and NISER should have co-ordinated to have a single test. It does not make sense to have separate tests for admission into similar programs. Such lack of co-ordination and foresight is what encourages the government to interfere and issue diktats.
March 15th, 2010
UCE Burla becoming VSSUT and the hiring of dynamic vice Chancellors at VSSUT (Prof. D K Tripathy from IIT Kharagpur) as well as at Sambalpur University (Prof. Arun Pujari from the University of Hyderabad) has given a huge momentum in making the Sambalpur area a knowledge hub and together with similar progress at Rourkela a western knowledge corridor is now in the making. In this write-up we will focus on the greater Sambalpur area ranging from Bargarh in the west of Sambalpur to Jharsuguda and Sundergarh in the north and north east.
- Universities: Two exists; 2 more in the making
- There are two universities with dynamic leadership at their helm: VSSUT and Sambalpur University
- Sambalpur University has received approval and funding for a SU-IIT (Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology) and is pursuing a sports institute.
- VSSUT has significant expansion plans.
- There is a proposal to upgrade GM college to a unitary university.
- The health minister had announced to upgrade VSS Medical College to a university.
- Branch of OUAT in Chipilima.
- Engineering Colleges: Besides VSSUT, there are five more engineering colleges in the area. 2 in Baragarh, 1 in Jharsuguda, 1 in Sundergarh and 1 in Sason (Silicon West).
- Management Institute: XIMB plans a campus in this area.
- Centrally funded Institutes: IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) in Baragarh.
- Research Institute: CIFT Burla.
- Other Colleges: Panchayat College Baragarh, NSCB College Sambalpur, Govt. Womens College Sambalpur, Govt. College Sundergarh and Govt. Womens College Sundergarh.
- Demography: See https://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/2715
- Infrastructure:
The above gives the current status of this area. In addition to the efforts mentioned above, following should also be pursued.
- The VSSUT must be upgraded to a national level institute such as an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
- An STP must be established in Sambalpur.
- Operationalization of Jharsuguda airport must be expedited.
- One of the central government departments such as CSIR, DAE, Sc & Tech, etc. needs to open a research center here.
- The Orissa government should push to upgrade the VSS Medical College to the AIIMS level.
- Establishment of private medical colleges in this area must be encouraged.
- The OUAT college in Chipilima needs to upgraded and expanded
- A regional university (similar to the old regional engineering colleges, with 50-50 partnership between the state and the central govt.) should be established in Jharsuguda. (This could be part of the 12th five year plan starting from 2012.)
- A state university should be established in Jharsuguda during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
- A state university should be established in Baragarh during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
- Considering the rapid industrialization of the area, the Govt. Engineering School in Jharsuguda should be upgraded to an engineering college, perhaps as a constituent college of VSSUT.
NOTE on Comments: Only constructive comments will be allowed. Please do not submit comments that advocate separatism, conspiracy theories, shifting, badmouthing, etc.
March 14th, 2010
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