Centenary of Ravenshaw Chemistry department: a Samaja op-ed by Prof. P. L. Nayak
2 comments January 14th, 2008
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Maharastra proposes a centrally funded Biotech institute/university in Nagpur
Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India about Biotechnology University in Nagpur.
If everything goes according to the plan, the Orange City would soon have a full-fledged biotechnology university funded by Central Government. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has already forwarded the proposal to Union HRD Ministry for consideration.
Speaking to TOI, Deshmukh said the proposal was sent under central government’s scheme, wherein they had invited bids for setting up institutions of higher learning in all the states.
“We have submitted a couple of proposals under the scheme. These include establishing a university of space science technology in Mumbai and a biotechnology university in Nagpur among others. If materialised, both these varsities would confirm the state’s premier position in India with respect to higher education. The state government is giving utmost importance to spreading higher and technical education in the state,†he affirmed.
Deshmukh added that actual dates can’t be confirmed since the proposals would first be scrutinised by the HRD ministry as well as the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Thereon it will be forwarded to the respective authorities.
“These universities would be set up and funded entirely by the Central government. We will only provide land and other necessary facilities. But the institutions would be solely managed by the Union departments,†he added.
1 comment January 13th, 2008
NKC Chairperson Pitroda lends his support for an IIT in Orissa and talks about education and 11th plan
Various articles report on this. Following are some excerpts:
From a Telegraph article:
Chairman of National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda today lent his support to Orissa’s hope for an Indian Institute of Technology, saying the state “deserved” one.
Orissa-born Pitroda, who ushered the telecom revolution in India in the eighties, today joined chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s long-standing demand, and said: “It’s high time. But, I am not the right person to comment on this matter. The HRD ministry should take a decision.”
Pitroda had come to Orissa to discuss the recommendations of the NKC, an advisory body to the Prime Minister on matters of higher education, with chief secretary T.K. Tripathy. Pitroda’s support went down well with Naveen, who has time and again reiterated his demand , but has been “refused” by the HRD ministry.
… Last year the Union HRD ministry decided to set up IITs in Bihar and Rajasthan and IISERs in Pune and Calcutta. The decision angered Orissa, which doesn’t have a single centre of excellence.
Non-resident Oriyas have been petitioning and writing to the ministry to set up an IIT in Orissa. While organisations have launched agitation against the Congress-led UPA and staged demonstrations before the Parliament over the issue.
Naveen has written several letters to Singh protesting the Centre’s decision of ignoring Orissa’s claim. The BJD-BJP MPs from Orissa had also staged a dharna before Parliament last week to protest against the Centre’s “step-motherly attitude”.
From a Statesman article:
The need for expansion as we do not have enough schools/colleges and varsities, providing quality education and ensuring equity as well as access are the three major challenges said Mr Sam Pitroda, chairman National Knowledge Commission. Talking to reporters he said the 11th Plan does make a substantial commitment to education and states must be ready to avail the funds that will flow.
He said Orissa was the first state he was visiting to interact with officials vis-à-vis the Knowledge Commission’s activities and recommendations. "I will visit a few other states like Rajasthan, Dellhi, Andhra Pradesh before we prepare a document on what states need to do," he remarked. He emphasised on vocational training and making students employable. He suggested setting up of a advisory committee of eminent citizens at the state level, a working group headed by the chief secretary and small groups to deal with each of the aspects involving education.
Mr Pitroda shared the view if more IITs were to come up in the country, Orissa should get one.
… On mushrooming private colleges which lacked trained faculty as well as infrastructure, he said it was a demand-supply problem. Suddenly the demand for education increased substantially and there was a short supply of institutions and hence people stepped in to fill up this gap. In the process institutions of low standards had come up everywhere.
January 12th, 2008
Excerpts from VC Cambridge University Allison Richard’s article on “What makes a world class University”
The following is an excerpt from an Economic Times article. (Thanks to Nanopolitan for blogging about it.)
To be a ‘good university’ is a decent and honourable thing, but no ‘good’ university these days can feel entirely comfortable, since we are not now judged solely on our local or even national contribution, but our international standing.
The competition to be ranked among the world’s top universities is increasing, with much jostling for position on international league tables. According to the latest Shanghai Jiao Tong University Ranking, the US dominates with 37 of its universities in the top 50. Arguably this is starting to change. China, for example, is investing heavily in its universities, but there is still a long way to go before any find themselves in the top 50.
… But what makes a university world class? As international competition for students and academics increases, this question is very much on the front burner for university leaders. Many people talk about ‘world class’ universities, but what the term means is often left hovering in the air, undefined.
In my view, four factors make a university world class. First, it must show a commitment to breadth and excellence in all fields of human inquiry, not simply in a particular niche. Uniform excellence across all fields is an ideal that no university achieves in practice, but it is a fine ambition. One senses that universal, high ambition in great universities, coupled with real excellence in most fields, most of the time.
Second, world class universities engage in cutting-edge research whilst at the same time teaching the next generation, their students. Teaching and research are intrinsically bound together, with top researchers inspiring and mentoring their students. In turn, students themselves inspire and challenge their teachers.
Much of the talk about world class universities centres around the production of exciting discoveries and universities’ contribution to the economy and to human enrichment through the development of cultural knowledge. But every bit as important as these is the role of universities as educators. World class universities produce students who will go on to be leaders in all walks of life.
Third, great universities must allow their researchers the freedom to experiment, succeed, and sometimes fail. They must be able to make grand mistakes as well as grand discoveries. It is often through making those mistakes that the grand discoveries are made.
This implies a degree of inefficiency, but it is a necessary inefficiency and a corollary of greatness. A university operating with a completely utilitarian mindset will forego the opportunities that a more open-ended system allows.
Finally, world class universities have permeable boundaries. This means encouraging interdisciplinary research and teaching; it means working with the private sector, for example, fostering and encouraging partnerships with industry; and it means encouraging international collaboration.
World class universities look outward, and think beyond conventional boundaries today, we educate students more and more of whom will go on to live and work in a range of cultures. We must equip them for this life, partly by what we teach them, partly by what other experiences we offer them, who they meet as students and the composition of the study body. …
January 11th, 2008
BESU becoming IIEST: Upgradation worth 450 crores during the 11th plan
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Business Standard.
The Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) in Shibpur plans to invest Rs 450 crore to fine tune its syllabus and to improve infrastructure and accommodation facilities.
This is part of an attempt to nearly double its student and faculty intake. The money is a grant from the centre for the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
The institute has received the status of an Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST) from the central government. The university has also been conferred the status of Institute of National Importance (INI).
… Bhaswati Mitra, Besu, registrar said: “We will not only increase the student and faculty intake, but also completely transform the campus with introduction of e-governance and wi-fi systems. We are also looking at setting up new campuses around our existing campus in Shibpur in West Bengal and the next one in Salt Lake in Kolkata.”
Currently, the institute has about 2,500 students and 250 teachers. It has about 60 classrooms and 14 hostels for students. The institute plans to increase the number of undergraduate students by 50 per cent and award 30 more research scholarships by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The institute also plans to change its syllabus to accommodate papers in more specialisations.
The syllabus was last revised in 2004. In July 2007, it introduced three new courses � MSc in food and nutrition, postgraduation in megatronics and postgraduation in safety and occupational health.
With the grant, the institute is looking at introducing several new courses and verticals under technology, management and engineering for students over five years.
The institute is also planning a new digital library building. The number of hostels will also be increased from the 14, currently. At present, the campus has two eight-storey buildings and more such projects have been lined up.
The University plans to invest in setting up its second campus in Salt Lake in Kolkata. It has been able to locate 40 acres in Salt Lake where the University plans to offer courses in Information Technology (IT) and Management. At present, its 125-acre campus in Shibpur in West Bengal accommodates 250 and 240 students for IT and management courses respectively. …
3 comments January 11th, 2008
Arjun Singh has different rules for Orissa and Madhya Pradesh: ISM Dhanbad can have an extension center in MP that offers regular courses but IIT Kharagpur can not do so in Orissa
Following is an excerpt from a recent report in Telegraph.
The Jharkhand-based Indian School of Mines University — premier Union government institute on par with IIMs and IIT — is looking beyond the state.
The mines school started in 1926 on the lines of Royal School of Mines in England claimed that an indifferent attitude of the government apparently forced it to open an extension centre at Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh.
The Union human resource department has given its nod for the project.
“The MP government is ready to provide us about 50 acres. ISM would be opening a mining centre and clean coal technology centre there. It would take a few more years before the extension centre starts regular engineering, management and other courses,” said P.S. Gupta, ISM dean, students’ welfare.
Now consider this earlier news.
The HRD ministry has snowballed the plan of IITs to open new campuses. The first to be hit are the top three IITs of the country at – Delhi, Mumbai and Kharagpur.
In a policy directive, the HRD ministry has rejected the idea of opening satellite campuses in places far off from the main campus, citing huge costs involved. The decision was taken after number of IITs approached the HRD ministry seeking its views on opening new campuses.
While IIT Delhi was formulating a plan for Gurgaon, the proposal of IIT Mumbai for Gujarat and IIT Kharagpur for Bhubaneswar have already been rejected by the HRD ministry. "We are against the concept of opening satellite campuses as it may dilute the standard of education in premier institutes like IITs," a senior ministry official told HT.
IIT Kharagpur, which has a small campus functioning in Bhubaneswar, offering post-graduate diplomas, wanted the ministry’s permission to expand the existing campus and convert it into satellite campus offering undergraduate courses. Even Orissa Chief Minister Navin Pathnaik had written to the HRD minister Arjun Singh requesting a IIT in Orissa or providing full-fledged IIT like facilities in the existing campus to improve higher education in the state.
15 comments January 9th, 2008
BESU upgraded to an IIEST – to come under revised NIT act
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
From the academic session 2008-09, the oldest engineering college in the state will be upgraded to Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) — and conferred the status of Institute of National Importance — becoming a fully-funded central government institution.
With the shift in power, the West Bengal government will lose control — from day-to-day administration to admission of students — of the Shibpur campus.
The formalisation of the upgrade, a contentious issue over the past three years, comes weeks after the 150-year-old institution was closed sine die following violence on campus.
“We are very happy… Besu will now be part of an elite group of institutions and will excel in postgraduate studies and research,” said vice-chancellor N.R. Banerjea.
The state government was informed about the upgrade in a letter dated December 27 from Ravi Mathur, the joint secretary of the ministry of human resource development. It will be executed by amending the National Institute of Technology Act, 2007.
… Not just resource endowment and academic standard, the upgrade of Besu will bring in changes in the admission procedure and administrative structure.
Admissions to the institute will be through the All India Engineering Entrance Examination, instead of the state joint entrance examination.
As is the case with the National institutes of technology (NITs), 50 per cent of the seats will be reserved for students from Bengal.
1 comment January 1st, 2008
Orissa government’s delay in responding may cost Orissa a world class central university
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.
2 comments December 28th, 2007
Naveen continues to raise the IIT issue
Following is an excerpt from a newsreport in Times of India.
Patnaik alleged that the state had been neglected by the Centre on several fronts like establishment of an IIT, IIM and expansion of railway network.
2 comments December 27th, 2007
Prof. R. Nayak’s mail about faculty positions in Biology and Life Sciences at NISER, Bhubaneswar
Govt of India has started several institutions modeled after IISC except that these Institute would also have an integrated MSc program. These Institutes go by the name Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.(IISER). The NISER is a similar Institution which is being funded by DAE rather than MHRD.In that sense it a sister institution of TIFR, Mumbai, and NCBS, Bangalore, etc.The sanctioned faculty strength in the first phase is 200 of which at least 50 will be for the School of Biology. I seek your help to locate suitable faculty in all branches of biology through your network. We wish to make the new Institution one of the best in India and in the world. DAE is good organization so far financial support is concerned. Please contact Dr R. Nayak at rnayak@iopb.res.in for further information.
1 comment December 27th, 2007
IIIT Bhubaneswar hires three more regular faculty and continues looking
As per its web page, IIIT Bhubaneswar has recently hired three new regular faculty. They are:
- Dr. Somnath Tripathy, Ph.D. (IIT, Guwahati)
- Dr. Rakesh Balwantray, Ph. D. (Utkal)
- Prof. Anjali Mohapatra, Continuing Ph. D at Utkal.
With that the regular faculty strength of IIIT Bhubaneswar goes up to 5 with 3 of them having Ph.Ds and the other two pursuing Ph.Ds.
2 comments December 26th, 2007
National Law School foundation stone to be led by December end
Following is a report from Pioneer on this.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation stone of the National University of Law by the end of December. Sources said though the exact official date has not been finalised, the foundation stone laying ceremony is expected to be held on December 30.
The founding stone for the university will be laid on Brajabiharipur Mouza near CDA. The Government will provide one-time contribution of Rs 5 crore for the project. The Government will also provide 30 acre land for the project. The Law University will be built on the line of its counterpart in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
While the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court will be the Chancellor of the University, Chief Justice of Supreme Court will be the visiting chairman of the newly formed Governing board.
Note: As per a recent Economic Times article, currently there are 7 National Law Universities. They are in Bangalore, Bhopal, Raipur, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Gandhinagar and Kolkata. There is plan that in 2008 they will have a common entrance exam. The proposed National Law University in Orissa should immediately attempt to join this group.
3 comments December 23rd, 2007
IMIS Bhubaneswar to have PG course in retail management
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for the pointer.)
The Retailers Association of India (RAI) has selected NSHM Knowledge Campus Kolkata and Durgapur and IMIS in Bhubaneswar in eastern region to offer the 18-month post graduate programme in retail management (PGPRM).
NSHM’s campuses in Kolkata and Durgapur, and IMIS, Bhubaneswar are three of the 15 B-schools chosen by RAI for the PGPRM programme.
RAI has also introduced the Common Admission Retail Test (CART) to screen candidates interested to pursue the PGPRM course.
According to Gibson G Vedamani, CEO of RAI, “The objective of the PGPRM programme is to provide students with a high level of knowledge and understanding of the concepts and processes involved in retailing. The course will also equip them with the operational and analytical skills necessary for a [professional career in the retail sector. CART will ensure that we get the best of talents.”
The CART exam will be conducted at over 25 centres in India on January 27.
IIM-Indore has joined hands with RAI to develop the course content and teaching methodology. The 18-month PGPRM course costs close to Rs 4 lakhs.
14 comments December 20th, 2007
Business World 2007 B-School rankings
As per MBA Universe following is the top 15.
# 1 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
# 2 Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata
# 3 Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur
# 4 Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
# 5 Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
# 6 Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi
# 7 Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
# 8 National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai
# 9 SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
# 10 Indian Institute of Management, Indore
# 11 Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi
# 12 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
# 13 Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
# 14 Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubneshwar
# 15 Alliance Business Academy, Bangalore
7 comments December 19th, 2007
IIIT Bhubaneswar gets AICTE approval for 25 seats
I heard from some sources that IIIT Bhubaneswar has now received AICTE approval to start M.Tech courses. Their ad for admission will come out in a couple of days. They are also in the process of hiring 4 faculty, two of which have Ph.D.
6 comments December 18th, 2007