Following is from a report in webnewswire.
Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar(XIMB) announces Financial Planning and Wealth Management Program in New Delhi, for graduates, working professionals and enterpreneurs providing services to financial sector and for those who hold keen interest in the same sphere. This program will expose the participants to various theories and practices of Financial and Wealth Management enabling them to equip with the techniques with which they can handle their current business tasks in better and effective manner.
Since, the prime objective of the program is quality education that would help in better career prospects in corporate sector, the core faculty of XIMB would hold the sessions at Lodhi Road imparting both practical and theoratical insights of the financial world. The lectures would be a judicious blend of physical classroom sessions, instructor lead training, quizzes, case studies and project works. Participants would be benefited both academically and professionally as this program would have a high market value and branding among the corporates.
During the total tenure of 6 months integrated approach to learn various aspects of Finance, Financial Services Insurance(Life, Non-Life), Risk Management, Pension Planning, Estate and Tax Planning would give participants holistic perspective of Financial Planning so that they can shoulder greater responsibilities in their future career. Details of the program is available on www.indialearn.com or www.alethia.in.
Eligibility of the program is minimum 50% in graduation. Participants can attend the lectures without compromising their working schedule. The admission process would include application form+written test followed by personal interview. Participants will be awarded with a certificate from XIMB after the completion of the program.
Total fee is of Rs.50,000+ service tax. The documents required for the admission are certified copy of official academic records, copy of work experience (with attached visiting card) and four passport size colour photographs.
Admission forms are available from Ms Darshana Vyas at darshana@creativecrest.com and these can be obtained free of cost.For further information call 011-46076571 or 9268730013.
I was told XIMB is also exploring offering short courses in Dubai. These initiatives should help further increase the brand value of XIMB. In addition extra money from these initiatives could be deployed in the proposed Xavier University and new XIMB campuses in Khurda and Balangir. Odisha government should fast track the Xavier University Bill and any issue (such as land allotment) associated with the new XIMB campuses.
June 25th, 2010
I became aware of this program from the following ad in Samaja. I was not aware of any such program before.
More details about the program is available in the site http://www.hdf.org.in/graminITC/Introduction.
June 24th, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.
The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) University Bill received the green signal of the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) today.
… Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister Higher Education piloted the Bill, which was introduced in the Monsoon Session of the Thirteenth Assembly.
Mr.Mishra agreed few changes in the Bill and it was passed after discussion.
… According to latest accommodation, two Members of the House and Secretary of the Department of Higher Education(DHE) will in the Board of Management(BOM) of the University.
Mr.Mishra also agreed to the proposal for granting concession to students belonging to ST, SC and OBC students.
Assembly asked the ICFAI authorities to prepare Fee Structure on the Guidelines of University Grants Commission (UGC) and other regulatory bodies.
Similarly the Endowment Fund will be raised to Rs.5 crore, which was Rs.3 crore.
… With the Bill cleared , now the Hyderabad-based ICFAI would invest Rs 150 crore in setting up a university in Odisha.
The university would have strength of about 1,500 students and offer courses in various disciplines like engineering, management, law, science and humanities.
… ICFAI has identified 30 acres of land between Bhubaneswar and Khurda for setting up its proposed university.
June 24th, 2010
Dear Mr. Anil Agarwal:
I am not sure if this message will reach you or not. I hope somebody forwards it to you.
I am very concerned with the lack of progress with respect to Vedanta University and I am sure you are too. I am not sure who is advising you, but with the Vedanta University Bill passed by the Odisha assembly, there is really no excuse, especially for Vedanta (I will explain why), to not commence the university.
The Vedanta University MOU was signed in 2006. That same year the Govt. of India announced an Indian Institute of Science type institute in Bhubaneswar and that institute NISER http://niser.ac.in/ started classes in 2007 and its 4th batch of students will be starting this August (2010). An IIT for Odisha was announced in 2008, and that same year classes started and this August (2010) the third batch will be joining IIT Bhubaneswar http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ .
In Saudi Arabia KAUST http://www.kaust.edu.sa/ was also announced in 2006 and classes commenced there in 2009.
I realize the grand plans for Vedanta University and I have seen the masterplan document; it is really a masterpiece and there is nothing like that in India and for that matter in the world. But with the delays happening in land acquisition, getting environmental clearance and construction, please consider starting some individual units immediately while the matters are sorted out by the environment ministry (not Odisha govt. fault) and the Odisha high court.
Let me give a particular suggestion.
India is in dire need of good Mathematics Ph.Ds.
The new IITs, IISERs and NISER are having difficulty in finding good Mathematics Ph.Ds to hire as faculty. You can verify this by talking to their directors. I have. There are only few institutions in India which have good graduate programs in Mathematics. They are Chennai Mathematical Institute http://www.cmi.ac.in/ , Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Chennai) http://www.imsc.res.in/, TIFR, Indian Statsitical Institute and some of the IITs. But their output is not able to match the demand.
So what Vedanta University could do is to immediately open a "Vedanta Institute of Mathematics" in a temporary rented accommodation in Puri or Bhubaneswar.
It can then hire young mathematics Ph.Ds from top institutions in US and western countries. Note that, while it is hard to find good Math Ph.Ds in India, in the US, even Math PhDs from top universities like Stanford, MIT, Princeton and Berkeley have difficulty finding good academic job. Many end up teaching in community colleges. Many Ph.Ds from these top institutions will jump at the chance to have a good academic job in a university like the one Vedanta University aims to be. Vedanta Univ can take advantage of this and within TWO months can easily hire 20-25 such faculty and become the best Mathematics Institute in India or perhaps Asia. Within 4 years after that this "Vedanta Institute of Mathematics" would graduate Ph.Ds who will then join top institutions across India.
Imagine if you had done this in 2006. Vedanta graduates would now be faculty in all IITs.
The above is just an example. Vedanta University could identify 2-3 such areas that do not need huge infrastructure and that have the kind of mismatch mentioned above and start graduate programs in them within THREE months.
This will bring the much needed credibility and everyone will take notice. It will also silence many of your critics who make all kinds of allegations. Most of these allegations are baseless, but they did push the Environment minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh to stop progress.
The way to counter that is to show them that you are really serious. You can do that by immediately opening a few graduate institutes of Vedanta University.
You have done this in other context. The Lanjigarh factory is an example.
Please consider a similar approach here. Please do not wait any longer in commencing the Vedanta University.
sincerely,
Chitta Baral
Professor
Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral
June 23rd, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in pharmabiz.com.
The Department of Ayush has initiated efforts to upgrade nine more institutions in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy as National Institutes of Ayush under the central sector scheme to uniformly improve quality of tertiary level healthcare and improve facilities and standards of medical education to meet global demand of Ayush.
The institutes, which would be upgraded to National Institutes through the current and the next Five Year Plans are the Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, Gujarat, Govt Ayurvedic College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Govt R A Poddar Ayurvedic College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Govt Ayurvedic College, Patna, Bihar, Rajiv Gandhi Govt PG Ayurveda Colege, Paprola, Himachal Pradesh, Govt Ayurvedic College, Guwahati, Assam, Govt Ayurveda & Unani Tibbiya College, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, Govt Dr A C Homoeopathy Medical College, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa and Govt Nizamia Tibbi College, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Detailed project reports on requirements to upgrade these institutions, aiming to achieve the optimum infrastructure in the next five years, would be prepared soon. The project would be divided into two phases, where in the first phase would cover the capital work at equipment required and the salary, stipend and cosumables to be put in place in the current Five Year Plan, posted to end in the financial year 2010-11.
The second phase of upgradation to develop infrastructure to achieve optimum requirements, would commence in the 12th Five Year Plan, starting from the financial year 2011-12. Since these are existing and functioning institutions, the two-phased project would be appropriate for the proposed upgradation, comments Dept of Ayush sources. A call for eligible consultant firms to engage in preparing detailed project report has been issued by the department of late.
Post upgradation, the Ayurvedic institutions could accommodate 100 BAMS, almost 100 MDs and PhDs and 25 nursing students per year, even as the Unani and Homoeopathic institutions would have 100 BUMS/BHMS seats and 35 MD seats for seven subjects per year, uniformly.
The proposed National Institutes are part of the departments effort to upgrade the educational standards in the Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges in the country, strengthen existing research institutions and ensure a time-bound research programme on identified diseases for which these systems have an effective treatment, draw up schemes for promotion, cultivation and regeneration of medicinal plants used in these systems and to evolve pharmacopoeial standards for ISM and Homoeopathy medicines.
… The existing bed strength will be upgraded to 200 for Ayurvedic and Unani institutions and to 100 for Homoeopathy institutions with adequate treatment and diagnostic facilities and full-fledged testing laboratories with complete computer facilities will be in place in each of these institutes to bring in development of the segment in regional level.
At present, the department has eight apex educational institutions established to promote excellence in the Ayush segments – The National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, Rajasthan, National Institute of Siddha, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, National Institute of Unani Medicine, Bangalore, Karnataka, Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, National Institute of Naturopathy, Pune, Maharashtra, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata, West Bengal, Rashtriya Ayurved Vidyapeeth, New Delhi and the Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, Gujarat.
While it is good that Dr A C Homoeopathy Medical College in Bhubaneswar will be upgraded to a national institute, I wish it was an aurvedic college instead of a Homeopathy college. Thats because I do not think "Homeopathy" is backed by science. See for example the videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtJgCzPgL0, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvLCkajxc0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jqP_1beVXQ&feature=related.
June 23rd, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in sify.com.
- IIT Mandi: … nestled in the lowermost climatic zone of the serene Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh.The institute plans to involve its research scholars in teaching to enhance its faculty strength. It will launch doctoral programmes this August and plans to request the ministry to fund research scholars who will be involved with teaching at the institute."… At present, recruitment of full-time faculty is underway. Nine faculty members have accepted the offers. Additional 10-12 faculty members are expected to do so shortly. …" says S P Gupta … has received 513 acres of land for its main campus …
- IIT Hyderabad: … is banking on its faculty members to consolidate its research activities. According to U B Desai, director of IIT-H, faculty members have not only begun receiving research grants from DST, MCIT/DIT and other organisations, but have also begun publishing research papers in international journals. … 100 for M Tech programmes and 50 for PhD. Moreover, as against a full-time faculty strength of just over 40 last year, IIT-H is expecting the number to go up to 50 faculty members in its 10 departments. … "About 531 acres of land has been given by the state of Andhra Pradesh. While master planning of the new campus is done, we have called for expression of interest by architects. The new campus should be ready in about two years."
- IIT Indore: … expects its permanent campus to be ready by the end of 2011. "At present, the need for independent infrastructure, including lab facilities, is an issue. However, it does not imply that we will compromise on quality" … The institute does not plan to start the MTech programme at least for the next three years. As for faculty, the current capacity is 26 while the required capacity is 30 per year at all IITs.
- IIT Rajasthan: Apart from its B Tech programme getting its third batch since inception, IIT Rajasthan is also initiating PhD programmes for the first time from this year. Running from MBM Engineering College in Jodhpur, IIT Rajasthan has also been provided 300-odd PWD quarters for offering residential facilities to faculty members, staff and students alike. While IIT Rajasthan has been able to admit 120 students per batch so far, with its own campus coming up on a sprawling 900 acre land, the institute expects the numbers to rise.
- IIT Gandhinagar: … currently functioning from a makeshift campus at Vishwakarma Engineering College near Ahmedabad, saw the latter’s students protesting to shift the temporary campus of IIT-Gn from their college premises. The Gujarat government has now zeroed in on a 385-acre plot for the purpose of building the campus for IIT Gandhinagar.
- IIT Bhubaneswar: .. claims to be the first IIT out of the eight new IITs to be operating on its own infrastructure. "This is partially our own campus and we are the only IIT to be operating out of our own campus. Even after we move out to our permanent campus at Arugul, this building will continue to be our city centre. We have also selected project management consultants who will design our permanent campus and we expect the construction to begin by the end of this year and to be completed by 2014," says BK Rai, registrar at IIT Bhubaneswar. The institute has been allotted 936 acres of land by the Orissa government for its permanent campus designed to have a self contained campus for 10,000 students and 1100 faculty and an estimated amount of Rs 780 crore will be spent in next few years to develop this institute. A science park will be part of this institution. IIT Bhubaneswar will also the first IIT to set up a separate marine campus in 2011 for conducting interdisciplinary research in rising sea levels, ecology, disaster management, marine ecosystems, fishery development, and other areas.
- IIT Ropar: … has 10 PhD candidates at present and will add another 15 by January next year. IIT Ropar currently runs BTech and PhD courses. As it faces hostel accommodation constraints, the institute is "not ready" to start MTech courses in the immediate future. This year, 25 faculty members will be joining the institute by July adding strength to the institute which has 27 faculty members at present. …At present, the IIT is functioning from its Ropar-based transit campus, which was earlier The Polytechnic College for Women. The Government of Punjab has provided 500 acres of land near the banks of Sutlej river which is expected to be ready by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2013.
- IIT Patna: The institute has recruited 47 faculty so far and has 240 students including 11 PhD students till date. As it readies to welcome its third batch of students, IIT-P has new building ready on the premises of the New Government Polytechnic, from where the institute is currently functioning. As for the labs, IIT-P has hired the building of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Patna.
The current faculty strength of IIT Bhubaneswar is 40. (It was 16 as per its webpage in October 24, 2009 and 37 on April 26, 2010.) I am not sure how many new ones are expected to join in Fall 2010. While browsing the websites of the various websites some things jumped out. (i) IIT Ropar has a large number of faculty with foreign Ph.Ds. (ii) IIT Hyderabad is recruiting faculty in departments other than basic sciences, Humanities and the three disciplines in which it offers B.Tech. It is offering M.Tech programs in these additional departments. (iii) IIT Patna has hired the maximum number of faculty (47) closely followed by IIT Hyderabad (45) and IIT Bhubaneswar (40).
June 21st, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in India Today.
… The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is all set to become a full-fledged university and will offer degree courses from next year.
Diploma students seeking admission in the current session are likely to have the option to continue the two-year post-graduate courses from next year. Interviews for the one-year courses will begin on Monday.
… The IIMC will offer two new two-year post-graduate diploma courses in development journalism, and corporate communication and media management.
The course material for turning the existing one-year diploma courses such as English journalism, advertising and electronic journalism into a two- year course has also been prepared.
To make the two-year advanced post-graduate diploma courses equivalent to an MA degree, the information and broadcasting ministry wrote to the HRD ministry.
… This will enable students to go into research while filling the gap of getting trained manpower in academics, teaching and the media industry.
Four new regional centres are also coming up in J&K, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Kerala. IIMC also has a centre at Dhenkanal in Orissa.
This would mean that the current combined student strength of 372 at Delhi and Dhenkanal would go up to 935 in the next few years with the addition of 200 students at the four new centres.
Soni asked the officials to not repeat the same courses in all IIMC branches. "For example, proposed IIMC Mizoram can have a course on animation, instead of repeating courses offered in Delhi," she said.
Adding graduate courses would cost the IIMC over Rs 45 crore. The minister asked officials to go liberal with funding to bring the institutions on a par with world class universities.
The Odisha government should pursue upgradation of IIMC Dehenkanal and make sure that it is not inferior to the new ones that are being made. In particular it should offer additional land and together with IIMC Dhenkanal officials make a plan of expansion and pursue it with the central minister of I & B Ms. Ambika Soni.
June 21st, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
The State Government on Saturday decided to provide 20 acres of land free of cost and Rs 10 crore as incentive to Sahayog Healthcare and Research Foundation for its proposed 650-bedded medical college and hospital at Keonjhar. The city based foundation has estimated to spend Rs 80 crore for the project.
… It is to be noted that the Foundation had earlier signed an MoU with the State Government. The Foundation had given proposal of setting up of two medical colleges and hospitals, one at Keonjhar and the other at Jagatpur near Cuttack.
It was known that the Foundation would set up Jagatpur medical collage and hospital at its own cost. The Government would not give any land or financial incentive for the project.
A medical college in Keonjhar is Godsend. But the number "80 crores" and "650 beds" does not add up. Making a medical college costs much more. Also, in an earlier report that in Business Standard (see also https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3900 ) different numbers were reported. So with doubts in my mind, I looked for any additional information on this foundation. I came across the following links:
- The company Call for Care (web page at http://www.call4care.org/ ) which is mentioned as a part of the Sahyog Foundation
- The linked in page of Mr. Rajat Mohanty ( http://in.linkedin.com/pub/rajat-mohanty/21/706/52b ) which says he is the Regional Manager at Call for care( of Sahyoga foundation).
- The supposed web page of Sahyog foundation at http://www.sahyagoaindia.org/ which did not work when I checked (Note: A foundation which is planning to make 2 medical colleges should not be listing a web site which does not work)
- The address of the foundation at Sahyog Foundation, 2nd floor, Plot – 6, Unit III, Kharvel Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha – 751001, (O) +91-674-2390033
I sincerely hope that this is for real. Unfortunately, the non-working website of the foundation http://www.sahyagoaindia.org/ is a warning bell. Also the working web site of its unit http://www.call4care.org does not list the management of the foundation and their background. It does have a list of doctors that they say are part of the program and it lists some health insurance products.
June 20th, 2010
Following is a report by Kalpana Pathak from sify.com.
The estimated $3-bn Vedanta University was to start Phase-I by mid-2011 but is facing stiff opposition from locals.
The Anil Agarwal Foundation’s plan to set up a Rs 15,000- crore varsity in Puri (Orissa), called Vedanta University, has come a cropper. The management is now in talks with two southern states for alternative land to set up the varsity.
The Anil Agarwal Foundation’s Vedanta University is modeled on Stanford University and aims to be a worldclass, multi-disciplinary university with students from across India and around the world. However, the varsity, which was to begin operations by mid-2011, has not even started the basic infrastructure work on the land due to stiff opposition from locals and lack of political support.
… "We sought support from the state government but it is silent. We agreed to set up the university on government’s invitation but now we are very disappointed. We even revised our initial plans of having the campus on 8,000 to 6,000 acres," admits an official from the university who did not wish to be named. The university board has managed to acquire around 4,000 acres of land so far.
A director of a local institute told Business Standard: "The university concept as such is a good one and considering the varsity is facing stiff opposition from locals, the foundation should look for a smaller piece of land and begin operations."
The Foundation says if it’s not able to set up the university in Orissa, the land acquired could be made into an extended arm of the university which, could be housed outside Orissa.
The Foundation and the state government in 2006, had signed a memorandum of understanding to create the University. In July 2009, the government of Orissa passed a bill to allow the massive university to be set up and function with autonomy. The university being built with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore has plans to come up in three phases. Phase one was to be operational by mid-2011 with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. The first academic session at the university was to begin in 2009 but the project has been delayed for over two years due to land acquisition tussle with the local residents of Puri. With further delays, the university could take longer to get operational.
To begin with, the university expects to start operations with around 1,000 students in the arts and science streams. The student intake, however, will grow steadily to reach an ultimate goal of 100,000 students. The university board however, is still working on the modalities involving admission and fee structure.
The university has awarded construction contracts of the academic buildings as well as the hospital at the project site to companies like Larsen & Toubro, Shapoorji Pallonji, Ahluwalia, B E Billimoria and Simplex. Architects Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore, USA, have prepared the master plan of the University. Few international scholars like Will Chase, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Sam Pitroda are said to have evinced interest in the project.
The campus will have a super specialty hospital, which will answer a long standing need for providing comprehensive and specialized patient care for the people of Orissa and eastern India. Both the University and the hospital are ‘not-for-profit’ institutions. World-renowned hospital architects are developing the design for the hospital, Perkins and Will from USA. The university will also establish research parks to promote science and technology-based entrepreneurship and support an innovation-driven incubator. E-learning programmes will also be launched in future.
At this point, I am not sure the state government is at fault. The state government has passed the Vedanta University Bill. The construction and further land acqusition is stopped by the environmental ministry of the central government (see here and here), and the high court case. I think for the latter Vedanta University Project and its official bear some responsibility as it seems that in their haste to speed up the process of land acquisition, they might not have dotted the i’s at the right time.
Nevertheless, as per the reported recommendations of the Lokpal, the issue is mostly technical. I hope both get resolved soon and the progress is resumed.
One thing the state government can do now is to initiate a dialog with the PM, HRD M and Ministry of Environment to sort out the environmental issues at the earliest. On its part Vedanta University Project should start taking actions as laid out in its act. It should also seriously consider starting some graduate programs at the earliest.
June 15th, 2010
Following is from a report in tathya.in about the discussion of Xavier University in the Odisha Cabinet.
Ananga Udaya Singh Deo has favoured Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar(XIMB) to set up Xavier University in the state.
Minister Planning & Coordination speaking in the State Cabinet on 9 June, said if any institution merits for a University status, it is XIMB.
Giving out details Minister said that XIMB is serving the State of Odisha since 1987 has more than 4000 alumni, out of whom more than two third are from Odisha.
Mr.Singh Deo said educational institutions with little known academic excellence are allowed to set up universities, where as proposal of XIMB for a University is pending for a long time.
Cabinet was given details on XIMB by Mr.Singh Deo as he said being a Jesuit Institution, XIMB can easily tie up with other Jesuit Universities from all across the world such as University of Santa Clara, Loyala Chicago, Georgetown, St.Louis and Marquette etc.
Speaking about the credibility of XIMB, he said that for 180 seats of PGDM, XIMB has attracted 20,000 applications.
He said that in 2010 it self 48 foreign students have expressed their desire to come and spend a semester at XIMB and by making it a University more foreign students will be attracted.
XIMB has collaborations with 12 international universities and more are in offing, revealed the Minister Planning & Coordination.
Pointing out about the cent per cent placements of its students and highest placement records in Odisha has proved the credentials of XIMB in the country, said he.
Involvement of XIMB in the development of most backward districts of Odisha in KBK, where it is planning to set up its second campus will go a long way if they are allowed to set up a University, added he.
So Mr.Singh Deo urged Minister Higher Education to place the Xavier University Bill for approval of the Cabinet as soon as possible for the best interest of the state.
Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister Higher Education sounded on a positive note.
Although it is good that Xavier University was discussed in the cabinet, it is really unfortunate that the bill was not brought to the cabinet, while bills corresponding to lesser institutions were brought to the cabinet.
Following is from another article in tathya.in.
Decision makers in Odisha have failed to visualize the implications of delaying the establishment of University of Xavier Institute, which is going to cost the state dearly, feel educationists and intelligentsia.
Xavier is a brand name well known in Odisha (through XIMB), India and abroad and educational institutions bearing the Xavier name are highly regarded in India and abroad.
While the State Government is sponsoring proposals of institutions little known for their academic excellence, they have all along ignored the proposal of Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB) for a univarsity.
Just for comparison purposes, there is no Sri Sri labeled educational institution that is in any rankings.
Similarly, there is no Vedanta named higher educational institution.
And last but not the least Krupaluji Maharaj has been given land to set up a University in Odisha!!!
The Jesuit Society of India has established the XIMB.
XIMB is a top management institute in India and ranked very highly and in fact, it is the highest ranking institute in Odisha in any field.
The next closest is NIT Rourkela which is ranked in the thirties among all engineering colleges/institutes.
In India: Besides XIMB, XLRI (Xavier Labor Research Institute, Jamshedpur) is a top 5-7 ranked management institute in the country.
Similarly, XISS (Xavier Institute of Social Services, Ranchi) is also a well-established name.
In addition there are many other Jesuit institutions that are well regarded in India.
This includes the various Loyola colleges.
In US: There are three Xavier Universities in USA in Cincinnati, Chicago and Louisiana.
In addition there are about 30 other Jesuit universities in the USA which include famous universities such as Georgetown University.
If a Xavier University is made in Odisha, it will be the first Xavier University in India.
The above facts make a Xavier University in Odisha very special.
By being the first Xavier University in India, it will have the first mover’s advantage.
By virtue of being the first Jesuit University in India, a Xavier University in Odisha will be in a position to get help from the 30 Jesuit Universities in US.
XIMB is ready to start construction that will make it a university, said sources.
XIMB had already planned for expansion and was ready to start construction for some time.
The XIMB Director Father P T Joseph has already received permission from the Jesuit society to set up Xavier University.
This has been also discussed in the recent board meeting of XIMB.
Several new programs that will be part of the university are already approved by the XIMB governing board.
Father Joseph, the Director of XIMB notices the lack of good arts and commerce programs in Odisha (the IIT, NISER, NLUO, XIMB, IIPH, AIIMS etc. take care of the engineering, science, law, business, public health and medicine areas) and would like the Xavier University to have top notch world class programs in arts and commerce.
The top ranked Arts and Commerce programs in the country include many other sister Jesuit institutions such as Loyola Colleges, St. Xavier’s colleges and St. Joseph’s colleges.
Despite all of the above, the Odisha Government is dilly-dallying in establishing the Xavier University in Odisha.
This is especially bad because a sister institution of Xavier, the Georgetown University of the US is interested in opening a branch in India.
If only the Odisha government had established Xavier University, it could have approached Georgetown to open its branch in Bhubaneswar.
Because of the lack of foresight of Odisha, the state may not only remain backward in arts and commerce programs, but it may also lose the chance to get a branch of the famous Georgetown University to Odisha.
June 9th, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in. (The website of the Centurion group is http://www.cgi.ac.in/.)
… Proposal to establish the Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) by the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has received green signal of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
… And latest is Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) in Gajapati will go a long way in serving the state in general and KBK in particular, said a senior official.
Once the proposal receives clearance of the State Cabinet, a bill will be presented in the Odisha House to enact a law to establish the university by JITM Trust.
This is a great move by the Odisha government. In recent years JITM of Parlakhemundi has had many innovative programs. Making it a university is a just reward and a big boon to the backward Gajapati area.
I hope other areas of Odisha take note of this and try to learn from this. It is easier for a government to help, if people take their own initiatives.
Another institution that deserves similar reward is the Gandhi group of institutions, with its initial (and the best) college GIET in Gunupur, also in a backward district (Rayagada). I hope the Odisha government also upgrades the GIET in Gunupur, the largest engineering college in Odisha, to a university.
NIST Berhampur also deserves similar reward as it is located in Ganjam (also considered a backward district and part of the backward South Odisha) and is among the top engineering colleges in Odisha.
Based on quality, Silicon Bhubaneswar also deserves to become a university. Similarly, Hi-tech because of its medical college also deserves to become a university. (Note: The two other private medical coleges of Odisha are part of deemed universities.)
In general, the government should make universities out of any engineering college that is in a backward district but yet is among the top 20 (with respect to student preferences), groups with private medical and engineering colleges in any location, and top 5 private engineering colleges in any location. This should be done every 4-5 years so that every college does not become a university.
Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in on IIIT Bhubaneswar.
State Government has decided to accord the Unitary University status to IIIT-Bh so that it will enjoy academic, administrative and financial autonomy.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given consent to the proposal of Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Minister IT in this regard.
… State Cabinet will take a call on the issue on 9 June, said sources.
June 8th, 2010
Update:The expanded ads are now in the NISER web site. See the links below.
One thing to note is that NISER is likely to implement the PRIS (Performance related incentive scheme) of DAE under which there is provision for monthly incentive of 20% of basic salary. This is already implemented in some DAE institutions. See for example http://www.saha.ac.in/cs/adm.cs/ADM/PRIS.pdf.
The expanded version of this ad is not yet in NISER website. The ad from last year is at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2009/new-faculty.php and gives an idea of how much the initial salaries will be. following is an excerpt.
ASST. PROFESSOR : Pay Band Rs 15,600 – 39,100 + Grade Pay 7,600
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 29,920 + 22% D.A at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 44,438/- per month.
READER (F) – Pay Band Rs 37,400 – 67,000 + Grade Pay 8,700
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 46,100 + 22% DA at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 67,414/- per month.
Currently NISER has the following numbers of faculty in the various disciplines:
This adds up to a total of 37 permanent and 21 visiting faculty.
As a comparison IIT Bhubaneswar currently has 37 permanent faculty and 4 visiting faculty with the following break-up.
June 1st, 2010
Update: The press release corresponding to the ad below is now available at http://www.mohfw.nic.in/31Press%20relaease.doc. It does not have any additional info though.
The advertisement below appeared in various newspapers today. Although the ad mentions that more details are in the http://www.mohfw.nic.in/ site, nothing is there yet. (It may take a few days for more details to appear there.)
A similar tender invitation was issued in November 2009. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3610 and https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3408. Earlier in May 2008, tenders were floated for the housing complex. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1121. (Even older links related to tenders for the AIIMS-like institution in Bhubaneswar are at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=970.)
The PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59071 (see also https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3962) gives the status of the construction of residential complex until March 2010.
May 30th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
Everonn Education Ltd, a Chennai-based education services company, announced plans to set up seven management institutes at a cost of Rs 25 crore each, by the next academic year. These would be set up in collaboration with a partner at Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Pune.
The proposed investment would be funded through debt and internal accruals, said P Kishore, Everonn’s managing director. “While our partner will invest in infrastructure and land, we will be bringing content and technology, where company has its expertise,” he said.
May 20th, 2010
The following is a jpg version of the application form found at http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/Application%20form%20-%20PGDPHM.pdf.
See http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/ for various other PHFI and IIPH documents and forms. They are not properly linked from the homepage.
May 16th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in pagalguy.com.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management is starting two MBA programs for working executives at it Kolkata and Bhubhaneswar campuses. Working on a 3-year structure that will allow participants to work while they study, the courses are largely targeted towards the local population of each city they shall function in. While the Executive MBA at the Kolkata campus has a general management bent the Knowledge Industries MBA (KIMBA) at the Bhubhaneswar campus would focus on the IT and ITES sectors, explained EMBA coordinator Prof Gautam Sinha.
The intakes for both the programs would be 15 to 30 students each while the minimum eligibility will be three years of work experience and either an engineering education or post-graduate education in commerce, science or economics. More about the application system to the courses on the VGSoM website.
Prima facie, there are few differences between the EMBA and KIMBA except for a couple of core courses. The IT/ITES focused KIMBA has courses such as Technology Management and Services Management, which in the EMBA are replaced by International Management and IT & Business Applications Laboratory. Interestingly, the KIMBA has two courses on Financial Accounting while the EMBA has none. Both courses cost Rs 6 lakhs in fees, including a one-year international immersion program, which according to Prof Sinha may be carried out with one of IIT Kharagpur’s 99 tie-ups with various international institutions.
While both the courses look similar to 3-year part-time MBA courses in structure and content, Prof Sinha argues that several executive MBA courses across the world follow the part-time model. While that may be true, popular executive MBA programs in the USA or Europe wrap up in an year’s time, recognizing that the opportunity cost for working executives to stay away from work is high. To that extent, VGSOM’s Executive programs seem like 3-year part-time MBAs that give you an Executive MBA degree at the end, thus keeping you away from the stigma attached to the ‘part-time’ bit of part-time MBA.
Prof Sinha defends the three-year pattern of VGSOM’s Executive MBAs saying, “One-year or two-year programs are high pressure situations which might not be conducive for people with families.”
The links for the two programs are:
- E-MBA at Kolkata for all industries
- KI-MBA at Bhubaneswar for knowledge industries like Information Technology sector.
Note that earlier IIT Kharagpur also introduced 3 year weekend and after hours M.Tech programs in both cities. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4118.
May 12th, 2010
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