Odisha HRD

NEST examination committee for NISER and UM-DAE is on the right track

After the problems with wrong evaluations with respect to IIT JEE question papers, NEST, the entrance examination for NISER and UM-DAE, plans to take a cautious approach. Following is from NISER-NEST 2009 web page:

NEST question papers and correct answers to the questions of NEST examination conducted on May 10 2009 will be available HERE on May 12 at 4 pm  is available HERE Since May 12, 4:00 pm.

Candidates or any other persons may send their comments to feedback [at] niser.ac.in

Comments received till May 20 will be put before the NEST Examination Committee. These comments will be reviewed by the committee and the final correct answers will be announced.

The decision of the Paper Setter’s Committee regarding the correct answers will be final.

This show of humility by the NEST question setters is refreshing.

3 comments May 12th, 2009

OUAT waiting for Orissa government’s nod for its proposed College of Forestry: Dharitri

May 11th, 2009

Status of deemed university applicants as of 31st March 2009

The following is from http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/pendingprosaldawis160409.pdf.

Among the above, Orissa Institute of Technology, has already been declared a state university with the new name VSSUT.

4 comments May 9th, 2009

ASBM’s efforts to become a deemed university by 2012: Samaja

May 9th, 2009

Some thoughts on previous year NEST questions for NISER and UM-DAE

Following are from postings in the NISER orkut community about the NEST exam in the previous two years.

Aaram

The pattern of NEST is somewhat as follows : The paper consists of 5 parts –
1. General, 2. Physics, 3. Chemistry , 4. Biology, 5. Mathematics
The General section is mandatory for all. Amongst the other 4, you are supposed to attend ANY 3. All sections carry equal weightage. Regarding the query about scientists and contributions, such kind of questions needn’t be expected in the NEST exam. It basically checks your analytical skill, reasoning and application of concepts. Hence, direct formulae, simple numericals etc. are less probable in NEST.
There will be questions with only one correct answer as well as more than one right alternative. As with the case of SPECIAL textbooks for NEST, your thorough knowledge of basic concepts will be your best guide in the exam, as it evaluates your ability to reason properly, apply your knowledge and arrive at the answer.

!sh@n

abt question types ,

hi ,

The previous year’s paper are not released in public domain yet . however i can assure u it is not like any engineering or medical competitive exam papers. The questions require more analysis and are more thought-provoking. n about books , i think ncert books plus some books with sound theoretical concept would help .

!sh@n

>>henry

analytical questions like, u might be given some graphs or a trend of any sort n u l need to answer based on wht u deduce frm it ( eg bacterial population growth , nuclei decay kind of ). i do not trhink u l need to hurry as in other exams but time management of course helps .

Aaram

The question pattern ‘s a bit different from IIT-JEE, AIEEE or AIPMT. Here, you have a compulsory general section + 3/4 subjects(Phy,chem,bio,math) , & in each section you wil be having ten 3 mark questions n five (or was it six?) 5 mark questions, or atleast thats the way it used to be! The 3 mark qns wil hav only one right answer out of the given choices while the 5 mark ones wil hav more than one correct alternatives. Remember that the 3 mark qns wil fetch you a -1 if you get that wrong, but Heard that there wil b no -ve marking for the 5 mark ones. Heard that this time , the general section ‘s got as equal weightage as the other sections. And regarding some exact qns askd in previous xam, my poor memory doesnt help. Sid , Ishan – May be you can help ém out wid a qn or two.

Aaram

Well, I dont think it’d be necessary for you to be a master of ‘history of science’ to answer d qns in general section successfully. There wont be any qn demanding the answer for "In which year did Roentgen invent the X-ray?" or "Who was the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice?". But for the general section, you need to hav a good ability to ‘think out of the box’ as Sid has mentioned, to be logical, to reason well, n here too, to be clear with your basic concepts. ‘Cos, tho d qns wont be about d years or names, it ‘d definitely help you if you know what ‘s d idea/concept/principle behind different famous classical experiments in science(like Millikan’s oil drop expt, Luria-Delbrook’s expt etc.)

VED

nest 2007 questions.

i remember one or two questions.
1. given that hydrogen gas is at some volume V & pressure P. if the volume is tripled what would be its final pressure. the gas is kept in athermos flask.

2. place the order in which the following occured in time scale.

* darwin proposed his theory.
*kepler proposed his theory on planetary motion.
*there were two more, i dont remember.

3. there was also a question related to the topic critical temperature of real gases. how does the gas behave when it undergoes free expansion. helium gets heated up as its critical temperature for cooling is higher than the room temperature. a whole paragraph was given on this topic & 4 questions were asked in this in the general(compulsory ) section. this question was similar to unseen passage,.

Vaisakh

About General Section

I got some questions of the general section from some of the present 1st year students of NISER. Last year there where 3 or 4 questions from the History of Science part like the year in which Einstein gave the concept of stimulated emission of light, and what Fermat’s last theorem states and what is the main observation in proof for the expanding nature of light.

In last 2 years NEST papers there where questions asking you to arrange the given events in the chronological order. Also as Ved have already said, there were 3-4 question which you should answer based on the paragraphs given above. Last year the paragraphs were about Fresnel and Young’s wave theory of light. And in the year before the paragraphs were about the critical temperature of gases.

Altogether there were 10 questions in the General Section.

Vaisakh

@Şűќѓĩŧĩ

ya it was a mistake, i mean the expanding nature of Universe

Aaram

>>Swati

To know abt the no: n type of qns,pls refer to previous posts.

For Biology, the biology questions of NEST-2007 were more of ‘checking the concept type’ than ‘checking the information type’. For e.g., there was a question in which a diseased condition called anhydrotic dyplasia was described and questions were asked based on the info provided( like"what if it was like this?". However, this may not be the case always. You are supposed to know the classical experiments, the key concepts, and the basic information, if which ‘s included in your syllabus (ie, informative knowledge of things in syllabus is also important. For e.g., if somebody asks you "How can you possibly reduce the risk of cardiac diseases?" to answer,you must know WHAT all factors lead to cardiac diseases).
However, cramming up lots of data aint gonna help you either. The concepts behind the experiments and the data are more important. So, in the li’l time left now, try to brush up the different concepts in biology ( I mean, for e.g, try to understand what leads to evolution more thoroughly than what are the different kinds of evolutionary evidences, or When you rewind Lederberg’s replica plating expt., try to figure out what they meant to prove by the expt, what was the reasoning etc. When you say Dihybrid ratio ‘s 9:3:3:1, think what did Mendel infer frm that ratio. ) . Such a kind of thinking can really help solve the biology questions n all NEST qns in general.

 

3 comments May 9th, 2009

IMMT offers a 1 year PG Diploma in Mineral Engineering

The details of the course is at http://www.immt.res.in/academic/. It looks like a very good program to pursue and should lead to jobs in the various mining and mineral processing plants (including steel and aluminum plants) in Orissa. Following is the program structure.

Duration : The PG Diploma programme will be of one year duration, consisting of two semesters. Both theory classes and practical demonstrations will be taken up during the 1st semester for six courses. During the 2nd semester, the students will be carrying out project work.

May 5th, 2009

Professor Faizan Mustafa takes charge as the VC of National Law University of Orissa (NLUO)

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

Professor Faizan Mustafa has taken over as the first Vice Chancellor (VC) the National Law University of Orissa (NLUO) today. …

Dr.B S Chauhan, Chief Justice of Orissa High Court and Chancellor of the University approved and accepted his appointment here on 2 May.  …

Dr.Chauhan has also instructed the VC to admit students from the next academic session i.e. 2009-2010. 

An admission advertisement would be released soon, said official sources. 

Prof.Mustafa after taking over as the VC on 2 May, he said that he would try his best to prove worthy of confidence reposed in him and would leave no stone unturned in establishing a World Class Law University at Cuttack. 

The focus of new Law University would be “Justice Studies” rather than traditional “Legal Studies” and Mining Law, Water Law, Shipping Law, Food Law and Agriculture Law would receive special attention, said VC of NLU, Orissa.

2 comments May 4th, 2009

Number of students registered for NEST 2009, the entrance examination for NISER and UM-DAE

As per http://nest.niser.ac.in/choosecentre.php the number of students registered for NEST and their centers are:

• Ahmedabad: 168
• Allahabad: 285
• Bengaluru: 174
• Bhopal: 577
• Bhubaneswar: 3303
• Chandigarh: 413
• Chennai: 418
• Dehradun: 165
• Delhi: 1458
• Guwahati: 159
• Hyderabad:727
• Jaipur: 653
• Jammu: 61
• Kochi: 539
• Kolkata: 1192
• Lucknow: 841
• Mumbai: 837
• Nagpur: 270
• Panaji: 25
• Patna: 830
• Raipur: 262
• Ranchi: 526
• Sambalpur: 248
• Shillong: 17
• Simla: 38
• Srinagar: 14

The total is 14,200. (Last year 8,000 appeared NEST.) The total number of seats that are available this year are 52 in NISER and 30 in UM-DAE.

9 comments May 2nd, 2009

Intensive Advanced Course in Odissi at the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Center: Admission ad from Dharitri

April 27th, 2009

Zee Institute of Creative Arts opens its second campus (after Mumbai) in Bhubaneswar

The web page of ZEE Institute of Creative Arts is http://www.zica.org.There head office is Mumbai and as per their "Contact Us" page it currently has two campuses in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from a news Item in Express Buzz about the opening of their Bhubaneswar Campus.

Adding another feather to Capital’s list of institutions offering career-oriented professional courses, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA) today opened its centre here at Niladri Vihar.

With animation industry in India poised to grow at 27 per cent to reach a 1,163 million dollar mark by 2012, the institute hopes to provide affordable animation courses to cater to the manpower demands when Bollywood alone plans to make another 12 feature films based on animation and special effects. Also the gaming industry is all set to grow rapidly with a huge demand of professionals.

Addressing mediapersons, Head, Youth Business, Zee Learn, Subhadarshi Tripathy said as traditionally Orissa has many well-known animation artists engaged at the national level, ZICA thought it appropriate to open its second centre outside Mumbai here so that students from the entire Eastern Indian states can be given an opportunity to learn the art and equip themselves to take various career opportunities in film making, visual effects, television production and advertising industry.

‘‘ZICA, which first started in Hyderabad way back in 1995, was later shifted to the Esselworld campus in Mumbai and has become the pioneer animation institute with its distinct training style and approach towards industry-oriented curriculum’’, he said adding, however, to maintain quality it never ‘‘opened branches elsewhere outside the city of dreams’’.

The local centre will impart a two-year diploma in animation film making and one-year course in digital arts, but later would also introduce short-term courses. ‘‘While the two-year course would need an investment of around Rs 3 lakh, the short-term ones may vary from Rs 40-75,000’’, he said adding, compared to Mumbai, the local centre will be more affordable with the same standard of teaching and infrastructure facilities.

‘‘For each course there would be a six-faculty team apart from industry professionals as guest faculty and the teacher-student ratio would be around 1:4’’, he pointed out. …

2 comments April 25th, 2009

Vedanta University Hospital design

Following is an excerpt from a report in expressbuzz.com.

For an architect, it is always challenging to incorporate elements of local art and culture into modern day structures. But, if the words of leading health-care planner and architect with ‘Perkins+Wills’ Nick Seierup are to be believed, the interiors of the proposed Vedanta University Hospital on Puri-Konark Marine Drive would be an example of amalgamation of ethnicity and modernity keeping in mind local needs and aesthetics.

…‘‘As an institution of inter-disciplinary studies the proposed design of the six-storeyed structure will have an ultra modern look and will equip the students and researchers of the medical facility to have enough space for interactive learning through open-air or enclosed surroundings with eco-friendly atmosphere’’, he added.

4 comments April 11th, 2009

NISER makes 31 offers for permanent faculty positions

(Ack: Thanks to Mr. Rakesh Kumar for the pointer.)

Lets hope most of them accept these offers. The list is at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2009/Faculty-selected-Apr-09.pdf. Below are images of that list.

1 comment April 9th, 2009

Faizan Mustafa appointed as the first VC of National Law University of Orissa

As per comment 3 of an earlier post of ours, The National Law University Act, 2008 (Orissa Act 4 Of 2008) was published in the Orissa Gazette (Extraordinary) Vide No.2215, dated 4th December, 2008. So the official establishment year of this university will be 2008.

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in about the appointment of the first vice chancellor of this university.

Professor Faizan Mustafa is the first Vice Chancellor of the National Law University of Orissa (NLUO). 

Justice Dr. Balbir Singh Chouhan, Chief Justice of Orissa High court and the Chancellor of NLUO has appointed him in the top post here on 6 April. 

Professor Mustafa is at present the Director KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar. 

He is a gold medalist in LL.M. from Aligarh Muslim University. who had completed his Ph.D. in Intellectual Property Law. 

Professor Mustafa also has a Diploma in International and Comparative Human Rights from International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France. 

Before joining KLS as Director, he was Dean of Faculty of Law, AMU and Registrar of AMU for a period of two years. …

… Finally the NLUO is taking concrete shape with Prof.Mustafa at the helm and initiative of the Higher Education department to place funds for the institution.

The State Government has already provided Rs.5 crore to the Corpus Fund.

Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister laid foundation of the institution on 5 January at Brajabiharipur near Naraj in Cuttack district.

The State Government has allocated 30 acres of land free of cost.

Similar National Law Schools opened earlier in the other states are listed here. So far there were 12 of them in Bangalore (1986), Hyderabad (1998),  Bhopal (1998), Kolkata (1999), Jodhpur (1999), Gandhinagar (2003), Raipur (2003), Kochi (2005), Lucknow (2005), Patiala (2006), Patna (2007), and Delhi (2008). Admission to all of them except the last one is through the common law admission test (CLAT).

13 comments April 7th, 2009

Update on the proposed AIIMS like institutions

Following is an excerpt from a recent (March 22, 2009) report from Economic Times.

… The proposal for setting up AIIMS-like institutions was first made in 2003 by the then BJP-led NDA government. It was, however, cleared by the CCEA on March 16, 2006, 10 months after the UPA government came to power.

It was decided that each site would be taken as a separate and independent project instead of clubbing all six together. The construction of housing and the hospital complex was also separated from that of hospital and medical college.

Speaking to TOI , Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry B K Prasad said the layout and master plans of the hospital sites at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Rishikesh had already been approved. The approval of the master plans for Patna and Raipur is expected on March 25. Meanwhile, the Rajasthan State Road Development Corporation construction has started construction work on the residential complex (housing and hostel) in Jodhpur. The work relating to construction of the residential complex at Rishikesh, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Raipur has been entrusted to two different agencies.

Prasad said, "Hostel construction in the other sites will start latest by June and should be completed by December 2009. Hospital construction should start by October and will take 24 months to complete. Each hospital will have 960 beds with 29 super-speciality departments."

Following is an excerpt from a report in jaibihar.com.

Taking a serious note of the inordinate delay in completion of Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Science (JPNAIIMS) here, the Patna High Court on Tuesday asked the union government to float fresh tender on the revised estimate and commence the  actual construction  of the proposed medical college and hospital complex in 90 days.

 

While hearing a PIL urging the court’s intervention for completion of JPNAIIMS project within a time frame, a division bench, comprising Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Sheem Ali Khan, directed the Union Government to file an action taken report (ATR) on the next date of hearing.

Complaining about the dilly-dallying attitude of the centre, M P Gupta, counsel for the petitioner, Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare, referred to earlier records which revealed that on May 15, 2006  the estimated expenditure was Rs 332 crore, which was  hiked to Rs 533.15 crore on February 25, 2009, but till date the actual construction work had not commenced.

April 6th, 2009

Vedanta University teaching and research hospital to open in 2011

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in indopia.in.

Vedanta University today announced the launch of a world class multi-speciality teaching and research hospital near Puri-Konark Marine Drive at a cost of Rs 400 crore. "The 500-bed multi-speciality hospital will commence during the first phase of the university. Orders for construction have already been placed," Sanjeev Anand Zutshi, Director of the project, told reporters here.

Stating that construction would begin after the elections, C V Krishnan of the Vedanta group said nearly 4,000 acres had already been acquired for the university project as against the total requirement of about 6,000 acres.

Both Krishnan and Zutshi said that the hospital would commence services in 2011 providing high-quality patient care affordable to the common man by the "not-for-profit"institution, an initiative of Anil Agarwal foundation.

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

Lauding the initiative, eminent Indian cardiologist, Dr. Kabi Prasad Mishra, said that the hospital will be a regional hub for critical specialties including cardiology and diabetology.

Dr.Mishra said that as a teaching and research centre, it will attract leading researcher and specialists in medical science from around the globe.

The University’s research agenda will prioritize public health solutions that address the most prevalent medical issues in the region.

This multi-specialty hospital will commence during the first phase of the university, said Sanjeev Anand Zutshi, Director of VUP.

Orders for construction have already been places with Larsen & Toubro Limited, added Mr.Zutshi.

The conceptual planning and design of the hospital has been prepared by the leading US based hospital design firm Perkins + Will.

The design was well appreciated by stalwarts of Medical Science like Professor M S Valiathan and Professor N K Ganguly.

Padma Vibhusan Dr. Valiathan presented the key note address in the national seminar “Optimum Medical Education and Ethics in clinical Practice”.

Padma Bhusan Dr.Ganguly dwelt upon issues like immunology, biotechnology and public health.

The VUP has already initiated research program on interventions needed for prevalence of anemia in infants and children of the state led by Dr.Dipika Mohanty.

Telegraph also reports on this.

April 6th, 2009

Vedanta University expects to start in 2011

Following are excerpts from a recent (March 19, 2009) report in Business Standard.

The Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta University will begin operations by mid-2011 in Puri, Orissa. Agarwal plans to make Vedanta University into a world-class, multi-disciplinary varsity with students from across India and around the world.

The university, being built with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, will come up in three phases. Phase one will 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 by two years due to a land acquisition tussle with the local residents of Puri.

… To begin with, the university will 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 on the other hand is still working on the modalities involving admission and fee structure.

“We have all the necessary approvals in place from various academic authorities in the country. However, certain details regarding the admission process need to be worked on. We plan to produce professionals far superior to what any other institute can produce in the country,” said C V Krishnan, CEO, Vedanta University.

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.

The campus will have a super specialty hospital, which will answer a long standing need for providing comprehensive and specialised 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.

“We will be recruiting young professors with inclination towards research. We have already hired a US-based recruitment agency to appoint faculty for the university,” added Krishnan.

7 comments April 5th, 2009