Odisha HRD

Site visit team for IIT Bhubaneswar concludes their visit; picks Argul

Update: Excerpts from a report in Kalinga Times.

Aragul near Jatni has been finally chosen as the place for setting up of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar.

A four-member Central team sent by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development selected Aragul after visiting four different places.

The team comprised Ashok Thakur, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development; Damodar Acharya, Director of IIT Kharagpur; A.K. Dey, former Director of IIT Mumbai; and K. Narayan Rao, Secretary of All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The place selected is 12 km from Bhubaneswar airport by road and four km away from Jatni railway junction.

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

Ashok Thakur is impressed with Argul.

The Chairman of the Site Selection Committee for the IIT-Bhubaneswar found the site near Jatni a ‘nice’ one.

… The State Government has identified Argul near Jatni and Malipada near Khurda.

Both are in Khurda district.

Secondly Ramdaspur near Naraj and Dampada near Banki in Cuttack district were also identified for the purpose.

Mr.Thakur himself visited Argul on 25 December and expressed satisfaction over the place, said sources.

It is 891 acre of land out of which 500 acres are readily available.

Very near to the Capital city and well connected with rail and road.

Institutions like NISER, various engineering colleges and other institutions are coming up in the near by area.

This place was favored by the State Government for the IIT-Bh as the most suitable one.

It looks very likely that Argul will be chosen for the IIT site. But the others sites would soon come into play; especially for the world class central university (national university).

December 25th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar temporary and expected permanent location

(This is inspired by the post http://iitbbs.blogspot.com/2008/12/latest-news.html.)

The IIT Bhubaneswar will be temporarily located in the IIT Kharagpur Extension Center. It is located 1km from the NH-5 Jaydev Vihar exit towards Nandan Kanan. It is behind Ginger hotel and Swosti Plaza hotel. Across these two hotels is the Trident Oberoi and about 300 mts away is the Mayfair lagoon Hotel. Each of these hotels have many nice restaurants. About 700 mts from IIT location is the Pal Heights shopping complex that has a very good restaurant as well as an Oxford book store. About 500 mts the other direction is the Sandy’s Square which has a Smoking Joes Pizza.

Next to the IIT location is the Shyamasam Dham, one of the Main Ashrams of Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat.

About 150-200 mts to the IIT location is Gandhi Park and Janata Maidan. The later can be a ground to play outdoor games such as Cricket, Football and Hockey.

The IIT location is in the North east corner of the large Institute of Mineral and Materials Technology (formerly RRL) campus. It is expected that the IIT students will have access to this campus and some of its amenities including its outdoor  playing areas. The Kalinga Stadium and its swimming pool is about 1.5 kms from the IIT location.

The Maharaja theater is 2 kms away. XIMB (Basketball, Tennis courts, Football ground, auditorium) is 600 mts away. Institute of Physics  is 700 mts away. Utkal University is 1 km away.

The ESI Hospital is about 250 mts from the IIT location and Kalinga Hospital is about 1 kms away. (Next to Kalinga Hospital is the Institute of Life Sciences and Regional Medical research Center).

Following are some maps. In the maps with one big red dot, the dot indicates the location of the temporary campus of the IIT Bhubaneswar. In the maps with two red marks, the larger mark indicates the expected permanent location of IIT Bhubaneswar.

December 24th, 2008

Colleges in Angul, Cuttack and Dhenkanal districts

Following is from http://www.utkal-university.org/utkal%20university/Academic/colleges.htm.

ANUGUL DISTRICT

CUTTACK DISTRICT

DHENKANAL DISTRICT

December 23rd, 2008

KIIT School of Biotechnology has faculty involved in research

KIIT School of Biotechnology  has faculty that are  involved in research. Following is its current faculty list that I obtained from http://www.kiitbiotech.ac.in/faculty.htm. All faculty with the rank of Senior Lecturer and above have Ph.Ds and many are with multi-year post-doctoral experience abroad. I think this school may soon challenge the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar in term of research.

Would not it be wonderful if KIIT builds up similarly in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and challenges NISER?

20 comments December 21st, 2008

INSPIRE fellowship letter to NISER

Thanks to Debu for this.

5 comments December 17th, 2008

Concept paper being finalized for the proposed 14 national universities

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=45702.

The Government proposes to establish 14 National Universities aiming towards world-class standards the 11^th Plan period.  A State- wise list of cities identified or locating these universities is annexed.  A preliminary draft of the Concept Paper on setting up of these universities was prepared by an Expert Committee constituted by the University Grants Commission.  The Expert Committee has held extensive consultations with eminent educationists, academics and policy makers.  The relevant recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission have also been taken into consideration by the Expert Committee while revising the draft Concept Paper. The Concept Paper is, however, yet to be finalized by the Committee.

This information was given by Shri Arjun Singh, the Minister of Human Resource Development in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

1 comment December 16th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar to run from Bhubaneswar from 2009: Kalinga Times

Following is from Kalinga Times’ report on it.

The classes of IIT Bhubaneswar, which are now being held at IIT Kharagpur, will be conducted at the latter’s extension centre here from July next year.

The student strength of IIT Bhubaneswar will increase from the present 120 to 240 by July next.

All the 240 students of IIT Bhubaneswar will attend their classes in the extension centre of IIT Kharagpur which will be used as a temporary campus till IIT Bhubaneswar developed its own campus in the city.

… IIT Kharagpur is facilitating establishment of IIT Bhubaneswar as the mentor IIT appointed by the Central government.

The authorities of IIT Kharagpur are now constructing new buildings at their extension centre in the city to accommodate IIT Bhubaneswar till the later develops its own campus.

The process of appointment of teachers and other staff for IIT Bhubaneswar has also started. The process of selecting 30 faculty members was nearing completion, Dr. Damodar Acharya, Director of IIT Kharagpur and Chairman of the Governing Body of IIT Bhubaneswar, told reporters in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

On the other hand, efforts were on to start construction of IIT Bhubaneswar’s own campus next year. A total of Rs 1,000 crore will be utilised for the establishment of the IIT.

Odisha government has already offered land at several locations around the city for the proposed campus for IIT Bhubaneswar. The site selection process will be over within a few weeks.

1 comment December 15th, 2008

Rs 80,000/year fellowships for science students under INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research)

Update2: The number 80,000 is inconsistent with the earlier announced number of Rs 100,000/year made in http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=36632.

Update: See also http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=45626 for the PM’s speech while launching the INSPIRE program.

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

India’s brightest students who choose to pursue science in college will get Rs 80,000 a year under a government scholarship to draw youngsters to careers in research.

The department of science and technology (DoT) today launched the nation’s largest-ever project to wean high-school students away from dreams of studying engineering or medicine towards BSc and MSc degrees.

Students who rank within 10,000 in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination and within 20,000 in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination but still choose BSc will be eligible for the scholarship, announced earlier this year but formally launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. Students who clear the central medical entrance exam but opt for BSc will also be eligible.

All students who come within the top 1 per cent both in the 10th and 12th standard exams of central or state boards may also apply for the Scholarship for Higher Education. The department of science expects to offer 10,000 scholarships every year.

Students of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), national science talent scholars and Olympiad medallists will also be eligible.

The scholarship will be available from BSc second year till the students complete their master’s. Students of IISER Pune, Calcutta, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram will receive it this year. So will those of NISER Bhubaneswar.

… The project will also award Rs 5,000 every year to 200,000 students from classes VI to X — picked with help from the schools’ science faculties — for work on a school-level science project. It will provide doctoral fellowships and an assured five-year research career to postgraduate students.

The government will spend Rs 2,100 crore on the scheme in the next three years.

India’s science policy makers have long worried about the migration of meritorious students towards, traditionally, engineering and medicine and, in recent years, management and information technology. “This initiative is important for India from a long-term perspective,” said T. Ramasamy, DoT secretary. “We expect to begin seeing gains from this in about a decade or so from now.”

128 comments December 14th, 2008

IISERs and NISER leadership comparison

(The following is compiled from various sources including wikipedia.)

December 11th, 2008

Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar joins as NISER Bhubaneswar director on Dec 8, 2008.

Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar has joined as director of NISER on Dec 8, 2008. His web page at IIT Kanpur is at http://www.iitk.ac.in/chm/tkc.html. He is coming from a stint as Director of the  National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science & Technology(NIST) (Formerly Regional Research Laboratory) Trivandrum.

His profile obtained from a NISER notice is as follows.

1 comment December 11th, 2008

Vedanta University Project sets record stratight against unsubstantiated rumors

Following is from a report in Daily Pioneer.

The State Government has allotted 6,000 acres of land, and not 8,000 acres as reported in a section of the media, to the Anil Agarwal Foundation to establish its world-class Vedanta University near the Puri-Konark marine drive.

The land would be used only for the purposes of the university as per the terms of the Government, said a project release on Monday.

The release said the Anil Agarwal Foundation is acquiring land at full market value, well beyond the Government’s land acquisition norms in terms of compensation, ex-gratia payment, rehabilitation and other facilities to the landowners.

Out of the 6,000 acres earmarked for the university, only 1,300 acres constitute the land owned by Lord Jagannath.

The temple trust has agreed to sell the land for the educational mission and the foundation is acquiring it at full and fair market value.

The release claimed that world-class universities like Stanford, Duke and Harvard have land areas of 8,180 acres, 7,200 acres and 4,940 acres, respectively. Vedanta University, 6,000 acres, would be unique with 100,000 students, 10,000 faculty and 95 academic disciplines.

Vedanta would have no control over any land near or far from its site. The Puri-Konark Development Authority and the district administration would make all decisions regarding future developments in the area.

Following are some excerpts from a tathya.in report.

The University will have its own water harvesting and recycling system and there will be no adverse impact on the availability of water for the people of Puri.

… World Class Vedanta University will put Orissa on the global education map and will further enhance the cultural significance of Puri and Konark.

It will provide continuing employment opportunity for several thousands of people in the area.

Vedanta University Project(VUP) has already undertaken many developmental programs in the areas of health, education, livelihood and peripheral development which are greatly appreciated by the local people.

December 9th, 2008

Sambada on Vedanta University and not messing up an opportunity that may not come again in 100-200 years

Thank you Sambada.

Following is a translation of the initial part of the article:

Today in the state assembly two private university bills will be discussed; Sri Sri University bill and Vedanta University bill. Orisssa’s higher education future rests on these two bills. In regards to the first university bill, so far, there has not been any controversy, but for whatever reason the proposed Vendanta University is embroiled in controversies. Opposition to land acquisition for the project, court entanglement, reports in police station, and similar issues have tied down the project. For two years there has not been much progress in the ground. The situation is such that like the Singur Nano project in West Bengal there is apprehension that this world class project may withdraw from Orissa. If that happens Orissa’s dream of being a top higher education location in the world will be shattered. In the past several assembly members have opposed the Vedanta University project. The reason for their opposition! Doubt. There is opposition to the land acquisition in the proposed project area. Few days back there was a struggle in that area. The reason for that was also doubts. May be Vedanta will withdraw from the university project after acquiring the land; May be the people will lose their livelihood; May be Vedanta will renege on its obligations; several such doubts are fueling the opposition. The opposers say that Vedanta plans to loot Orissa in the name of the university. But what is the basis of these doubts and it is not clear how does one loot by establishing a university. This project does not need mines or forests; the government does not need to spend a paisa. It only needs to help in providing land where 15000 crores is aimed to be invested to establish a world class university. Eminent educationalists says that such opportunities come once in 100 or 200 years. If such small issues are used to throw away this opportunity then Orissa’s higher education aim for the next century will definitely become unsure. In reality, states like Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are eying the Vedanta University project. The land acquisition problem in Orissa has resulted in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh sending proposals to Vedanta. But planning and design of the project has progressed so far that Vedanta does not want to leave Orissa. Vedanta Chief Anil Agarwal has given $1 Billion (Rs 5000 crores) of his own money to the project and has mentioned this to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The main built-up area of the university will be spread across 2000 acres. The Ayres St. Gross company of the US has designed the master plan of this university. This company has developed the building design for many top universities of the world. Vedanta has decided to establish a medical college and hospital in the first phase.  This college and hospital to be built in 34 acres has been designed by the world famous firm  Perkins and Will. The medical college program will be designed and its equipments will be supplied by Jensen partners. The curriculum of the various colleges of the university and the kind of faculty to hire for such programs have been discussed in conferences organized by Vedanta in Paris and Washington. After all these to doubt that Vedanta will cheat and go away is baseless. Eminent NRO professor CRB says that losing Vedanta will be like kicking a humongous wealth. With IIT, NISER and AIIMS being established Bhubaneswar, if Vedanta University is established it will make the Puri-Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area an heaven for high quality higher education and Orissa’s place in the world will rise significantly. No other industrialist in Orissa has spent that much money on education. If Vedanta wants to spend 15000 crores, why should we throw it away? The top educational institutions in India, the IITs and the IIMs rank 300-400 in the world. Vedanta aims to be in the top 50. He says, if that happnes Orissa will be among the tops in the country. The government should take meausers to resolve the issues related to land acquisition in a war footing. For such a university the sacrifice of the local people should be adequately respected and compensated by the government, he adds.

7 comments December 6th, 2008

Asian Institute of Public Health starts offering courses

See details at its web page http://www.aiph.ac.in/.  See also this press release. 

4 comments December 6th, 2008

3344 faculty and staff positions at each of the proposed AIIMS-like institutes

Following is from the architect’s brief.

Continue Reading 35 comments December 4th, 2008

Bed distributions in the AIIMS like institutes

Following is from http://www.mohfw.nic.in/EoI_FOR_PC.htm.

Continue Reading December 4th, 2008

Specs for AIIMS like institutes

Following is from http://www.mohfw.nic.in/PMR.htm.

Continue Reading 1 comment December 4th, 2008