Many JEE qualified students may be wondering about the new IITs. In a series of articles we will talk about the IIT in Bhubaneswar and the advantages of the Bhubaneswar area.
Bhubaneswar has excellent connectivity by train, road and air. It has multiple daily direct trains to/from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, a daily train to/from Mumbai, and trains to/from all corners of India (Guwahati, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Jaipur, Punjab, Haradwar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Benras, Patna, Raipur, Bhopal, etc.) It has direct train connections to all the old IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati).
Following is a map of Bhubaneswar’s railway connectivity.
The students admitted to IIT Bhubaneswar will be taking their first year classes at IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT. Most likely they will stay in the MMM Hall at IIT Kharagpur. They will be staying with the IIT Kharagpur students.
In contrast, the IIT Gujarat students are reported to start their classes at the Vishwakarma Government Engineering College campus at Chandkheda in Gandhinagar district where IIT Bombay has the extension center. They will be more prone to bring with them the culture, tradition and history of that govt. college. IIT Hyderabad students will have to start from scratch, as it is reported that their classes will be held in Isnapur near SangaReddy in Medak district, near Hyderabad.About the arrangements in IIT Rajasthan, Times of India has this to say: "Apartments of IIT-K’s guest house would be converted into hostels for students of IIT-Rajasthan. Classes and labs would be held in shifts. If IIT-K classes are held in the morning shift, IIT-R students would have to attend classes in the evening and similar arrangement would be made for labs".
The proposed IITs and their mentor institutions are IIT Gujarat/Gandhinagar (IIT Bombay), Punjab (IIT Delhi), Patna (IIT Guwahati), Rajasthan (IIT Kanpur), Bhubaneswar (IIT Kharagpur), and Hyderabad (IIT Madras). While all will offer electrical and mechanical engineering, IIT Gandhinagar will offer chemical engineering, IIT Bhubaneswar will offer civil engineering, and the rest will offer computer science and engineering.
“The curriculum, syllabus, fee structure and other rules for the new IITs will broadly remain the same as in the respective mentor IITs,” the IIT-B official said.
The first-year classes for IIT Punjab, Rajasthan, and Bhubaneswar will be conducted at the campuses of the mentor IITs. The students will be shifted to the respective locations in the second year. Classes for the other new IITs will be conducted in the cities where the IITs are being located.
National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER)
(Academic Session 2008-09)
The list of candidates short-listed on the basis of performance in NEST-2008 held on April 20, 2008 and called for interview is available HERE.
The interview will be held during 23 – 27 June, 2008 at :
Institute of Physics
Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar – 751005
(0674) – 2301825 / 2301823 / 2301058
Candidates should report at the above address at 8.00 a.m. on the day of the interview. The interview will be held throughout the day. The interview of a candidate may be held anytime between 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. on that day. Outstation candidates should make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation. SC/ST and PD (Persons with Disability) candidates will be entitled to travel allowance (second class train fare/bus fare from place of residence to Bhubaneswar and back, by the shortest route) as per the institute norms.
Candidates are required to bring with them at the time of interview the following documents in original :
Class X and Class XII mark sheets.
Proof of date of birth.
Caste/tribe certificate issued by a competent authority (in case of SC/ST students).
OBC certificate and undertaking (in case of OBC candidates in the non-creamy layer)
In case of non-availability of class XII mark sheet in original, the candidate will have to give an undertaking to that effect. In case of candidates in the PD category, a Medical Officer appointed by the Institute for the purpose will certify whether a candidate qualifies to be under that category. Format of OBC certificate and undertaking can be seen HERE.
In case of any problem, please send e-mail to admission@niser.iopb.res.in
(Update on June 17 2008: For guidance on what you can get with your Orissa JEE rank in 2008, please see https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1185 I do not have more information than that.)
Continuing with our methodology, and solely based on the student preferences in the GE (general) category, we develop a ranking below. Our methodology is we compare when the various branches of the colleges get finished. For example below when we write CET (8, 8, 12, 12, 16) it means that two of the CET branches were all finished in the GE category by the ranks 800, two by 1200 and one by 1600. We will use the first three numbers unless it becomes necessary to go beyond that.
1. UCE Burla (8,8,12,12,16)
1. CET Bhubaneswar (8,8,12,12,16)
2. ITER Bhubaneswar (16,16,16)
3. Silicon Bhubaneswar (16, 20, 20)
4. CV Raman Bhubaneswar (20,24,28)
5. NIST Berhampur (24, 24, 28)
6. GITA Bhubaneswar(28,28,32)
7. Orissa Eng College Bhubaneswar (28, 28, 36)
7. IGIT Sarang (20,28,45)
8. College of Eng Bhubaneswar (36,36,41)
9. Gandhi Eng College Bhubaneswar (36,41,45)
10. Krupajala Bhubaneswar (45,45,45)
10. Trident Bhuabneswar (41, 45, 50)
11. East Bhubaneswar (45,55,66)
11. Gandhi Inst for Tech Bhubaneswar (50,50,60)
11. GIET Gunupur (50,50,60)
12. Orissa school of mining eng Keonjhar (45, 55, 117)
13. NMIET Bhubaneswar (66, 72, 78)
14. DRIEMS Dhenkanala(72,72,100)
15. Konark Bhubaneswar (78, 78, 117)
15. Koustuva Bhubaneswar (78, 100, 100)
15. Mahavir Bhubaneswar (78, 84, 100)
15. Synergy Dhenkanal (78, 84, 100)
16. Nalanda Bhubaneswar (84, 84, 100)
17. Rajdhani Bhubaneswar (84, 100, 100)
18. Roland Berhampur (84,100, 108)
19. Techno Bhubaneswar (84, 100, 117)
19. Padmanav Rourkela (100,100,100)
20. Ajay Binay Cuttack (100,100,117)
21. Ghanashyam Hemalata Puri(100,108,136)
22. Jagannath Cuttack (108,117,147)
22. Bhadrakh (117,117, 136)
23. JITM Parlakhemundi (117,126,147)
24. Inst of Adv Rayagada (117,136,159)
24. Sanjay Memorial Berhampur (117,147,159)
24. Purushottam Rourkela (126,126,136)
26. Balasore (136,136,159)
27. Seemanta Mayurbhanj (159, 159, 186)
28. Padmashree Baragarh (172,172,200)
29. Majighariani Rayagada (172,200,200)
30. Satyasai Balasore (159, 172, 999)
31. Samanta Chandra Sekhar Koraput (186,999,999)
32. Gopal Krishna Jeypore (999,999,999)
The colleges that are missing from the above are NIT Rourkela, and KIIT. I consider NIT Rourkela to currently be the best in Orissa. I would slot KIIT around ITER and Silicon.
Outlook for 2008-2009:
Now that ITER’s parent organization Siksha O Anusandhan has become a deemed university, ITER may opt out of Orissa JEE and/or 2008 BPUT counseling.
In 2008 and 2009 there would be several new colleges.
The existing and would be Knowledge Corridors of India[1] are:
(i) Kharagpur-Kolkata(116 kms)-Kalyani (50 kms from Howrah Station):Kharagpur has the IIT, World Class Central University will be near Kolkata, IIM is in Kolkata, ISI is in Kolkata, and IISER will be in Haringhata, Kalyani.
(ii) Mumbai-Pune 150 kms (176 kms by rail): Mumbai has the IIT, Pune has the IISER, the world class central university will be in Pune.
(iii) Bangalore-Mysore 140 kms (138 kms by rail): IISc and IIM are in Bangalore, World Class central University will be in Mysore.
(iv) Indore-Bhopal 186 kms (218 kms by rail): IIM is in Indore, IIT will be in Indore, IISER and World class central university will be in Bhopal.
(v) Amritsar-Ropar-Chandigarh (217 kms): IISER is near Chandigarh, World class central university will be in Amritsar, IIT will be in Ropar 45 kms from Chandigarh.
Thus we propose the following major Knowledge Corridor (rather network) in Orissa[2]:
Cuttack-Bhubaneswar-Berhampur and Bhubaneswar-Puri-Vedanta University
Berhampur to Bhubaneswar is 179 kms by road[3]and 165 kms by rail. The following table shows the distance by rail with respect to the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar-Berhampur corridor.
SNo
Stn Code
Stn Name
Arrival Time
Dep. Time
Halt Time
Distance
Day
Platform
Remark
1
CTC
Cuttack
18:40
18:45
5 min
0
1
0
2
BRAG
Barang
18:58
19:00
2 min
11
1
0
3
BBS
Bhubaneswar
19:25
19:40
15 min
28
1
0
4
KUR
Khurda Road Jn
20:05
20:15
10 min
46
1
0
5
NKP
Nirakarpur
20:33
20:34
1 min
72
1
0
6
KAPG
Kalupara Ghat
20:47
20:48
1 min
90
1
0
7
BALU
Balugan
21:19
21:20
1 min
117
1
0
8
CLKA
Chilka
21:27
21:28
1 min
124
1
0
9
KIT
Khallikot
21:37
21:38
1 min
135
1
0
10
CAP
Chatrapur
22:14
22:15
1 min
172
1
0
11
BAM
Brahmapur
22:35
22:40
5 min
193
1
0
To develop the Berhampur-Bhubaneswar corridor it is most important that anchor institutions be established in Berhampur. With IIT and IIIT seeming to slip more towards the Bhubaneswar side all out efforts should be made for an NIT (one of the proposed 10 new NITs in the 11th plan) in Berhampur and to upgrade MKCG Medical College to the AIIMS level. For the later one may note that some of the other states will be having multiple institutions either upgraded or newly made to AIIMS level.
[1] Some others are: Raipur-Bilaspur 111 kms (110 kms by rail): Raipur has NIT and will have IIM, Bilaspur will have a central university.
Kozhikode-Kochi 181 kms (190 kms by rail): Kozhikode has the IIM; Kochi will have the world class central university.
Kochi-Trivendrum 220 kms (206 kms by rail): IISER and IIST (Indian Inst. of Space Sc. & Technology) are being made at Trivendrum
[2] A second corridor in Orissa that could be developed is: Raurkela-Jharsuguda-Sambalpur 173 kms (151 kms by rail)
Update June 11, 2009:Tathya.in reports that the Education Minister Debi Mishra mentioned this in the OLA. Following is an excerpt.
The Orissa Government has identified a patch of 700 acre plus land at Talabasta in Banki Sub-division of Cuttack district for the proposed World Class University.
Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister Higher Education has revealed in the Orissa House on 11 June here.
Replaying to a question Mr.Mishra said that the State Government has informed the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in this regard.
The land is free from litigations and it was also near to the Capital.
The River Mahanadi at the backdrop, makes the place a picturesque one, said he.
“We have asked MHRD to send their site selection team to finalize the site”, said Mr.Mishra.
India has asked Britain for financial and technical assistance to set up a new “world class” university (WCU) …
Sources said Purandeswari told Rammell at a meeting in Delhi yesterday that India needed assistance in modernising teacher-training programmes in higher education.
Faculty support — a euphemism for greater participation of guest lecturers from the foreign country — was another request put forward by Purandeswari, the sources said, adding that she also dwelt on skill development — educating students for the job market — as a “key issue”.
Rammell is learnt to have told the minister that the UK was in the process of restructuring its own skill development process, and was willing to share its experiences.
The two ministers are expected to meet again in London on July 18 or 19.
… the universities are set to come up in Bengal (Calcutta), Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The universities will be controlled by the Centre but kept distinct from existing central universities, and will be nurtured to compete with institutions like Harvard and Cambridge.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) on Thursday suggested the 20 cities for setting up new Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).
Delhi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Jammu are among the cities suggested.
… In its model detailed project report (DPR) presented to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Nasscom, the trade body representing the Indian information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, has also included the names of Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow, Patna, Shillong, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Indore, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Visakhapatanam, Mysore, Mangalore and Coimbatore for establishing new IIITs. PPP model
In its model DPR that will serve as a template for the preparation of the DPR for each individual IIIT, Nasscom has proposed that the new IIITs be set up as a fully autonomous institutions, through a public-private partnership (PPP) model. The partners in setting up the IIITs should be the Ministry, the respective State governments and industry members.
National importance
According to Nasscom president Som Mittal, each IIIT has been envisioned to become a world-class academic institute and evolve into technology and functional ‘Centres of Excellence’ through a strong focus on research in frontier technology areas.
To achieve this, it is imperative to attract best-in-class faculty, and students; develop sustainable linkages with industry; and provide an environment conducive for research excellence.
To justify the large investments being made in the IIITs, it is important that they provide a sufficient scale at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral research levels, he added. …
Autonomy
“The model for the new IIITs proposed in the DPR focuses on both academic and research excellence through innovative governance and operational approaches and a strong and sustained participation from the IT industry.
“However, achieving this will not be easy and it is important that each institute is supported, especially in the initial years, and is also allowed complete autonomy to define its roadmap and implement it,” Mr. Mittal added.
While required investment into the IIITs could vary depending on the city, close to Rs 100 crore has been estimated for each IIIT. …
The locations of IIITs have been arrived at on the basis of how well connected they are in terms of transport and facilities and their prominence to industrial hubs. Considering the dire faculty crunch in the country, Nasscom has made it clear that faculty members must be be given salaries prevalent in the market.
It has been suggested that each IIIT must have the autonomy to decide its own salary structure to compete with private educational institutes. Collaborating private organisations would be requested to send their experienced employees as visiting faculty members. A higher number of visiting faculty and faculty-exchange programmes with universities in India and abroad have been suggested.
…
The report says all programmes in an IIIT should be given equal importance, having noted that generally it is the undergraduate programme in institutes that receives most of the attention. It has been suggested that other post-graduate programmes, especially the PhD programmes, should not be compromised with.
The development of the PhD programme, according to one of the suggestions, is vital to the growth of IIITs as these doctoral students could be groomed for teaching positions in IIITs, creating a strong pool of candidates for top academic positions.
It has been recommended that the undergraduate programme of IIITs could be scaled up to 600 students, the post-graduate programme could take about 400 students and the PhD programme could have an intake of 100 students.
A faculty-student ratio of 1:14 has been suggested. The report has suggested an integrated campus model and a hub-and-spoke campus model, depending on the IIIT.
The Orissa government has to figure out a way to have this IIIT in Berhampur and if not then convince the central govt. to establish one of the proposed 10 NITs in Berhampur.
Now the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has been asked to identify the land. IDCO has identified 3 spots for the proposed IIT.
Interestingly last week only, the MHRD sent a letter to identify a land measuring 600 acres for the proposed IIT in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, which will be directly accessible to the airport, railway and national highway.
Nearest to Bhubaneswar is a temple land near Jatni is available which is only 25 km from the capital city. This is approachable with railway and national highway. But snag is that only 400 acres of government land is available, so it may not be acceptable for IIT.
Second place is near Banki-Cuttack Road, which is around 65 km from Bhubaneswar. There is a patch of more than 2000 acres of government land. However the place is not directly connected with national highway, but it lies the side of a state highway.
Third one is in Tangi of Bhusandpur near Chilka. More than 4000 acres of land is available in the low lying areas of Chilka. It will be more than 70 km from Bhubaneswar. The place is picturesque and its scenic beauty is enchanting. The NH-6 5 is passing nearby the place.
Out of these 3 places, one will be chosen.
Experts are visiting the places and it will take much time to reach a final decision. How ever nothing prevents MHRD to declare IIT Kharagpur as the ‘mentor institution’ of IIT Orissa and start the classes from this education year. IIT Kharagpur needs 3-4 acre of land as it is having an extension centre at Bhubaneswar. Only 70,000 square feet is needed to begin the classes.
The site http://www.tifr.res.in/~nest/Results.html lists the roll numbers of students with a percentile of more than 50. There are about 4000 such students. (So total number of students that appeared this exam is 8000.) The site http://www.tifr.res.in/~nest/NISER-int.html list the 330 or so students who have been called for interview. In this list of 330 or so there are 47 from the Orissa centers. Out of these 47, two of them are among the top 8 that have a perecntile more than 99.9. Those two are (i) 1523056 Soumyashanta Nayak with 99.93 percentile and (ii) 1513038 Aditya Acharya with 99.92 percentile.
After the interview NISER will admit 40 students. So 4% of the students who appeared the entrance are called for interview and 0.5% (one out of 200) of the students who appeared the entrance will be selected.
47 of the 330 candidates called for interview are from Orissa centers. I.e., a percentage of about 14%.
Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pioneer.
For the first time, the State Government created 30 posts of Commissioner-cum-Secretary.
A single-page proposal got through and no body raised any question over the justification of creating so many posts of Commissioners. With these new posts, the State will have 54 Commissioners-cum-Secretaries.
But then see the contrast. The other day, the new Vice-Chancellor of the Utkal University, Binayak Rath, approached the Government for filling up of the vacancies in the State’s leading educational institution. He was, however, asked to explain the justification of filling up the vacancies.
Presently, there are 166 teachers in the university against 340 in the 1990s. The number will further come down to 142 by 2010 when many more teachers will retire. As many as 73 posts have been abolished over the years.
The Vice-Chancellor sought filling up of all vacancies within three to four months for the benefit of the students. He also lobbied for permanent appointment of teaching staff along with adequate support staff rather than contractual recruitment. But, on the contrary, he was asked to justify the need for filling up all posts and why those posts should not be abolished.
The question asked in several quarters is why a double standard for creating posts is being followed. There should be clear-cut guidelines to create posts in the Government departments, but there is no policy direction for creating posts. It is whims and fancies that rule the State," lament educationists. Everybody in the Higher Education Department knows that the State’s universities are in a sorry state. Vacancies are galore in all these institutions and the educational standard is falling very fast, they point out.
Chairman and Managing Director of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) Shriram Upadhyay seems more concerned for educational and social development of Orissa than his counterpart in National Aluminium Company (Nalco) Chitta Ranjan Pradhan.
Upadhyay is eager to provide fund for establishment of a medical college at Talcher. Pradhan, though an Oriya, on the other hand, has till date not shown any interest in investing in human resource development of the State in a big way.
Interestingly, Nalco’s medical bill per annum is around Rs14 crore, and if this Navratna public sector undertaking (PSU) takes a bold step, it could save the huge medical expenses for its employees by investing in setting up of a medical college and hospital.
Lack of interest at the top management level of Nalco to fund in social sector of the State has irked the leading non-resident Oriyas (NROs) and educationists. While major private investors have been providing funds for development of the educational sector, PSU Nalco’s shyness to develop Orissa as an educational hub has resulted in a sorry state of affairs, lamented Professor Chitta Baral, who teaches at the Arizona State University.
Prof Baral has asked the Nalco chief to fund a medical college at Damanjodi (Koraput), an engineering college at Angul and a topnotch management institute in Bhubaneswar. He said that this is high time the Nalco authorities were forced to invest in the social sector in a big way.
Owing to political pressure, Nalco is funding few projects in Koraput and Anugul, alleged an educationist. He said that Nalco must take cue from MCL and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) in taking initiative for investment in the social sector. CCL, it may be pointed out, is funding an engineering college in Jharkhand, its area of operation. Similarly, the Bokaro Steel Plant is also funding a medical college in Jharkhand.
… As Nalco has applied for another bauxite mines in Orissa, it is high time the State Government pressurised the PSU to fund liberally in the educational sector of the State, he said.
Following is Sambada’s tongue-in-cheek take in its Sunday magazine article on City Politics.