Odisha HRD

Yale president on why India needs innovation universities and the reason behind the difference between the Indian and the Chinese approach

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

Yale president Richard Levin on Thursday said that while China had worked on a “dramatic scale of advancement” in the education sector in the last decade, India has only now begun to work on that path. Speaking to The Indian Express after signing an MoU to launch the “India-Yale University Leadership Programme” with IIT Kanpur and IIM Kozhikode, Levin said India’s answer to China’s investment in high quality education was innovation.

“Making the advancement that China has made…that’s expensive. China has put in a lot of money in higher education… China has singled out 10 per cent of its national universities towards disproportionate investment in order to make them globally competitive,” Levin said. He added that India being a very democratic nation could not, on the other hand, single out certain institutes and provide them with funds in order to make them compete with the Ivy League. China has developed nine of its top universities in a way that they can compete with the US Ivy league.

“Whereas for India, which is a much more democratic country, it is harder to make those kinds of distinctions with government funds and say …we are going to take these five institutions and make them competitive with Yale, China is doing it and getting away with it. India’s answer is innovation universities and have the private sector raise extra resources to get really high quality institutions. That I think for India is a very adaptive strategy,” he said.

… The combination of opening to foreign universities, creating innovation varsities, reforming the accreditation — all of these I think will help for talent advance in higher education sector in India. I am very supportive of Mr Sibal’s vision and hope he is successful in his legislative agenda,” he said.

He, however, admitted that there were misgivings about ‘bureaucratic barriers” in India and that to attract foreign universities to India they would have to be allowed to set their own pay scales, promote/ advance people on their own criteria and bring students they approve by their own process.

October 30th, 2010

Regional Institute of Paramedical Sciences to be set up in Cuttack at the cost of 74 crores

Following is an excerpt from a UNI report in newkerala.com. 

The institute, which would be set up under the joint collaboration of the Centre and the state government, would meet the requirement of paramedical staff in the entire eastern region, including Orissa.

This was disclosed during a high-level meeting here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to assess the number of various health workers posts lying vacant in the state.

Earlier in May 2009 we wrote about such institutes in the other part of the country in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2344. 

Earlier this year in June 2010 the cabinet had approved establishment of 1 national and 9 regional institutes of paramedical sciences across the country. I guess the one in Odisha is out of those. Following is the PIB article from June 2010 on that: ( http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=62808 )

The Union Cabinet today approved the establishment of the National Institute of Paramedical Sciences (NIPS), Regional Institutes of Paramedical Sciences (RIPS) and a scheme to support the State Government Medical Colleges for conducting paramedical courses through a one time grant. 

The total project cost for the proposal is Rs.1156.43 crore with a Central share of Rs.999.31 crore (85%) and the remaining Rs.157.12 crore (15%) being borne by the States. 

This measure would lead to an additional yearly intake capacity of 14,480 to the health delivery system annually when fully implemented. 

The initiative will augment the supply of skilled paramedical manpower and promote quality of paramedical training through standardisation of such education/courses across the country. The main components of the proposal are: Manpower development through support to State Government Medical Colleges in the form of a one time grant and establishment of one National Institute of Paramedical Sciences and eight Regional Institutes of Paramedical Sciences in various parts of the country as well as developing the existing regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences (RIPANS), Aizawal as the 9th RIPS . 

The financial implication to support the State Government medical colleges in the form of a one time grant for commencing/enhancing intake capacity of paramedical courses at Undergraduate and Post Graduate levels will be Rs.352 crore. For establishment of one National Institute of Paramedical Sciences, the total cost proposed is Rs.108.29 crore and amount required for 8 RIPS as well as developing the existing RIPANS as 9th RIPS will be Rs.696.14 crore. 

October 29th, 2010

Chronicles of Higher Education profiles KISS and its founder Achyuta Samanta

Following are excerpts from http://chronicle.com/article/In-India-a-Top-Private/125169/.

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, known as KISS, has 10,000 students, and offers a full range of educational services, including primary and secondary school, vocational education, and undergraduate and graduate courses. It’s what Mr. Samanta and his staff like to call "a KG to PG" institution, that is, kindergarten to postgraduate. (In India, graduate programs are referred to as postgraduate programs.)

For the past nine years, all his tribal students entering grade 12—many of whom had probably never seen a chalkboard before they enrolled in KISS—have graduated. By comparison, Indian public high schools graduate only 60 to 70 percent of their senior classes, on average.

KISS’s vocational, undergraduate, and graduate programs complement one another, Mr. Samanta says, because the vocational courses teach students how to "earn while they learn." While they study in college, he says, they can continue to send a third of their earnings—about $15 to $20—to their parents. For people who may be living on as little as a dollar a day, it’s a significant amount.

KIIT University and the social-sciences institute are housed on a vast campus that is on par with the best Indian universities, with air-conditioned buildings, wireless Internet, multimedia classrooms, laboratories, and conference halls. The campus feels like an ashram with walkways connecting airy buildings and small ponds scattered throughout the grounds.

October 29th, 2010

Subarnarekha Port Private Limited (SPPL) proposes a medical college and a maritime university

Following is an excerpt from a report in Orissadiary.

As a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities the Subarnarekha Port Private Limited (SPPL), which has undertaken the project for establishment of a port at Chaumukh, Balaiapal in the district besides renovating the Coast canal is mooting for establishment of a hi-tech 300-bed hospital initially and further a medical college within 30 km of port perimeter and a maritime university to meet the growing activities in the field in the state.

Among others, General Manager Mohan Chandra Mishra, advisor Pramod Kumar Singh, and SC Das and others company officials were present.

12 comments October 26th, 2010

NTPC interested in a power engineering college in Talcher; CM suggests him to also consider a medical college (From Dharitri)

1 comment October 22nd, 2010

Directors of the new IITs meet Kapil Sibal; IIT Patna and IIT Bhubaneswar receive special mention for good progress in infrastructure related development

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66496.

The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal had an interaction with the Directors of the eight new IITs here today. The meeting was taken to discuss issues specific to new IITs, especially with regard to the constraints they are facing in infrastructure and faculty development. All the IITs made separate presentations, consequent to which discussions were held and the following decisions were taken.

A number of IITs are facing problems of clearances with Central/State Government Departments for acquisition of the land allotted to them. In this regard, the Minister has asked for a meeting to be taken next month with the concerned State Government officials, Central Government officials and IIT Directors to facilitate the process of land acquisition. 

The issue of providing salary that will attract good faculty was discussed at length. In this regard it was decided with the Minister’s approval that topping up of government approved salary can be done by the IITs from their own funds. 

At present, in the IITs, the HAG scale(Rs.67,000-Rs.79,000) is applicable for 40% of the Professors in position. The new IITs expressed that they have been unable to implement this grade since it has been possible for them to recruit few faculty so far. The Minister stated, here, that the ministry would seek approval from the Finance Ministry/Cabinet to provide for a new proviso for the new IITs to be able to implement this salary grade. 

The new IITs felt that that a revision in fund allocation would be required in view of the escalation of construction costs. The minister directed the officials to examine the matter and come up with a proposal in this regard.   

Following is an excerpt from a report in zee news.

All the new eight Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) established over the last three years have been asked to have their campuses ready by 2014 even as the government was mulling increasing the funds allocated for the purpose.

… IIT Patna and IIT Bhubaneswar, though, received special mention for making a good headway in infrastructure related development, they said.

Sibal also said his Ministry would move a Cabinet note on the issue of enhanced allocation of funds for campus development after the directors drew attention to cost escalation over the years.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindustan Times.

The human resource development ministry is planning special incentives to lure faculty from the older Indian Institutes of Technology to take up teaching posts at the country’s new breed of IITs struggling to attract teachers.

… Under the proposal for giving incentives to teachers — which the HRD ministry is currently discussing with the finance ministry — teachers at older IITs will be required to spend a ten-year tenure at one of the new-born IITs.

I don’t trust the above Hindustan Times report. I think the writer might have misunderstood something.

October 22nd, 2010

Planning Commission visiting team recommends a medical college for KBK: Dharitri

2 comments October 20th, 2010

The location of Vedanta medical college in its campus plan

Today I came across the page http://www.perkinswill.com/work/vedanta-university-medical-precinct-master-plan.html which shows the exact location of the proposed medical college in the campus master plan of Vedanta University.

The overall campus plan is as follows:

1 comment October 11th, 2010

Central University of Orissa Koraput advertises for 48 faculty and 19 staff positions: ads from Samaja

The Central University of Orissa Koraput now has a professional looking web page at http://www.centraluniversityorissa.ac.in/. It is still under development though. Following are the ads from Samaja.

1 comment September 27th, 2010

Construction initiated for the ESI Medical College in Bhubaneswar; Dental and nursing college to be in Rourkela

Following is from a report in Orissadiary.com.

The Construction work of ESI Medical College and Hospital has been started in the Jaganathpur village near Chandaka Institute of mathematics. Labour and Employment Minister Puspendra Singh Deo told the mediapersons here on Sunday that the ESI Medical College will be constructed in 25 Acres of land in an expenditures of tune of Rs 600 Crores.

About 200 students will be admitted in this medical College. The Doctors will be appointed by the ESI Medical of the Centre Government. But 42.57 % persons will be appointed in this Medical College and Hospital. Besides, the ESI will also set up Dental and Nursing college in Rourkela.

September 27th, 2010

Unofficial 2010 first round open close ranks of EE and Mech of IITs, IT-BHU and ISM

The following is extracted from the unofficial source at http://piratecoders.co.cc/projects/iit-jee-results/jee-ranks/.

• The 2009 open-close ranks are here.
• The 2008 open-close ranks are here.

September 25th, 2010

More industries in Odisha sign up to make ITIs and ITCs

Following is an excerpt from an IANS report with the locations added by me.

The Orissa government Friday signed agreements with six more companies for setting up industrial training centres in the state, an official said.

… The companies which signed the agreements through their representatives were GMR Kamalanga Energy Limited (Dhenkanal), IMFA Limited, Deepak Steel and Power Limited (Barbil), Bhusan Energy Limited (Dhenkanal), BRG Iron and Steel Co Private ltd (Dhenkanal) and Lanco Babandh Power ltd (Dhenkanal).

These companies will establish at least one industrial training centre at identified locations, the official said.

There is an annual requirement of 140,000 to 180,000 trained personnel in highly-skilled, semi-skilled and non-executive workforce in metal and manufacturing sector in the state alone. The government has signed the agreements as part of its steps to bridge the gap between demand and supply, the official said.

As per the agreement, the state government will identify and transfer required land on payment and the company will develop required infrastructure within one year of taking the land.

The government had earlier this year signed similar pacts with different private companies for setting up 20 industrial training centres at different identified locations,…

With the latest agreements, the number of proposed industrial training centres in the state for which pacts were signed reached 26, he said.

In another recent news NALCO’s ITI in Damanjodi was inaugurated by the CM recently. Following is an excerpt from a report in indiaeducationdiary.

The Chief Minister of Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik, laid the Foundation-stone for Industrial Training Institute (ITI) today in Damanjodi …

With an objective to provide training facility to the local students of periphery villages of M&R Complex, Damanjodi, the ITI is being set up through Public-Private Participation (PPP) mode. Initially, an amount of Rs. 1 crore 16 lakhs has been set aside by NALCO from its periphery development fund for the purpose. Setting up of the ITI also aims at enhancing the skill-sets of local youths and helps them to enhance their employability in future, in view of the rapid industrialization in the State.

Students from tribal & weaker sections from the periphery villages will be given priority in admissions, apart from other students of the area in the upcoming ITI. Recurring expenditure to run the institute will be met out of the periphery development fund of NALCO. The land for setting up the institute & other facilities will be provided by District Administration.

1 comment September 24th, 2010

Anil Agarwal to India Today Editor Prabhu Chawla: I will give 75 percent of my wealth to charity.

Following is an excerpt from an interview in yahoo News.

What is your mission?

I will give 75 per cent of my wealth to charity. I enjoy big businesses. Our companies own aircraft because they need it. But I am happy living in a three-bedroom flat. We have brought $20 billion into India which is unheard of. Why is nobody speaking of that?

I think regardless of what happens to his other business in Odisha, if we let him build Vedanta University, he will build it.

4 comments September 23rd, 2010

Congress soft-pedals on Vedanta University: India Today; But hurdles remain

(Thanks to Rahul Barik for the pointer.)

Following is from an India Today story published in its September 20th edition.

The Congress is now soft-pedalling on the Rs 5,000-crore Vedanta University project in Puri. BJD leaders feel Ramesh is under pressure from various quarters to clear the project.

Action taken against what promises to be Orissa’s education city may not fit with the Congress’ neo-progressive image. It might also alarm the powerful education lobby, which has many political patrons. Meant to accommodate one lakh students, the university offers 95 academic disciplines. The Governments of both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are now wooing Agarwal to shift to their states – an option he is considering if the project is shut down alleging SEZ violations. "Naveen Patnaik is sold on the university," says Mohapatra wistfully. "He hopes it will become the Oxford of Orissa."

While the above is a bit of good news, the hurdles still remain. Ramesh has not yet given the clearance. Neither the honorable Governor has signed the Vedanta University bill.  Moreover, the  Congress leadership in Odisha seems to not have any self respect. They are mere followers of diktat from Delhi are only interested in whether they can get a nice position by being subservient to Delhi. In that process whether Odisha loses in Malkangiri due to Polavaram dam or Vedanta University goes away from Odisha to Andhra, they don’t seem to care.

Also, MP Pyari Mohaptra is saying that "Naveen Patnaik is sold on the university." What about Pyari Mohapatra himself?

1 comment September 21st, 2010

SOA University Bhubaneswar to start 5 year integrated Law program

Following is from a Business Standard report in sify.com. 

The Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University (SOAU) in Bhubaneswar has set up a new Law Institute from the 2010-11 academic year following permission given by the Bar Council of India. …

The new institute will be known as SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL) which will have thrust on quality education in law keeping in view the contemporary society with semantic human resources, curriculum and co-curriculum aspects and will offer Five-Year Integrated Law studies in three different streams such as BA LLB, BBA LLB and B.Sc LLB besides Post-Graduation in Law and Ph.D. in Law.

The SNIL proposes to introduce several career oriented course in Intellectual Property Rights, Information and Technology, Labour-Man Power related Industrial Law, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Trade Laws, Competition Laws, Space Law, Biomedical Law, Bio-ethics and Law, International Advocacy, Arbitration as a mode of Alternate Dispute Redressal Mechanism, e-Governance, e-Commerce and Corporate Law.

With this program Odisha will have three places with 5 yr programs that will take students nationally. They are: 

• KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar
• National Law University Orissa, Cuttack
• SOA National Institute of Law (SNIL), Bhubaneswar

I was told by reader Debi Sarangi (Thanks!) that Madhusudan Law College in Cuttack and University Law College Bhubaneswar also have 5 yr law programs. I am not sure if the other universities, especially Sambalpur and Berhampur, have such programs. If not they should. In addition I hope VSSUT starts a graduate program in Intellectual Property Law (similar to the one in IIT Kharagpur) and all the  universities in the state have 5-yr integrated courses in law as well as sciences.

5 comments September 21st, 2010

Oxford University Chancellor refers to a 75 million pound grant as a once in a century opportunity; how should one refer to a $1 Billion donation

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

The school, launched in Oxford last evening, has been supported by several world leaders and a 75 million pounds grant by American industrialist and philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik.

… The University is contributing an additional 26 million pounds as well as land in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, where the School will be located.

The school will provide a highly practical series of courses, leading to a Master’s degree, with a unique balance of the humanities, social sciences, law, science, technology, health, finance, energy and security policy.

The first students will start in 2012 and student numbers will increase to approximately 120 within the next few years.

Lord Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said, “This is a once-in-a-century opportunity for Oxford.

75 million pounds is $117.15 million in today’s rate. Contrast this to Vedanta University for which the pledged amount is $1 Billion. While Oxford is calling this grant a once in a century opportunity and is chipping in 25 million (one third the grant) as a matching amount many in Orissa and India do not see the value of a $1 Billion donation and instead of helping its establishment people ascribe all kinds of motives. This attitude of many people of Orissa is exactly why Orissa is at the bottom of everything.

9 comments September 20th, 2010