Odisha HRD

NIT Rourkela advertises for Teaching Assistant positions in Computer Science leading to an M.Tech (Res) degree

June 14th, 2011

Prof. Sunil Sarangi gets another term as the director of NIT Rourkela

We read this news at http://www.rourkelacity.com/top-news/proffesor-sunil-sarangi-nit-director-hele/. This is really great news. During his previous tenures Prof. Sarangi has quietly done wonders for NIT Rourkela. Following are some earlier links.

• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3666.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/5767.

One of the things that he should consider pursuing is a medical school as part of NIT Rourkela, perhaps in collaboration with SAIL and/or the state government. In general, Prof. Sarangi should aim for expanding NIT Rourkela with additional programs, while also improving the existing ones.

2 comments May 27th, 2011

NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2011: A team from DPS Rourkela wins the first prize in the 11-12 grade small team category and Mrinal Chaudhury, also of DPS, wins speciality first prize for Artistic Merit

The web page of this contest is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/. The results of the 2011 page is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/Results/2011/index.html. Following are excerpts from that web page.

Winners

Grand Prize

The Grand Prize for the 2011 Space Settlement Contest went to a large team of 7 students (11-12 grade), Gaurav Kumar, Deepak Talwar, Harman Jot Singh Walia, Mahiyal B. Singh, Kaenat Seth, Ishaan Mehta, and Navdeep Singh Makkar, from Punjab, India for creating the Hyperion Space Settlement. They also won the NSS Bruce M. Clark, Jr. Memorial Space Settlement Award.

First Prize

11-12 Grade First Prize

• Asteria, Sarah Bell, Queensland, Australia, Individual.
• Shangri-la, Odisha, India (Delhi Public School), Small Team.
• CRONOS, Constanta, Romania (Colegiul National "Mircea cel Batran"), Large Team.

9-10 Grade First Prize

• Adamas, Aditya Bathla, Punjab, India (Apeejay School), Individual.
• AMOS (Advanced Moon Orbiting Settlement), Romania ("Tudor Vianu" National High School of Computer Science), Small Team.
• Brisinger, Constanta, Romania (Colegiul National "Mircea cel Batran"), Large Team.

6-8 Grade First Prize

• The Satus Novo Serere, Hasan N. Kahn, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (American International School), Individual.
• Big Bang, California, USA (Sequoia Middle School), Small Team.
• EON: Everlasting Orbita Nation, New York, USA (Cortland Junior Senior High School), Large Team.

Specialty First Prize

• S’ukhavati, Mrinal Chaudhury, Odisha, India (Delhi Public School), Artistic Merit.
• Life on the Space Station, Seebor, Romania (Tudor Vianu National High School of Computer Science), Literary Merit.
• Arcadia, Shanghai, China, Life Sciences.

Rourkelacity.com has some details about the winners. Following are some excerpts.

Among the winners include the team comprising Siddharth Tripathi, Akshat Dutt and Nisarg Behera of class –XII, and Mrinal Chaudhary of class-VIII of the same school.

The team comprising Siddharth, Akshat and Nisarg won the first prize in the 11th -12th grade for their project titled “Sangri-La”, a space settlement colony to provide exceedingly proficient and enjoyable living amenities for 20,000 permanent space residents. The colony that the team has proposed, is designed as a heavenly abode for settlers who can revel in the extraordinary luxury away from the earth. Thinking out of the box, the team proposed a major scientific research laboratory as well as a business hub in space, bio-regenerative life systems incorporating all biological components, state of art meditation halls, an efficiently functioning government machinery to take care of the law and order, a new currency named ‘Hawking’ and also a National Shangri-La Stock Exchange to help people participate in World economic affairs.

Mrinal won the specialty first prize for Artistic merit in her paper presentation titled “Sukhavati”. Mrinal in her report presented the colony and several paintings and diagrams depicting the interior and the exterior, living spaces, laboratories, recreation areas etc. of the colony.

… Mr.Bijoy Bahadur Mathur, Science Head of the School and the mentor to these students has been instrumental in preparing the students for this competition.

Teams from Odisha have been doing very well in this contest for the last several years. 

• 2010: Prateeksha Das, Ispat English Medium School, Odisha, India’s entry "Paradise Reclaimed" won the inaugural Bruce Clark Memorial scholarship which goes to the top individual entry.
• 2009: The Grand Prize winning submissions for 2009 went to Eric Yam, Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya. … Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya were instructed by Ms. Itishree Nanda of St. Xavier’s High School in Orissa India. Orissa Design Inspired Systems and Aerovehicles was the title of their submission.

April 26th, 2011

Higher education moves by the Odisha state government outside of the Capital area during the last 5 years [work in progress]

To get a clear picture on higher education moves by the state government (during the last 5 years) outside of the capital area (Khurda, Cuttack and Puri districts) we try to list the moves. Many fully centrally funded institutes are mentioned as the state contributes by free land and in making the location decision. (Note that Odisha has 30 districts.)

What has been done so far (including under construction):

1. Central University of Orissa, Dist – Koraput
2. Upgradation of UCE Burla to VSSUT, Dist – Sambalpur
3. Private University status to Centurion, Dist – Gajapati
4. Government Engieering College, Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi
5. College of Agriculture, Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi
6. WODC funds and free land for Private Medical College, Jaring, near Bhawanipatna, Dist – Kalahandi  (significant part of the construction is complete)
7. Pushed Vedanta to establish Vedanta Science College in Lanjigarh, Dist – Kalahandi
8. Parla Maharaj Engineering College, Berhampur, Dist-Ganjam
9. Special SUIIT institute as part of Sambalpur University, Dist – Sambalpur
10. WODC funds for Hi-Tech Medical College, Rourkela, Dist – Sundergarh (under construction) 
11. Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Baragarh
12. College of Horticulture, Chipilima, Dist – Sambalpur

The districts involved above and the number of items for them are: Baragarh (1), Gajapati (1), Ganjam (1), Kalahandi (4), Koraput (1), Sambalpur (3), Sundergarh (1). If one takes the funding amount as the criteria then Koraput comes at the top.

Some of the announcements that are most likely to happen in 1-3 years as reported in the news:

1. Pushed MCL to agree to make a medical college in Talcher
2. Pushed NTPC to agree to make a medical college (location not announced)
3. Pushed NTPC to agree to make a Power Institute (location not announced)
4. Announced that all three medical colleges (includes Berhampur, Sambalpur) will be autonomous starting with the one in Sambalpur.
5. Announced that Khallikote College Berhampur will be made to a university
6. Proposed that one of the 20 IIIT should be in Berhampur.
7. Pushing to upgrade FCI Balangir to an Institute of Hotel Management
8. Grants to XIMB to open a campus in Balangir
9. Grants to XIMB to open a campus in Sambalpur
10. Support for a CIPET campus in Balasore
11. Upgradation of GM College, Sambalpur to a university (announed by Higher Education Minister)

The districts involved in the above two lists and their number of items are: Angul (1), Balasore (1), Balangir (2), Baragarh (1), Gajapati (1), Ganjam (4), Kalahandi (4), Koraput (1), Sambalpur (6), Sundergarh (1).

The districts that are left out are: Bhadrak, Bouda, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kandhamala, Kendrapada, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur.

Besides the above there have been reports about government willing to give grants to several private medical colleges in various places and the WODC has tried (but failed) to entice (through grants and free land) a private party to establish a medical college in Balangir.

Also, I think the government will implement some of the recommendations made by the higher education task force.

Please suggest missing items in the comments section. Any capital-bashing comments will be deleted as the purpose of this post is to get a clear picture of what is happenning and not happening in the higher education side outside of the capital districts of Khurda, Cuttack and Puri.

Again, this list is to get a clear picture of what has happened in the non-capital area districts so that one can make an informed decision if the government is biased towards some non-capital districts over other non-capital districts. (There is no argument that the bulk of the moves have been made favoring the capital area. So no discussion on that.)

In regards to my personal view on what the government ought to do, it is listed in details in the site http://orissa2020.org.

The above list should not be interpreted in isolation. For example, one should not conclude that Kalahandi got too much. It got several institutions because it started from very little and the education conscious people of Kalahandi have been rightly demanding for higher education institutions for a long time. But at the same token, arguing that Kalahandi has been neglected by this government with respect to higher education just goes against the facts above and I worry that the well-meaning people who are making such arguments may be harming their cause. I guess the argument comes from losing the central university to Koraput. But then every district other than Koraput (and the capital districts) can use that argument. [If there is interest I will explain more on my take on this in the comments section.]

As an analogy, in 2005 we could rightly argue that the central government neglected Odisha with respect to centrally funded higher education institutions. But if we now say that the UPA government  neglected Odisha with respect to centrally funded higher education institutions, we will be laughed at, and our efforts will have negative impact. So we plan to use finer arguments and location specific arguments to push for central institutions in Odisha for the 12th plan.

Kalahandi people wanting more institutions in Kalahandi should think of other ways to make their case and irritating the state government and its bureaucrats with arguments that go against the facts (see list above) may help some politicians but has a higher potential to harm Kalahandi’s case than help its case.

44 comments March 29th, 2011

VTU to start 180 crore Visvesvaraya Institute of Advanced Technologies (VIAT), an exclusive graduate school offering cutting-edge research-incentive programmes

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

In the 17 years of its existence, one of India’s largest technical universities — Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) — hasn’t had a constituent institute to call its own.

Come August, the Belgaum-headquartered university with nearly 180 affiliated engineering colleges, will start Visvesvaraya Institute of Advanced Technologies (VIAT), an exclusive graduate school offering cutting-edge research-incentive programmes.

To be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 180-crore, VIAT will be located on a 200-acre campus at Muddenahalli, birthplace of Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya. In the maiden year, VIAT will offer MTech programmes in at least five areas at four campuses in Bangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga and Belgaum.

"VIAT will be designed on the lines of Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science. Some of the programmes we have drawn up are exclusive to the institute; no engineering college in the state is currently offering them," says VTU vice-chancellor H Maheshappa.

All four campuses of the proposed institute will have a dedicated centre specializing in a chosen area. IT capital Bangalore will house Centre for C3 Technologies — Control, Communication and Computation. Centre for Materials and Manufacturing Technologies will come up in Mysore and Centre for Engery and Environmental Technologies will be housed at the Gulbarga campus. At Belgaum, the Centre for Resources and Geosystems Technology will be set up.

… "To ensure quality research, we have designed a new model of autonomy for VIAT. While a full time director will look after the overall affairs of the institute, each centre will have a research council headed by an eminent scientist or a technocrat," adds Maheshappa.

WHAT’S ON OFFER

* Bangalore (Muddenahalli) campus: MTech in cyberphysical systems, biomedical engineering and biotechnology

* Mysore campus: MTech in advanced engineering materials and advanced manufacturing technologies

* Gulbarga campus: MTech in energy and environmental engineering, renewable energy engineering and management and energy and sustainable development.

* Belgaum campus: MTech in water resources engineering and management and geosystems engineering

When BPUT, Rourkela was formed there were plans for 5 institutes under BPUT. I am not sure what the status of those proposed institutes are. I think 1-2 of them started in BPUT’s constituent colleges. But I could not find any information in BPUT’s website.  Perhaps BPUT can borrow some ideas from VTU and establish similar centers.

January 27th, 2011

Dataquest ranks NIT Rourkela at number 12 in its 2010 ranking of engineering colleges and technical institutes

(Thanks to a reader for the pointer.)

The details of the ranking is at http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2010/110112403.asp. The top 15 in that list with their 2009 ranking in parenthesis.

1. IIT Bombay (New)
2. IIT Delhi (2)
3. IIT Kharagpur (1)
4. IIT Madras (3)
5. IIIT Hyderabad (7)
6. IIT Roorkee (5)
7. IT BHU (10)
8. IIT Guwahati (6)
9. BITS Pilani (8)
10. NIT Surathkal (9)
11. NSIT Delhi (17)
12. NIT Rourkela (22)
13. IIIT Allahabad (14)
14. BIT Mesra (13)
15. NIT Hamirpur (26)

This high ranking of NIT Rourkela is a parting gift to NIT Director, Prof. Sunil Sarangi. He did wonders to NIT Rourkela.

6 comments November 28th, 2010

Learning from other states: central sports university pursued in Tamil Nadu and cabinet approval of a national center on molecular materials at Thiruvantapuram

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66858.

A proposal was received from the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports to convert Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development, an institution deemed to be university, at Sriperumbudur into Rajiv Gandhi Central University/National Institute of Youth and Sports. In order to examine the proposal and to make suitable recommendations, the Government has constituted a Committee …

In the past we have suggested a similar institution in Rourkela, the cradle of Hockey in Odisha and India.

Following is from another PIB release http://www.pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66771. (Thanks to kalahandia.blogspot.com for the pointer.)

The Union Cabinet today approved the establishment of a National Centre for Molecular Materials (NCMM) at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala as an autonomous institute of the Government of India (GOI) under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) at a total cost of ` 76.7 crore for five years with an outlay of ` 14.55 crore for the Eleventh Plan Period.

The Centre will be located on 40 acres of land provided by the State Government, free of cost.

The Centre will be the first of its kind in the country and will pursue high-end science and develop technology in niche areas like sensors for biomedical devices, materials for solar energy harvesting and space electronics. Through the Centre, the Government attempts to create a national innovation infrastructure that channels knowledge systems to wealth creation in the long run.

The Centre will collaborate with other academic institutions and actively interact with industry and user groups. It will generate human resources in the form of well-qualified researchers, technicians and entrepreneurs who can help develop the use of such materials for technological applications and exploit the market potential in this area.

For long Odisha has been trying for a research center on materials along similar lines, but without much success.

November 9th, 2010

Post-diploma courses in Industrial Safety

Four institutions in Odisha offer this course this year. See the Samaja ad below.

Last year three additional institutes offered this course.

3 comments October 31st, 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

NIT Rourkela to be funded by Vedanta to develop a cost-effective method for neutralisation of red mud

Following is a from a PTI report in ibnlive.com.

National Institute of Technology-Rourkela and Vedanta Aluminium today signed an Mou to develop an environment-friendly technology.Vedanta will finance NIT-R to develop a cost-effective method for neutralisation of red mud and removal of poisonous heavy metals like arsenic, zinc and cadmium and to upscale the technology to industrial scale. …

Disposal of red mud, the waste product of aluminium manufacture had been bothering aluminium industries and governments and causing environment hazard. The disposal methods being followed has been creating problem of contamination of ground and surface water.Kumar said red mud mostly contain 50 per cent of iron ore and the aluminium industries want to reduce the level to zero.

August 12th, 2010

Several of the new Kendriya Vidyalayas start class immediately

Following three ads are from Samaja.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… two have already started functioning from the Millennium City in Cuttack.

The admission process in the two schools will commence from the current academic session, the notification for which has already been published by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).

The two schools will be operating from Munduli and Nuapatana.

The state government has allotted land for the construction of the two campuses, the work for which has already started.

Before the construction work is completed, the two schools will be operating from the CRPF campus, and from the Government Press.

“Students starting from standard I to V will be admitted now and soon the schools will be upgraded to standard X. Currently, both the schools will have 45 students each,”…

… the remaining nine schools at Kutra in Sundargarh, Bhanjanagar, Digapahandi and Aska in Ganjam, Murgabadi in Mayurbhanj, and one each at Sonepur, Deogarh, Jajpur and Nuapada will be set up soon.

Based on our bookkeeping in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4222 after the above schools are established the only two districts in Odisha that will lack a Central School will be: Kendrapada and Nayagarh.

1 comment July 19th, 2010

M.Tech programs offered by Engineering Colleges, other institutions and universities in Odisha

Following is extracted from multiple sources including http://www.aicte-india.org/excel/29jun/ORISSA.html. 

The * implies that I am not sure of the number. The number I have in that case may be a few years old. The above adds up to 1830+372* seats total. Out of which 1112+318* seats are in the greater Bhubaneswar (including Dhenkanal) area.

My guess is that majority of these M.Tech’s (at least 50-60%) would go into teaching. This should definitely help the faculty quality of the engineering colleges and programs in Odisha. In a few years IIT Bhubaneswar is going to start M.Tech. That would help the situation further.

3 comments July 16th, 2010

NIT Rourkela offers MBA, MA in Developmental Studies and direct admission to 2nd year of Integrated M.Sc; deadlines for applying to these programs extended

See details at http://application.nitrkl.ac.in/ and  http://www.nitrkl.ac.in/admission_docs/Extension%20of%20dates_6_1.pdf. Following is an ad about this that appeared in some newspapers today.

It is great to see that NIT Rourkela is offering MBA and 2 yr and 5 yr M.Sc programs. Also impressive is its offering of programs in Life Sciences and Biotechnology and Medical Engineering.

In the future it should aim for a program in Intellectual Property Law (as is offered in IIT Kharagpur), more programs in liberal arts (such as in Economics), and possibly even an MBBS in collaboration with one of the local hospitals.

VSSUT Burla should follow NIT Rourkela’s path in expanding its offerings.

3 comments June 4th, 2010

IIPM Kansbahal to start M.Tech in Production Management; first such M. Tech in Odisha

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Indian Institute of Production Management (IIPM) located in Kansbahal, Sundergarh, has scored a first in the State by starting an MTech programme in Production Engineering. Classes are expected to start from July 10, 2010. The course will be conducted by the Wellteach University of Chennai and 25 students will be taken in through a Joint Entrance Examination to be conducted by the university in June. The course fee for the 2-year course has been pegged at Rs 2 lakh.

Announcing this to the media in a meeting organised here on Sunday, Director Prof MR Nayak emphasised that even though the institute does not have any BTech course on offer it has ventured to conduct the MTech course because of its close to three decades of experience in training and consulting activity in the field of production engineering which has seen over 30,000 trainees pass through its portals including 1,400 persons from abroad. Because of its uniqueness of expertise and experience it has been included as an approved training institute under the Colombo Plan and the international trainees are sent here for training after selection by the Ministry of External affairs of the Government of India.

Last year it created a school of management and started an MBA program.

May 18th, 2010

Odisha government finally approaches SAIL for a medical college in Rourkela

Update: Following is from Samaja.

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

Finally it seems Tarun Kanti Mishra has come to the rescue of thousands of citizens’ genuine demand for a Medical College at Rourkela.

Chief Secretary has taken up the issue with the Secretary of the Ministry of Steel.

Citizens were demanding for the ESIC Medical College in the Steel City for more than two years.

However ESIC decided to set up the Medical College here as the State Government offered land on the outskirts of the Capital City.

… While Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has proposed to up grade Bokaro Steel Plants’ hospital to a Medical College, similar move is needed feel, Mr.Mishra.

So the Chief Secretary discussed the matter with Union Secretary Steel to set up a Medical College at Rourkela under the aegis of Ispat General Hospital (IGH).

IGH is an excellent hospital and has lot of facilities along with top medical personnel.

Now the State Government will take up the issue with Chief Minister batting for the same, said sources.

Chief Minister is likely to discuss the issue with Union Minister Steel in this regard, said sources.

For long we have been urging the Odisha government to take up with SAIL for a medical college. Finally the Odisha government came to senses. I guess better late than never. In particular we pointed out that since SAIL is making a medical college in Bokaro, it should be pursued for one in Rourkela.  Following are some pointers regarding the medical college SAIL is making in Bokaro.

(i) News articles that mention this: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070226/asp/jamshedpur/story_7441681.asp

(ii) The web page of the Bokaro Ispat Educational trust which talks about this: http://www.bietrust.com/

(iii) The site http://www.hsccltd.com/secured%20projects.htm which mentions that its is doing a pre-feasibility study for SAIl medical college in Bokaro.

Also, some time back there was news that SAIL Rourkela was looking for renewing its mining lease. If it is still hanging, then it makes it a perfect time to broach this topic with SAIL management and the Steel Ministry in Delhi. (http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowBussinessNews.asp?id=8891 )

 Some of our earlier articles mentioning this point are at: 

• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/59.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/96.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/97.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/168.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1101.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1134.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1172.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1465.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3108.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4022.

10 comments May 17th, 2010

NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2010: Prateeksha Das from Rourkela has the top individual entry

The web page of this contest is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/. The results of the 2010 page is at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/Results/2010/index.html. Following sentence is from that web page.

Prateeksha Das, Ispat English Medium School, Odisha, India’s entry "Paradise Reclaimed" won the inaugural Bruce Clark Memorial scholarship which goes to the top individual entry.

She is from the 11-12 grade.

Following is from Dharitri.

Last year a team from Bhubaneswar co-won the grand prize.

16 comments May 5th, 2010