Odisha HRD

Some National Institutions/Universities and their locations; planning for the future in Orissa

Update on 27th April 2011: The Central University location has been changed to Bander Sindri near Ajmer and only 80 kms from Jaipur. The Innovation University (previsouly referred to as National University) aiming for world class is now pushed for Jaipur. [Times of India].

Tathya.in has a report that mentions some official saying that because of the lack of an airport in Rourkela central government will not agree to have ESIC medical college in Rourkela. I think this is a completely frivolous argument; I don’t see much connection between an ESIC medical college and an airport. (Often airport is a codeword for adequate infrastructure. If that is the case Rourkela indeed has the infrastructure for an ESIC medical college.)

However, in regards to certain centrally funded institutions, such a requirement is in the background and mentioned by journalists, even if they may not be spelled out explicitly. So while pushing for an ESIC medical college in Rourkela, we should set our target to push for more functioning airports as a next action item. Following is a more detailed analysis.

Given below are the locations of some national institutions and some related attributes. It is easy to see that for the locations of IITs, IIMs and National Universities being near (say within 120 kms or 2 hrs) an operational airport has been an important factor. For national universities, in addition being in a large (1 million plus metropolitan area) area with other research institutes has also been spelled out as an important criteria and it is reflected in the locations that are picked.  

On the other hand, the newly established central universities are in towns of all sizes and the locations of the NITs are mixed. The next level centrally funded but locally focused technological institutes, SLIET, Longowal, ABAGKC IET, Malda and Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar are on purpose established in rural areas and smaller towns. Unlike the NITs these institutions take only local students and also have programs focused on local needs. Nevertheless, their quality need not be bad. For example, SLIET is considered quite good.

Looking to the future following are some points relevant to Orissa.

• For Orissa to have future central institutions like IIM, SPA, etc. to be in a location outside of Bhubaneswar, Orissa must push for the quick establishment of airports and other infrastructure in other parts of the state. For example, the airports in Jharsuguda and Rourkela are the closest to be operational and they should  have scheduled flights at the earliest. Otherwise new centrally funded institutions may again be established near Bhubaneswar and crying hoarse after the fact may not be productive.
• Similarly the knowledge commission has proposed the establishment of 50 national universities in the long run. Considering that the education budget significantly increases from one 5 yr plan to the next, I would not be surprised if there is another set of them made during the 12th plan. Orissa must be prepared for that and by that time (there is a short window) have other areas in Orissa with adequate infrastructure that are being deemed necessary for a national university.
• Orissa must take advantage of the industrial and investment interests in Orissa, mostly due to its minerals, and develop metropolitan areas with larger population base. Currently the local people are creating roadblocks rather than helping in such development.
• In 2010 we should do our best to convince the planning commission, the PM and MHRD that the 12th plan (starting 2012) should include more centrally funded institutions of the kind that can be located in rural or semi-urban areas. In particular,
  • A centrally funded but locally focused technological institute (like SLIET) in all states. The one in Orissa could be located in Kalahandi or Balangir, the other two KBK districts that lack centrally funded institutions.
  • Two regional universities in each major states that are funded 50-50 by the state and the center. (This would be better than one centrally funded institute.)
  • Multiple branches of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in districts with high tribal population.
     

The NITs.

The IITs. 

National Universities

New Central Universities

IIMs

October 4th, 2009

Cabinet approves 9 new NITs; Arunachal Pradesh left out

Following is from the PIB release at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=52692.

The Union Cabinet today approved setting up of new National Institutes of Technology (NITs). These new NITs will be established in Manipur; Meghalaya; Mizoram; Nagaland; Goa (which will also cater to UTs of Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshdweep); Pudducherry (which will also cater to Andaman & Nicobar Islands); Sikkim; Delhi (which will also cater to Chandigarh) and Uttrakhand.

…

The new approved NITs are categprized under two Schemes, as follows:

(a) Scheme “A” consisting of proposed NITs at Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa, which will also cater to UTs of Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep, Pudducherry, which will cater to Andaman & Nicobar Islands also and Sikkim; and

(b) Scheme “B” consisting of approved NITs at Delhi (which will also cater to Chandigarh) and Uttrakahand.

Each of the NIT under scheme A will be established at a cost of Rs.250 crore while each of the NIT in scheme B will be set up at a cost of Rs.300 crore. Total project cost is Rs.2600 crore. During 11th Plan the expenditure will be of the order of Rs.540 crore and for the year 2009-2010 expenditure will be of the order of Rs.50 crore.

Main beneficiaries will be the students from the States/UTs which at present do not have NITs as seats will be earmarked for such students in these NITs along with seats earmarked to be filled on all India merit basis.

Presently there are 20 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), located at Agartala, Allahabad, Bhopal, Calicut, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jamshedpur, Kurukshetra, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Rourkela, Silchar, Srinagar, Surat, Surathkal, Tiruchirapalli and Warangal.

Comparing with an earlier PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=41316&kwd=, it seems Arunachal Pradesh has been left out. One excuse may be that Arunachal Pradesh has NERIST, a nationally funded institute. I guess if people of Arunachal Pradesh complain, NERIST may get upgraded to an NIT.

Although initially it was mentioned that 10 new NITs will be established, the reason only 9 are now approved, is that the 10th slot perhaps went to the ABA Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute. This is mentioned in http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081217/jsp/nation/story_10263837.jsp.

1 comment September 17th, 2009

Thinking ahead to the 12th plan that starts from 2012 – Regional Universities, National and Regional Libraries, and Rural Sc. and Tech. Institutes

The duration of the 11th plan is from 2007-2012. We are now in 2009 and very soon 2012 will be looming. My guess is that the planning commission may already be in its preparatory stage to start planning for 2012. Considering that one of the big focus of this government is to increase the GER (gross enrollment ratio) in higher education from 12.4% to 30% by 2020, the 12th plan will also pay significant attention to higher education. The national knowlede commission has also recommended that  India have up to 50 national universities and 1500 universities. With that in mind, following is part of something that I wrote to Prof. Yash Pal (and copied to to Sam Pitroda) in June as a response to Prof. Yash Pal’s draft. (Prof Yash Pal replied back saying: "I thank you for your excellent and concerned suggestions. I have shared them with some of my colleagues. I am sure they would be taken up by some of them. Our report will be submitted in a week. Then will start another phase. Many of these will keep reverberating. Thank you again.")

ii) Regional Universities with 50-50 split between state and the center:

The Central government now has central universities and is proposing 14 national universities. In these universities the students are and will be from across the country and the universities will be funded 100% by the central government, except land being given by the state.

As you have noted some of the centrally managed universities and institutes (IITs, etc.) have a good structure and are doing the best.

As a way to transfer this first-hand to the states I propose the establishment of “Regional Universities” which are funded 50-50 by the state and the center and the students are 50-50 between the state and the rest of the country. This will be similar to the structure of the erstwhile “Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs)”, which have now been transformed to NITs. The original RECs were funded 50-50 by the state and center and had 50-50 students from the state and the rest of the country. The NITs are funded 100% by the center.

Eventually the regional universities may be funded 100% by the center. This idea has many benefits:

(a)    The direct collaboration between a state and the center helps in the transfer of know-how of how to develop and manage a good university.

(b)   It costs less for the center to create another 30-40 good universities, as the cost is shared 50-50.

(c) It helps develop additional knowledge centers in the states. (Most RECs were established in second rung cities in their respective states. REC/NIT in Orissa is in Rourkela, in Tamil Nadu it is in Trichy, in Maharashtra it is in Nagpur, in Karnataka it is in Surathkal, in West Bengal it is in Durgapur, etc.)

I think this is something feasible and should be pushed with the planning commission. Even with the new central universities and national universities many states have large metropolitan areas that  did not get one and are in need of a good (at least partially) centrally funded institution and university. That gap can be filled with the above proposed regional universities. In Orissa possible location of such a regional university could be Rourkela or Jharsuguda.

The proposed national universities also had stringent criteria attached to them, which made it difficult to distribute them. For example, the PIB announcing them said:

As regards 14 Central Universities aiming at world class standards, it has been considered necessary that these are located in or near selected large cities which would automatically have the kind of connectivity and infrastructure which such universities would need.

Earlier reports mentioned prime locations being an important factor and gave an example criteria of what they meant by a prime location. They cited proximity to CSIR labs.

Like the erstwhile RECs, the proposed regional universities need not have such stringent conditions allowing them to be located in places like Durgapur, Kadapa, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, etc.

Another item that I had in my mail to Prof. Yash Pal, which should be pushed for the 12th plan is as follows:

(vi) University and local communities; National and regional libraries:

I think a good library should be an integral component of each of the universities. Currently the libraries in most universities and colleges in India are pathetic. While the libraries are improved it should also mandate that a big part of the library materials, should be available for browsing for common folks who are not necessarily enrolled in the university. In the US any one can walk into a university library, be it Berkeley (a state university) or Stanford (a private university). I am not sure if that is the case with respect to the universities and colleges in India.

While we are discussing libraries, like central universities and national universities, the Indian government should establish a national library in each state capital (100% funded by the central govt.), and a regional library (funded 50-50 by the state and the central govt.) in another city of a state. In 5-10 years there should be good libraries in each district and in 10-15 years in each block. (When I walk into the local library in the US, I envy not growing up in the US and recall having to beg my local book store in a cabin near my house in Bhubaneswar to lend me translations of the world literature book series. I could not afford to buy them. Nor did my school have them.)

A new item that I have mentioned once in a while and that can be genarlized for the 12th plan is to establish centrally funded rural technological institutes like SLIET (Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology) in Punjab and the recently proposed ABA Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering and Technology in West Bengal, in each of the other major states of the country. In Orissa, Balangir and Kalahandi (Bhawanipatna) are good possible locations for this. (Orissa should aim for having a centrally funded institute in each of the undivided KBK+Kandhamal districts.) Although centrally funded, these institutes are different from the NITs. The PIB release in the context of ABA GKC IET says the following:

The Institution will offer courses in Engineering and Technology to cater to the various manpower requirements of the region, with special emphasis on courses relevant to the local population such as in food technology & sericulture.

Initially, the Institution would start with Certificate level courses leading to Diploma, Degree and Post-graduate levels later.

The total project outlay of the Institute will be around Rs. 97 crores.

Dear Readers: Please suggest your thoughts and ideas on the 12th plan. Even if your main interest is about your home town, think of a way to put it in national terms.

4 comments September 14th, 2009

Rajasthan uses a balanced approach in choosing locations for its national institutions

Update on 27th April 2011: The Central University location has been changed to Bander Sindri near Ajmer and only 80 kms from Jaipur. The Innovation University (previsouly referred to as National University) aiming for world class is now pushed for Jaipur. [Times of India]

The panel set up by the CM of Rajsthan has picked the following places to recommend to the central government for the various national institutes and universities coming up in Rajasthan. (From a Times of India report and another Times of India report)

• IIT : Jodhpur
• IIM: Udaipur
• National University aiming for world-class: Ajmer 
• Central university: Bikaner.

The committee also recommended:

• a "futuristic" heritage conservation and museology centre in Jaipur
• an institute of Food Technology in Hadoti region of Kota

Currently the following national institutions exisit or are being made in the following places in Rajasthan:

• NIT: Jaipur
• LNMIT (private but top-notch): Jaipur
• National law School: Jodhpur
• AIIMS-like institution (being made): Jodhpur

The institutions are nicely distributed between various cities of Rajsthan, although people of Jaipur and Kota are not happy. The population of these locations are:

• Jaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 3.1 million (has inetrnational air connectivity)
• Jodhpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 988K  – (332 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
• Udaipur (World Gazetteer 2009): 457K – (400 kms from Jaipur; has air connectivity)
• Ajmer (World Gazetteer 2009):  604.7K – (131 kms from Jaipur)
• Bikaner (World Gazetteer 2009): 624.6K – (321 kms from Jaipur)
• Kota (World Gazetteer 2009): 823 K (242 kms from Jaipur)

In contrast in Orissa the distribution of national institutions are more Bhubaneswar centric. Following is the status:

• IIT: Bhubaneswar
• NISER: Bhubaneswar
• AIIMS-like (being made) : Bhubaneswar
• National Law University: Cuttack (part of Bhubaneswar metroplex)
• IIIT (state-funded) : Bhubaneswar
• National University aiming to be world class: Bhubaneswar
• Vedanta University (private): Puri
• NIT: Rourkela
• Central University: Koraput
• IIIT (centrally funded): state wants it in Berhampur; center has identified as Bhubaneswar

Unfortunately, one of the reason given behind the above selection is the lack of connectivity and the size of places. Following is some information on that.

• Bhubaneswar (World Gazetteer 2009): 1.67 million  (has airport but no inetrnational connectivity)
• Rourkela (World Gazetteer 2009): 551 K  (no air connections) – 334 kms from Bhubaneswar
• Berhampur (World Gazetteer 2009): 403 K (no air connections) – 160 kms from Bhubaneswar
• Koraput-Jeypore-Sunabeda: 200K+ (no air connections) – 499 kms from bhubaneswar
• Puri (World Gazetteer 2009): 185K – 60 kms from Bhubaneswar 
• Sambalpur (World Gazetteer 2009): 258 K (no air connections)  – 321 kms from Bhubaneswar
• Jharsuguda-Belpahar-Brajarajnagar: 200 K (no air connections) – 374 kms from Bhubaneswar; 50 kms from Sambalpur

For the future, following are some of the steps that Orissa government needs to urgently take regarding developing more larger urban areas and having the national institutions more evenly distributed:

• Make sure the centrally funded IIIT is established in Berhampur
• Establish functioing airports in Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Koraput at the earliest
• Push for international flights to Bhubaneswar
• Push for upgradation of UCE Burla (Sambalpur area) to an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
• Push for the establishment of a branch of IGNTU (Indira Gandhi National Tribal University) in Phulbani
• Push for the establishment of IIM outside of the Bhubaneswar area
• Push for the establishment of a centrally funded KBK Inst of Engineering and Technology (along the lines of SLIET and ABAGKIET) in Kalahandi or Balangir.
• Push for upgrading another medical college (Berhampur or Sambalpur) to AIIMS level.
• Push for establishing NID in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
• Push for establishing NIPER in a location outside of Bhubaneswar
• Push for a BITS Pilani campus in a location outside of Bhubaneswar

9 comments June 12th, 2009

Land identified in Koraput for Central University; Branch of IGNTU proposed for Phulbani

The following is from Samaja.

It is high time people of Kalahandi go to the CM for higher education institutes in Kalahandi. In particular they should demand a state university and a centrally funded BPIET (Biju Patnaik Inst of Engineering and Technology) in the line of SLIET and ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury IET.  The people of Kalahandi need to be strategic in terms of what they can get at this time. For example, UCE Burla supporters initially, for several years, were going after a deemed university status. It was going very slowly. Once they switched to demanding for state unitary university status, things happened fast. Similarly, people of Kalahandi should realize that they should not put all their egg in one basket.  IMHO, shifting of the location from Koraput to Kalahandi after the location is announced by the CM and mentioned in the assembly is unlikely, and I hope I am wrong, but a new central university in Kalahandi has a low chance of happening soon. So as a practical matter people of Kalahandi should, for now, ask for a state university and a BPIET. They don’t have to retract their demand for a central university; that can continue.

16 comments December 19th, 2008

Story behind the the ABA Ghani Khan Institute of Engineering and Technology

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The human resource development ministry has decided to open nine new NITs instead of 10, replacing the tenth with an institute to be named after A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury.

The Union cabinet approved the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering and Technology on November 20, allocating Rs 97 crore for the project.

The institute will be based in Malda, the late Congress leader’s bastion.

… a cash-strapped government has quietly decided to scrap one NIT to accommodate the institute named after Choudhury without spending more.

… Unlike the NITs, which have a national character and admit students from across the country, the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute will primarily cater to local students, sources said.

“It will not be an NIT and will not even be run like one. The idea, pushed by the late Congress leader’s family, was not to have a national institution but a memorial to Choudhury. And that’s what this institute will be,” a source close to HRD minister Arjun Singh said.

… The Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute will not be run by a central law.

Choudhury’s family members, it is learnt, have met Arjun at least twice to urge him to start the institute. A source in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that it, too, had been petitioned by the family.

…But the HRD ministry, the sources said, decided instead to propose the Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute in place of one NIT.

In 2009 if there is a friendly government in the Center Orissa should try for Biju Patnaik Instutute of Engineering and Technology along the above lines.

2 comments December 17th, 2008

Centrally funded non-NIT/IIT engineering colleges in various states; need a KBKIET in Kalahandi

Besides IITs and NITs some centrally funded engineering colleges are being established by the central govt. in various states. This includes the Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology in Punjab and Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar, Assam.

Following is a PIB report on a similar institute being established in Malda, West Bengal.

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for establishment of Ghani Khan Choudhary Institute of Engineering & Technology, as a Centrally funded institution in Malda, West Bengal on the modular pattern of teaching as adopted by Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology (SLIET), Longowal, Punjab. The Institution will offer courses in Engineering and Technology to cater to the various manpower requirements of the region, with special emphasis on courses relevant to the local population such as in food technology & sericulture.

Initially, the Institution would start with Certificate level courses leading to Diploma, Degree and Post-graduate levels later.

The total project outlay of the Institute will be around Rs. 97 crores.

Orissa should ask for a similar engineering college to cater to the backward KBK+ districts and located in Kalahandi.

Koraput will have the central university; Branch of IGNTU is being pursued in Kandhamala. So an engineering college like SLIET should be located in Kalahandi. The institute can be called KBK institute of Engineering and Technology (KBKIET).

November 20th, 2008