Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pragativadi.
The Centre is in the lookout for for the eight new premier institutes of technology (IITs), six of which are set to start in the current academic session and the remaining from 2009-10.
The eight new IITs which are coming up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
The Union Cabinet recently approved establishment of eight new IITs with an estimated cost of Rs 6,080 crore.
The government had also approved creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of establishment of each of the new IITs, besides approving posts of a director and registrar. The directors, as per the public notice issued by the ministry, would be appointed after obtaining the approval of competent authority, based on the recommendations of the search-cum-selection committees. …
The aspirants for the post of directors can send their applications directly to the ministry, while the eminent persons can also nominate candidates and send their recommendations to the selection committee.
Even bureaucrats and officials of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) with requisite experience and qualification can apply for the post of directors through official channel, the notice said.
July 28th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
Over 100 civil, electrical and mechanical engineering students of IIT Bhubaneswar will start their classes on the IIT Kharagpur campus.
The Bhubaneswar institute is one of the six IITs opening this year, but a site for the institute has not yet been finalised in the Orissa capital.
“The Centre has asked us to do the hand-holding. We will hold their classes on our campus till the IIT Bhubaneswar campus is ready,” said Damodar Acharya, the IIT Kharagpur director who is the acting head of the Bhubaneswar institute.
… We have the facilities to accommodate all the 104 (Bhubaneswar) students. We did not want to arrange for separate classes or laboratories for them, like the other IITs, as we wanted them to be exposed to the world-class facilities available here,” Acharya told a news conference today.
These students will, however, get their degrees from Bhubaneswar.
“We have chosen a few sites for the IIT,” said Orissa industries minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan.
According to the Centre’s specifications, 600 to 1,000 acres are required to set up an IIT. The site should also be close to an airport, railway station and national highway. Besides, two million gallons of water should be available every day.
Last month, a two-member team from IIT Kharagpur inspected a few sites in and around Bhubaneswar.
A senior official of the Orissa industries department said a 900-acre plot near Banki, 62km from Bhubaneswar airport and close to the Mahanadi, was judged the most suitable site.
Acharya said the government would allot 40 faculty members for the additional students.
On a related note there is an excellent article about recruiting faculty for the new IITs by Prof. Pankaj Jalote of IIT Delhi. Prof. Abinandan adds to it in his blog post.
July 24th, 2008
As the readers know eight new IITs are being established in India. They are: IIT Bhubaneswar (mentored by IIT Kharagpur), IIT Hyderabad (mentored by IIT Madras), IIT Rajasthan (mentored by IIT Kanpur), IIT Bihar (mentored by IIT Guwahati), IIT Punjab (Mentored by IIT Delhi), IIT Gandhinagar (mentored by IIT Bombay), IIT Himachal Pradesh (mentored by IIT Roorkee) and IIT Indore (mentored by IIT Bombay). Of these the first six will start classes this year.
The following news mentions that of the six that will start classes this year, admission to IIT Bhubaneswar will start on July 23rd and classes will start immediately after that, while admission to the other IITs will start next month. (Note that classes at IITs start immediately after admission.) Big thanks to the mentor institution IIT Kharagpur for this. This action is in line with our arguments on advantages of IIT Bhubaneswar over the other new IITs. Following is an excerpt on this from a news item in Economic Times.
Admission to the Bhubaneswar IIT, which is among the six new ones to come up this year, will begin on July 23 at the Kharagpur IIT here, sources said.
120 students will get admission to the new IIT this year and Kharagpur IIT director Damodar Acharya will be its coordinator, they said.
Faculty will be exchanged between the two IITs as and when required and all cooperation and academic support will be extended by the Kharagpur IIT, which is the nearest, in the initial stages, the sources said.
Admission to the rest of the five new IITs would begin next month.
Following is an excerpt from Pioneer’s report on this.
"We will ensure that from day one students feel they are studying in an IIT," Professor Acharya said. The IIT Orissa was also registered under the Society Registration Act in the office of IG in Cuttack on Saturday.
July 19th, 2008
The tender is posted at http://www.dcsem.gov.in/page/ced14.htm reachable via http://www.dcsem.gov.in/Page/Tender.htm. Following is an excerpt of that tender.
Project Engineer(EW), DCS&EM, DAE, 1/AF, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata-700 064, on behalf of President of India, invites sealed tenders up to 15.00 hrs. on 30.07.2008 from eligible Contractors for the following works and to be received & opened at 15:30 hrs. on same day in the office of the Engineer-in-Charge, DCS&EM, DAE, Institute of Physics, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar-751 005 :-
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Sl.
No.
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Name of work
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Estimated cost
(Rs. in lakhs)
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Security
Deposit
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EMD
(in Rs.)
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Period of Contract
(in months)
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1.
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Providing one number ‘T’ marked tourist Tata Sumo/ Bolero/ Qualis (non A.C.) for conveyance of DCSEM Staff within Bhubaneswar and its neighbouring districts.
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1.75
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10% of order value
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3,500/-
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12 Months.
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July 19th, 2008
Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=40469.
Cabinet has today approved the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and at Indore in Madhya Pradesh at a total cost of Rs. 6080 crores (@ Rs. 760 crores per IIT) for 6 years period, and consequently approval for forming of Societies for creating legal entities for the new IITs. Academic sessions are going to commence in 6 new IITs starting from 23.7.2008. The IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are going to commence their classes for about 120 students each for B.Tech programmes through temporary campuses located near the place where the IIT campus is likely to be built. These 3 IITs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat are going to be mentored by the IITs of Madras, Guwahati and Bombay, respectively. The three IITs of Rajasthan, Punjab and Orissa are going to commence their classes in the campuses of their mentor IITs at IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur, respectively.
The Cabinet has also approved the creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of establishment of each of the new IITs and have also specifically approved the post of a Director in each of the new IITs in the grade of Rs. 26,000 (fixed) and a post of Registrar in the grade of Rs. 16,400-22,400 for each of the new IITs. The Cabinet has also decided to raise the grade of all existing IIT Directors from Rs. 25,000 (fixed) to Rs. 26,000 (fixed).
The balance of two IITs at Indore in Madhya Pradesh and the IIT in Himachal Pradesh are likely to commence their sessions from the next academic year of 2009-10. All the State Governments have identified about 600 acres of land for the location of the new IITs. In case of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, Govt. have accepted the site recommended by the State Govt. and in the rest of the cases, the Site Selection Committee will inspect the offered sites in due course and will give its recommendations to the Ministry.
With a view to ensure good effective coordination as well as maintenance of excellence in the new IITs also, pending selection of regular Directors for the IITs, it has been decided that the Directors of the mentor IITs will work as Directors of the mentored IIT and the Chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the mentor IIT will also be the Chairman of the BoG of the mentored IIT.
With the creation of new IITs, high quality technical education will become accessible to more bright students as now hardly two percent of about three lakhs students who appear in the Joint Entrance Exam of IITs can get admission in them. The new IITs will also facilitate the increased output of high quality Engineering and Science graduates, postgraduates and Ph.D.s; Teachers for Engineering and Science subjects at College/University level and R&D and Intellectual Property generation in Engineering and Science.
Cabinet also approved in principle approval for taking over the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University – a constituent unit of the Banaras Hindu University, a Central University, its conversion into an Indian Institute of Technology and integrating it with the IIT system in the country.
It would also address State/Region specific technology related problems of States/UTs situated in the IITs’ Zones.
July 17th, 2008
Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=40292.
Whereas the Central Government is empowered under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956 to declare, on the advice of the UGC, an institution of higher learning as a deemed-to-be-university;
2. And whereas, a proposal was received from Department of Space for conferment of status of ‘Deemed-to-be-University’, under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, to ‘Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology’ being set up at that point of time under the aegis of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) near Thiruvananthapuram in the State of Kerala;
3. And whereas, the University Grants Commission has examined the said proposal and vide its communication bearing No.F.27-1/2007 (CPP-I) dated the 2nd January, 2008 has recommended conferment of status of ‘deemed-to-be-university’ to Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram for a period of five years;
4. Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, the Central Government, on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC), hereby declare that Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IISST) Thiruvanathapuram shall be deemed to be a university, under de novo category, for the purposes of the aforesaid Act, provisionally for a period of five years, with immediate effect, subject to the following conditions:
(i) The functioning of the IISST as well as its performance shall be reviewed annually by the UGC through its Expert Committee. The status conferred upon the IISST will be confirmed after five years on the basis of performance report s of the Expert Review Committee of the UGC and the recommendation of the Commission thereon;
(ii) The Department of Space shall finalise the Memorandum of Association (MoA) and Rules of the IISST in accordance with the model MoA/Rules prescribed by the UGC and in concurrence with the Commission. For this purpose, the Department of Space shall also take into account the variations observed by the UGC in the said MoA & Rules and rectify and amend the relevant provisions in concurrence with the Commission. The IISST may, however, retain the text of the provisions proposed under Clause 20 of its Rules.
5. The declaration as made in para 4 above is further subject to fulfilment of the following conditions :
(i) The objectives of the Trust concerned and ‘Deemed-to-be-University’ institution should confine to educational and related social and charitable activities. The IISST should not undertake or engage in any activities that are of commercial and profit making in nature.
(ii) As and when necessary, IISST shall update or revise or modify its MoA/Rules with the approval of the UGC. Further, specific changes/amendments, if any, suggested by the Ministry of Human Resource Development or/and the UGC shall also be carried out by the deemed-to-be-university institution in its MoA/Rules with the approval of the UGC.
(iii) The accounts of the IISST shall be open to inspection/audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. There shall also be no diversion of assets of the IISST Society without prior permission of the Government of India / UGC.
(iv) The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram shall continue to support the IISST with its infrastructure facilities till the time the IISST has a fully developed and permanent infrastructure of its own at the location near Thiruvananthapuram where such facilities are being developed by the Institute concerned.
(v) The academic programmes being offered or to be offered by IISST shall conform to the norms and standards prescribed by the relevant Statutory Councils such as the UGC and the AICTE. The IISST shall not offer / award, as the case may be, any degree(s) that are not specified by the UGC. It shall also ensure that the nomenclatures of the degrees, etc. to be awarded by it are specified by the UGC under Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956.
(vi) The IISST shall start new academic courses only as per the norms prescribed by the concerned Statutory Councils such as the UGC, AICTE, etc.
(vii) The IISST shall take all the required steps to get itself rated for valid accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), etc., as the case may be, in terms of instructions issued by the UGC vide its circular No.F.6-1(7)/2006(CPP-I) dated the 12th March, 2007.
(viii) The IISST shall not affiliate any teaching institutions / colleges.
(ix) The IISST shall take immediate steps to start Postgraduate, doctoral and post doctoral programmes in emerging areas of space technology.
(x) The IISST shall not conduct any distance education programme without prior approval of UGC and Distance Education Council (DEC). The guidelines issued by both the DEC and the UGC from time to time in the matter of imparting education through distance mode have to be complied with by it.
(xi) The IISST shall not start and run any study centre / extension centre / off-campus centre / off-shore campus without obtaining the requisite prior approval of the UGC/ Government of India, as the case may be.
(xii) The IISST shall take immediate steps to comply with all the suggestions made by the UGC’s Expert Visiting Committee in its inspection report submitted to the UGC, so as to bring about the recommended improvement.
(xiii) All the prescribed norms and procedures of the relevant Statutory Councils, such as UGC, AICTE, etc. and other authorities concerned in the matter of admission of students, intake capacity of students, starting of new courses / programmes, renewal of approval to the courses, etc. will continue to be in force, and shall be adhered to by the IISST.
(xiv) In all its advertisements, public notices, communications, etc., the IISST shall distinctly mention under its nomenclature by inserting (within brackets) a line, which shall read: “Declared as Deemed-to-be-University’ under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956”.
(xv) The IISST shall abide by all the norms and guidelines as laid down by the UGC and other Statutory Councils such as AICTE, etc. from time to time, as are applicable to institutions notified as ‘Deemed-to-be-Universities’
Deptt. Of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development
PIB, New Delhi/ Dated: Asadha 23, 1030/July 14, 2008
HB/
July 14th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
A draft Ordinance for 12 new universities and upgrading four Bilaspur University (Chattisgarh), Garhwal University (Uttarakhand), Goa University and Sagar University (Madhya Pradesh) is expected to be put up for Union Cabinet approval. This will take the number of central universities to 37.
An Ordinance for the new IITs is also being considered to implement the initiatives that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had formally announced in his Independence Day address in 2007.
The department of higher education had earlier sought Cabinet approval to amend the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, to include the eight new IITs and to form a society under the Societies Act, 1861, to set them up. The plan to form a society is being shelved to hasten the process. With the Banaras Hindu University’s Institute of Technology also slated to be upgraded to an IIT, the number of IITs will increase to 16.
For the new IITs, the government has provided for Rs 2,000 crore in the 11th Plan and, to start with, Rs 50 crore has been allocated in Budget 2008. For the 16 central universities, Rs 2,725 crore has been provided for in the Planm, with Rs 50 crore allocated in the Budget.
July 14th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
Under pressure from the IISERs at Calcutta, Pune and Mohali, the Centre is rushing to amend the National Institutes of Technology (NIT) Act of 2007 to recognise the degrees, top government officials have said.
Over 250 students are studying for unrecognised degrees at the institutes set up in 2006 at the behest of the Prime Minister as the Centre’s answer to the lack of top-quality undergraduate science schools.
In a month, the three existing IISERs — billed as potential Indian Institutes of Technology — are expected to increase their intake by 300 with a record number of students joining their courses this year.
Two new IISERs — at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram — are also starting classes this academic session, admitting an additional 42 students each in their debut year.
The human resource development ministry was earlier planning to introduce an IISER act recognising the five-year integrated MS degrees offered by the institutes.
But the new law, modelled on the IIT act that guides India’s premier engineering schools, was taking time and testing the patience of the IISERs, sources at the ministry and the institutes said. Now, the ministry has decided to recognise the IISER degrees through an amended NIT act.
“Minor amendments to an existing law are easier to pass through the cabinet and then Parliament. A completely new law is scrutinised more at both stages and takes longer. The IISERs are under pressure and can’t wait any longer,” a senior ministry official said.
The NIT (Amendment) Bill, 2008, has been drafted and is currently awaiting the approval of HRD minister Arjun Singh, sources said.
Ministry officials said they were hoping to introduce the amendment bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, expected in August.
… But the pressure from the existing IISERs is not the only reason behind the move now, ministry sources said. “We are starting two new IISERs this year, and the concern that five premier institutions would be offering courses without recognition proved too much,” an official said.
July 13th, 2008
Following is an edited version of a mail sent by Prof. D K Tripathy, Dean Student Affairs, IIT Kharagpur
From: dkt
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: admission to iit bhubaneswar
To: Chitta Baral
Dear Prof.Baral
Thanks. Nothing to worry. Classes are starting with IIT Kgp Students same time at IIT Kgp. Yesterday I have signed the welcome letter to IIT Bhubaneswar Students.All letters are despatched yesterday. Thanks for your concern. We too want to do our best.
With regards
Prof Deba Kumar Tripathy,
Dean Student Affairs and
Professor Production Engineering
Rubber Technology Centre,
Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur 721302 WB
In light of of the way the other mentor IITs are treating their mentee IITs it is great that IIT Bhubaneswar is mentored by IIT Kharagpur.
July 9th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Telegraph.
The existing IITs that are handholding the new ones as “mentors” asked the Centre to postpone the launch of these institutes at a meeting yesterday. The government has agreed.
The three new institutes in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat — to be mentored by the IITs in Chennai, Guwahati and Mumbai respectively — will now open in August, or even later, instead of this month. They had earlier been scheduled to start classes at the same time as their mentor institutes in July.
Even when they open, these three will start classes on temporary campuses near their state capitals, using rented infrastructure, the sources said. “It’s impossible to start our own academic session and the classes at the new institutes at the same time,” an IIT director said.
“Since no faculty has been hired for them, our teachers would then have to go and teach at the new venues. The new IITs can only start once we have hired their faculty.”
The decision came at a meeting between the directors of the seven existing IITs and the human resource development (HRD) ministry in Delhi yesterday, the sources said. The directors asked the ministry to speed up the paperwork for the establishment of the new institutes.
“They don’t have even their own insignia or letter pad, and we are expected to start classes! Till they are registered, we can’t even hire teachers or issue call letters to the students,” another director said.
The ministry may approach the registrar of societies next week, sources said.
“We will try and register the institutes as soon as possible,” a senior ministry official said, admitting that bureaucratic lethargy was at fault.
Although registration will allow the new IITs to hold classes, the Centre needs to amend the IIT Act to formally recognise the degrees they would offer. A cabinet note seeking the amendment has been circulated among the ministries.
Classes for the students admitted to the three other new IITs — in Punjab, Orissa and Rajasthan — may also be delayed. Their classes are to be held at their mentor institutes in Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur this year.
“Our faculty members’ workload will increase,” a senior IIT Kharagpur official said, adding that no formal decision had yet been taken to delay the classes for the Orissa institute’s students.
Plans to launch an IIT in Himachal Pradesh this year were aborted after IIT Roorkee, its mentor, threw up its hands.
July 7th, 2008
Following are excerpts from a report in The Hindu.
The Central University, Tiruvarur, will begin functioning from this year.
Since the Centre has come forward to commence the operations of the university, the government will identify temporary buildings to locate the university.
This was one of the decisions taken on the first day of the two-day annual District Collectors and police officers’ conference, chaired by Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi here on Thursday.
Mr. Karunanidhi advised Collectors of Perambalur, Villupuram, Tiruvarur and Sivaganga to expedite identification of land for setting up government medical colleges. He wanted them to hand over the lands at the earliest.
At the end of the first day of the conference, in which all the major schemes came up for elaborate discussion in the morning, it was decided that expeditious action would be taken to identify and allot land to the Central University in Coimbatore and the Indian Institute of Management in Tiruchi.
Following is an excerpt from a report in expressindia.com.
With the state government giving its nod to set up the Central university in Dehra sub-division of Kangra district, …
The university would include engineering, medical and other educational institutions to be opened under the umbrella of the Central University.
The Centre would bear the cost of the entire infrastructure. The state government has to provide the land and fulfill other formalities.
Sources said about 800 acres of land is available near Dehra town where the Himachal Road Transport Corporation workshop is situated. Sources said all revenue papers, along with the proposals, have been sent to the HRD Ministry. A team of the HRD Ministry has already visited the site and approved it.
July 2nd, 2008
