.. In addition to the basic salary, NISER faculty is entitled to allowances as admissible to Central Government Employees stationed at Bhubaneswar and to the DAE’s update allowance, which is currently Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000 per year depending on the scale of pay. They will also receive other fringe benefits (like Relocation Grant, Reimbursement of telephone charges, financial support to attend national/international Conferences/Seminars/Workshops, etc.) which will be comparable to the best in the country.
1. Professor : Scale of pay : Rs 18,400 – 500 – 22,400
2. Associate Professor : Scale of pay : Rs 16,400 – 450 – 20,000
3. Assistant Professor : Scale of pay : Rs 12,000 – 420 – 18,300
including allowances as admissible to Central Government Employees in Kolkata.
… In addition to pay and allowances the faculty members may be provided with the following:
Reimbursement of telephone charges up to Rs 750 per month.
Rs 4000 per year as book grant.
Reimbursement of 75% of membership fee (restricted to Rs.5,000.00) of two international and two national professional bodies every year.
Financial support to attend national/international Conferences/Seminars/Workshops, etc.
Seed money for starting research laboratory.
I wonder if IISERs have something comparable to the DAE update allowance that NISER will pay. Otherwise that could be a selling point for NISER over the IISERs. Perhaps a knowledgeable reader can enlighten us on this aspect.
Friends and well-wishers have developed a comprehensive website for IIT Bhubaneswar. The website, http://iitbbsr.net, talks about advantages of IIT Bhubaneswar over other new IITs. It includes a section of frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Among the advantages of IIT Bhubaneswar is the fact that the first year classes will be held at IIT Kharagpur. And the students will be living with IIT Kharagpur students in the same hostels and taking classes taught by the faculty of the institute. Thus, these students will have a firsthand experience of an established IIT and will be able to bring the culture and traditions to IIT Bhubaneswar.
The other advantages of IIT Bhubaneswar are that it will be located in a well-connected metropolitan area with a population of 16.36 lakh. This is not too small to lack amenities and not too big to have the problems of big cities such as high crime rate, traffic congestion, power cuts, pollution, water scarcity, and mega slums.
Among the amenities, the IIT will be located right next to the lush green Chandaka-Dampara Elephant Sanctuary and close to the banks of the river Mahanadi. The green environment will provide the IITians plenty of opportunities to interact with the nature and recharge their brains.
At the same time, the students will be close to the malls, a water park, bookshops, museums and other urban facilities of Bhubaneswar. In terms of connectivity, Bhubaneswar is well-linked to the rest of the country by rail (from Amritsar, Hardwar, Goa and Cochin to Guwahati and Dibrugarh), road and air (Indian, Jetlite, Indigo, Kingfisher and Deccan).
But the main advantage of IIT Bhubaneswar will be that it will be driven to excellence by competition and collaboration with other national and premium institutes. The presence of NISER (National institute of Science Education and Research, which is at par with IISER but funded by DAE, proposed world-class Central University and the Rs12,000-crore Vedanta University will be advantageous to them.
It will provide the IITians additional research and management opportunities at XIM (Xaviers institute of Management), AIIMS-like institute, National Law University, Institute of Physics, Institute of Life Sciences, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Regional Medical Research Centre, Regional Plant Resources Centre, CIFA and CRRI.
In addition, Bhubaneswar houses the country’s major software companies, including Infosys, WIPRO, TCS and Satyam, and is the State’s hub in terms of investment. Finally, the social life and career of the IITians will be complimented by the presence of 30-plus other engineering colleges, seven universities (Utkal, OUAT, Culture, Ravenshaw, KIIT, SOA and Sri Jagannath) and two other upcoming universities (ICFAI and Sri Sri), in the area.
With all these advantages, and the State Government’s extraordinary support, whereby it plans to give 1,000 acres of land to IIT Bhubaneswar, much more than the 500-600 acres that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has suggested, IIT Bhubaneswar is destined to be among the top IITs of the country, feel educationists.
I was just talking to one of the Deans at IIT Kharagpur (mentor institution of IIT Bhubaneswar) about the arrangements for the first batch students of IIT Bhubaneswar. He said that as their plan stands now, during the first year
IIT Bhubaneswar students will be staying in the hostels (called Halls in KGP) together with IIT Kharagpur students
IIT Bhubaneswar students will be taught by IIT Kharagpur faculty; it will be like adding one (or more) sections to their first batch.
As per IIT Gujarat FAQ, IIT Gujarat students will be having classes at Vishwakarma Government Engineering College at Chandkheda, Gandhinagar – 382424 and thus may not have the chance to know first hand about the customs and culture of an established IIT.
The FAQ has the following to say about the teaching: The Institute is being set up with a lead time of just two months. In spite of that, IIT Bombay has ensured that there is competent and adequate number of faculty to teach the first year, which primarily consists of science and humanities courses. Some of the faculty has been hired directly; some are on the rolls of IIT Bombay while a few are retired but very reputed teachers from IIT Bombay. In the second semester, there is one course known as Departmental Introductory Course. As we are unlikely to have engineering faculty by that time, these courses will be taught by adjunct faculty from nearby Institutes (viz. Dhirubahai Ambani Institute on Information and Communication Technology and D.U. Institute of Petroleum, both of which are headed by former senior faculty of IIT Bombay.) Arrangements have also been made for the drawing and workshop. IIT Bombay is setting up an urgent recruitment process to ensure that quality engineering faculty is there before the second year starts.
IIT Rajasthan students will have class in IIT Kanpur for the first one or two semesters.
They will be staying separate (in apartments converted to hostel like accommodation) from the IIT Kanpur students.
They may be taught by some IIT Kanpur faculty and scientists (depending on who volunteers) and IIT Kanpur will be trying to recruit new faculty as well as availing the service of some retired faculty.
IIT Hyderabad will have classes in rented space near their ultimate location.
IIT Bhubaneswar will be mentored by IIT Kharagpur for three years. Initial information suggests that the first year of classes will be held in IIT Kharagpur and the students will stay with the IIT Kharagpur students in one of the hostels. Most likely they will stay in the MMM Hall.
The most important of these culture and traditions is the equal relationship between students at IIT Kharagpur. There every student is equal and no student fears another student. There are no big bosses or connected students in the campus who are feared by other students. Juniors call seniors by the same name that others call them; with no addition of a "bhaiyya" or "Sir." There are no physical fights in the campus. There are rivalries though; often centered around sports and cultural competitions; but NO physical fights.
This is in contrast to most other college campuses in India where students defer to their seniors and there are some students in campus to whom every body is afraid of. Thus it is great that the first batch of IIT Bhubaneswar students will spend a year in IIT Kharagpur and bring back with them the fear-free non-violent culture of the IIT Kharagpur campus.
With Professor Damodar Acharya at the helm of IIT Kharagpur, the mentoring of IIT Bhubaneswar is in good hands. Prior to being the director of IIT Kharagpur, Professor Acharya was the AICTE Chairman in Delhi and prior to that the vice-Chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology, then operating from Bhubaneswar. Thus one can infer that he is well known and well connected in both Bhubaneswar and Delhi circles and this is a big advantage. For example, his suggestion that the Orissa government allocate more than the 500 acres, which the central government required, was received warmly and the Orissa government is indeed looking for a land of at least 1000 acres for IIT Bhubaneswar. So far, none of the other new IITs are thinking along those lines. Having extra land is very important as it will allow further growth of the IITs, which are being built for decades if not centuries to come. Decades later, IIT Bhubaneswar will have Prof. Acharya to thank for this foresight.
IIT Kharagpur, only 321 kms and 4.5-5hrs away from Bhubaneswar, and with 30+ trains, has many other ties with Bhubaneswar and Orissa. It has an extension center in Bhubaneswar from where it offers a PG Diploma in Information Technology and a 1.5-year part-time Diploma in intellectual property law. IIT Kharagpur professors have signed an MOU to develop a perspective plan of the Bhubaneswar metroplex and are involved in many other projects in Orissa. More than 50 faculty at IIT Kharagpur, including the Director and at least two Deans, are natives of Orissa. Thus faculty and leadership of IIT Kharagpur are familiar with Bhubaneswar and Orissa and their aspirations and are in a good position to mentor IIT Bhubaneswar. (There are many Orissa origin faculty at the various IITs and IISc who may also help IIT Bhubaneswar.)
Looking forward to the future IIT Bhubaneswar’s progress will be partly shaped by its competition and collaboration with three other marquee universities and institutions that are being established in the Bhubaneswar area.
NISER is a DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) funded institute that is admitting its second batch of students this year in 2008. The Prime Minister Dr. Mammohan Singh, while announcing the setting up of NISER said: "NISER will be at par with the IISER being established in other places but will operate under the umbrella of DAE. … When completed, I am confident that the National Institute of Science Education and Research will become a Mecca for science just as TIFR and IISc are today." Incidentally, NISER has a higher initial budget of 823.19 crores than the 500 crore budget of each of the IISERs, the 760 crore budget of each of the new IITs and the 720 crore budget of each of the WCCUs. With interdisciplinary research becoming key to solve complex grand challenges, like IISc, NISER will soon branch out to interdisciplinary centers and technological departments. With IITs also having scientific disciplines and interdisciplinary centers, down the road, IIT Bhubaneswar and NISER Bhubaneswar are expected to collaborate and compete with each other. This will drive both to excellence.
As of now Bhubaneswar is the only metropolitan area of the country which will have a science institute (NISER), an IIT and a WCCU. The metro areas that will have two of them are: Kolkata (an IISER and a WCCU), Pune (an IISER and a WCCU), Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar (an IIT and a WCCU), Chandigarh (an IISER and an IIT), Delhi-NOIDA (an IIT and a WCCU), Patna (an IIT and a WCCU), Guwahati (an IIT and a WCCU) and Bhopal (an IISER and a WCCU). Along with some of these metro areas Bhubaneswar will also have an AIIMS (like institute) with a budget of 332 crores as well as a IIIT.
The above is a projection to the future. But the ground reality is that it will take time for a new IIT in Bhubaneswar to catch up with the existing IITs in many respects. The existing IITs not only have an existing infrastructure and history, but also an alumni base that contributes to their growth and development. Same with respect to NISER and the well established IISc Bangalore. However, Bhubaneswar has one more trump card: the Vedanta University, that is coming up in Puri, about 40 kms and less than an hour from the outer edges of Bhubaneswar.
Vedanta University is a brainchild of industrialist Anil Agarwal, who has pledged a $1 Billion (i.e., Rs. 4,000 crores) towards it and envisions a budget of $3 Billion (i.e., Rs 12,000 crores) in making that university. The budget of this university is illuminating in its scale in that just the pledged 4,000 crores is close to the sum of the budget of two new IITs (760*2 = 1520 crores), a new IISER (500 crores), two new WCCUs (720*2=1440 crores), a new AIIMS (332 crores), and a new IIM (210.25 crores). However, the aim of the Vedanta University is to be like Stanford University and have a similar impact. In 2007, Stanford had an operating expense of $2.9 billion, an operating revenue of $3.2 billion, endowment of $17.2 billion and total asset of $29.3 billion. Hence, the 4,000 crores pledge by Anil Agarwal is only the cost of the initial phases of the Vedanta University and despite the cost differential between the US and India, to be comparable with Stanford, Vedanta University needs the 12,000 crores and perhaps more. However, the Anil Agarwal foundation has the foresight to acquire 6000+ acres of land (comparable to Stanford University’s 8180 acres) and build a city of 500,000 around the University with research parks similar to Stanford Research Park. The real estate holdings of the planned city will be able to provide Vedanta University with a sizeable endowment to realistically aim to become the Stanford of India. In the following interview of Anil Agarwal by a New York area PBS station, one can hear from the horse’s mouth about his vision for Vedanta University (starting at 3:20).
There is a high possibility that Vedanta University will not only play a significant role in Bhubaneswar and Orissa, but in all of India. Its private financing, sound financial model, lofty goals and an unprecedented donation of $1 billion, makes it likely to actually be able to hire top professors and nobel laureates, have graduate programs that rank high at the international level and produce graduates that will populate the premiere institutions and universities of India. This is relevant to the development of IIT Bhubaneswar in particular and all the IITs in general because there is a severe shortage of good academics to fill all the available positions in the IITs (and the WCCUs). In this the proximity of IIT Bhubaneswar to Vedanta University would put it at an advantage as many graduates of the later may prefer to remain in the area and maintain collaboration with their mentors and many may join IIT Bhubaneswar just to be close to Vedanta University.
Thus, with competition from, collaboration with, and synergies associated with NISER, WCCU and Vedanta University, IIT Bhubaneswar has a chance to excel and become one of the top IITs in the country. And if (a big if, but not impossible) all these institutes achieve their stated goals, then the Bhubaneswar-Puri area will have equivalents of a Stanford (Vedanta University), MIT (IIT Bhubaneswar), Berkeley (WCCU Bhubaneswar) and CalTech (NISER Bhubaneswar).
A brand new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is currently being established in Bhubaneswar, the vibrant, modern, capital city of Orissa. It is among the six new IITs that are scheduled to start classes this year. (The others are: IIT Hyderabad, IIT Patna, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Punjab and IIT Gandhinagar.) Bhubaneswar IIT is uniquely placed to become one of India’s top IITs within a decade.
This fledging institution will be the heart of Bhubaneswar, a burgeoning, modern city in eastern India with a population of 16.36 lakhs. It has all the amenities of a world-class metropolis: wide roads, luxury hotels, malls, restaurants, clubs, bookshops, museums, gardens, water parks and fountains. A picturesque city with boulevards, gardens and fountains, Bhubaneswar seems to have it all, minus the traffic, water problems, power cuts and the mega slums that dot most cities of India. It is well connected to the rest of the country by air, rail, and road.
With all major Indian software firms such as Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, Mindtree and Hexaware setting shop here, Bhubaneswar is also the eastern India’s IT hub. It is the East Coast Railway (ECOR) HQ and has headquarters of various private and public sector companies such as Navaratna NALCO, POSCO-India and Dhamara Port Company Ltd. Four major industrial clusters are about 100 kms from Bhubaneswar in each of the four directions: Kalinganagar to the North, Paradeep to the east, Chhatrapur to the South and Angul-Talcher to the west. With Orissa leading the country in investment, bagging 30 percent of the total investment in India in the last quarter (fourth quarter of 2007-08), mainly in the industrial and infrastructure sector, Bhubaneswar is abuzz with optimism.
Several national level institutes have recently been established or are being established in Bhubaneswar. Besides IIT Bhubaneswar, they include the National Institute of Science, Education and Research (NISER), which is equivalent to the IISERs but funded by the DAE, and which is currently admitting its second batch of students, an AIIMS-like institute, and a centrally funded World Class Central University (WCCU). At present Bhubaneswar is the only city in India that is scheduled to have an IIT, a science institute (NISER) and a WCCU; a IIIT and an AIIMS-like institute are additional pluses. In addition, the Anil Agarwal foundation is establishing Vedanta University in Puri, which is about 40 kms from the outer edges of Bhubaneswar. It has a budget of $3 Billion (Rs. 12,000 crores) and includes a personal pledged donation of $1 Billion (Rs 4,000 crores) by Mr. Anil Agarwal. Vedanta University is envisioned to be India’s answer to Stanford and Harvard. Other universities that are coming up in the Bhubaneswar area include ICFAI University, Sri Sri University, National Law University and Orissa Open University. At the college level, the Bhubaneswar area has 30+ engineering colleges with another 20+ in the pipeline and four existing medical colleges (SCB, KIIT, SUM, Hi-Tech) with several more in the pipeline.
IIT Bhubaneswar will admit students in three disciplines in 2008: civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. In case one may wonder, why civil engineering, instead of computer science that four of the other new IITs are having, one just needs to think of China and Beijing and imagine how far India has to go in terms of infrastructure development and the role of civil engineers in that development. This interview with Anil Agarwal is illuminating in that respect. (He also talks about his vision of Vedanta University.)
IIT Bhubaneswar students will be housed in IIT Kharagpur for the first year, which will act as the mentoring institution of IIT Bhubaneswar for a period of three years. During their stay these students will gain exposure to the established academic and cultural environment of the largest and oldest IIT, which they will carry home to IIT Bhubaneswar.
The Orissa government is extremely supportive of IIT Bhubaneswar and has committed to provide 1000 acres of land so as to accommodate future growth of this IIT. The 1000 acres is double the 500 acres required by the central government, and double the size of the other new IITs. Thus IIT Bhubaneswar will be the second largest IIT, after IIT Kharagpur. With the inherent advantages in terms of its location in the midst of rivers, forests and sanctuaries; as the heart of a rapidly growing and industrializing city and state; surrounded and to be driven to excellence by the competition from NISER, WCCU and Vedanta University; and a supportive state government that has put Bhubaneswar in the path of making it the knowledge-hub of the country; IIT Bhubaneswar holds the promise of being the best among the new IITs and becoming one of India’s top five IITs within a few years!
Update: As per Economic Times, IIT Bombay has expressed its inability to mentor the IIT in Indore this year as it is already mentoring IIT Gandhinagar.
Business standard reported the following.
……the human resource development ministry is planning to do away with the "society" system for the new IITs to hasten the process.
To award degrees, a body must be a university that is created under the central or state legislature. IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were created by a special Act of Parliament permitting them to award diplomas. They existed as "societies" and were later converted into an institute of national importance by calling them IITs and IIMs.
By doing away with the "society" requirement, the ministry can directly incorporate the new institutions into the IIT Act and declare them institutes of national importance, equivalent to universities capable of awarding degrees.
…….IIT Bombay will be mentoring two new IITs to come up in Gujarat and Indore, while IIT-Kharagpur will be mentoring IIT-Orissa for three years.
The counseling brochure is at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/CBrochure.pdf. But it has only information on three of the six new IITs where classes will start this year. Information on all the six new IITs where classes will start this year are at http://www.jee.iitb.ac.in/newiit.html. We copy the information from that site below. (We will provide additional information on IIT Bhubaneswar – misspelled as IIT Bhuvaneswar- in this site.)
Admission to New IITs:
The Government of India has announced setting up of 8 more new IITs in the 11th plan. Admissions in the following six new IITs, subjected to the approval@ of the competent authority of the Govt. of India, is likely to take place during the counselling session of JEE 2008. To begin with, each new IIT will admit students in the B Tech programmes in three branches only and the corresponding course codes for filling choice sheet is given in the table below. The academic programmes at these new IITs will commence in July/August 2008. The curriculum and syllabus as well as the fee structure and other rules for the new IITs will be broadly same as that of the respective mentor IITs.
S. No
New IIT
Mentor IIT
Courses offered* (course code)
1
IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Bombay
Chemical Engineering (N07), Electrical Engineering (N11), Mechanical Engineering (N24)
Computer Science and Engineering (H10), Electrical Engineering(H11), Mechanical Engineering (H24)
*40 seats [20+11+6+3;(1)] are available in each course.
@ If for any unforeseen reason the start of any new IIT is delayed, admission to that IIT will not be taken up during counseling session of JEE 2008.
The first year classes for IIT Punjab, IIT Rajasthan and IIT Bhuvaneswar will be conducted at the campuses of the respective mentor IITs. In the second year, the students from the above three IITs will be shifted to their respective locations. Classes for other new IITs will be conducted in the cities where the new IITs are located.
IIT Patna
IIT Patna’s campus will be on the outskirts of Patna in a 600 acre campus. Classes will start in 2008 from a temporary campus in Navin Govt. Polytechnic, Patliputra Nagar, a posh area of Patna. The campus will have 45000 sq ft of space. Two hostels to house boys and girls are also available next to the academic area. Faculty from IIT Guwahati will take the classes. It is expected that all operations will shift to the main campus by July 2010.
IIT Rajasthan
The location of the new IIT in Rajasthan will be announced by the Government of India. In the meantime, IIT Kanpur would be acting as the mentor institute of IIT Rajasthan.. Till the required infrastructure comes up, the classes will be held at the IIT Kanpur campus, after which the students will be relocated to the place in Rajasthan where the new IIT gets established. The students taking admission to the new IIT Rajasthan, along with their parents, will be required to give an undertaking to this effect. For the benefit of the aspiring applicants, further details of the academic programs and other procedures on IIT Rajasthan will be made available on the website of IIT Kanpur (www.iitk.ac.in/iitj) very soon. In the meantime, any queries can be made by sending e-mail to: iitj@iitk.ac.in or by calling at: (+91)-512-259-6244 (Tele-Fax).
IIT Gandhinagar
IIT Gandhinagar, in Gujarat, is one of the new IITs proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Gujarat is known for excellent infrastructure with thriving industries, prestigious academic and research institutes and an ambience which encourages entrepreneurship. IIT Bombay has been identified as the mentoring institution for the IIT in Gujarat. Till the campus of the new IIT in Gujarat gets established, the classes will be held within the premises of Vishwakarma Government Engineering College, Chandkheda, which is within the municipal limits of Gandhinagar. Students will be provided with residential and other facilities at a temporary location. The curriculum will be similar to that of IIT Bombay with some differences until the time the academic bodies of the new IIT is in place. Fee structure will be same as that of the mentoring Institute
IIT Bhuvaneswar
IIT Bhuvaneswar is one amongst the new IITs proposed by Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. Its location will be intimated in due course and the academic programme will start from 24 July 2008 in the IIT Kharagpur campus. After completion of first year in IIT Kharagpur, the students will be shifted to new location where IIT Bhuvaneswar will be established. The first year fee structure will be same as that of IIT Kharagpur.
IIT Punjab
IIT Punjab is one of the new IITs proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. Its location will be known in due course of time and the academic session 2008-2009 will start on July 23, 2008. The curriculum, course structure and syllabus for the first year courses will be broadly as per that at IIT Delhi. The first year fee structure will also be same as that at IIT Delhi. Classes will initially start at IIT Delhi campus, and subsequently the students will be relocated to its new location as soon as IIT Punjab is established. The students will have to move to the new place and they will not be accommodated at IIT Delhi campus; an undertaking to this effect will have to be given at the time of joining.
Faculty Positions at NISER Invitation to be part of a new initiative in science education
The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) has been setup at Bhubaneswar by the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India to be a unique institution of its kind pursuing undergraduate and post-graduate education in science combined with frontline research. The Government of India has made a very generous financial outlay to NISER for the purpose of setting up state-of-the-art research facilities in all branches of basic science and to promote interdisciplinary areas of research.
NISER is being setup in a sprawling 300 acre campus about 3 km from Khurda Road Railway Station on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar overlooking Barunei Hills. It will be a fully residential campus with modern living amenities including children’s school and health centre. Presently NISER operates from the campus of Institute of Physics, a premier research institution funded by the Department of Atomic Energy. The Institute of Physics has vibrant research programmes in theoretical and experimental nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and high energy physics. The infrastructure includes well established library, computer centre, 3MV Pelletron accelerator, a high resolution TEM and several other state-of-the-art instruments for experimental condensed matter research (for details see www.iopb.res.in).
NISER’s own academic block of about 5000 m2 area is under construction in the Institute of Physics campus which will also provide research laboratories for the faculty. Until NISER operates from the Institute of Physics campus, it may provide limited residential accommodation within the town. It is expected to move to the main campus by the academic session of 2011-12.
NISER invites applications from extremely motivated Indian scientists with a high-profile research agenda and a flair for teaching (especially at the undergraduate level) for the following faculty positions bearing scale of pay given against each:
Assistant Professor
12,000-375-16,500
Reader (F)
14,300-400-18,300
Associate Professor
16,400-450-20,000
Professor
18,400-500-22,400
Qualifications: Ph.D. in any area of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics
Experience: One/two years postdoctoral research and/or teaching experience is desirable for Assistant Professor Grade. For higher grades it should be appropriate to the positions applied for.
The age of superannuation is 65 years. The scale of pay is under revision. In addition to the basic salary, NISER faculty is entitled to allowances as admissible to Central Government Employees stationed at Bhubaneswar and to the DAE’s update allowance, which is currently Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 30,000 per year depending on the scale of pay. They will also receive other fringe benefits (like Relocation Grant, Reimbursement of telephone charges, financial support to attend national/international Conferences/Seminars/Workshops, etc.) which will be comparable to the best in the country.
NISER has sufficient funds to provide seed money to the new faculty to start their research programme. In addition the Department of Atomic Energy provides generous grants from its Prospective Research Fund to bright young scientists.
Interested candidates may apply enclosing:
Curriculum Vitae
List of Publications (with reprints of important papers as pdf files)
Names and addresses (with e-mail and fax number) of at least three referees
A statement of purpose and research programme
The qualification and experience prescribed are the minimum and mere possession of the same does not entitle a candidate to be considered for any position. However, the experience criteria may be relaxed for exceptionally meritorious candidates.
Applications should be sent by e-mail to careers@niser.iopb.res.in marking "Faculty in (branch)" in the subject field (branch being one of the disciplines mentioned above). This is an open advertisement and there is no time limit for sending the application, but the applications received will be taken up for consideration at regular intervals. Candidates are advised to request the Referees to send their letters of recommendations (preferably signed versions as pdf file) directly to NISER at the above e-mail address. Those having regular job in any organization should also send a "No Objection Certificate" from the current employer in electronic form.
All correspondence should be addressed to the above e-mail address only (or any other e-mail address that is notified on the NISER website in future). No postal correspondence is required at any stage. Enquiry regarding the outcome of the application is generally discouraged.
Many JEE qualified students may be wondering about the new IITs. In a series of articles we will talk about the IIT in Bhubaneswar and the advantages of the Bhubaneswar area.
Bhubaneswar has excellent connectivity by train, road and air. It has multiple daily direct trains to/from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, a daily train to/from Mumbai, and trains to/from all corners of India (Guwahati, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Jaipur, Punjab, Haradwar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Benras, Patna, Raipur, Bhopal, etc.) It has direct train connections to all the old IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, and Guwahati).
Following is a map of Bhubaneswar’s railway connectivity.
The students admitted to IIT Bhubaneswar will be taking their first year classes at IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT. Most likely they will stay in the MMM Hall at IIT Kharagpur. They will be staying with the IIT Kharagpur students.
In contrast, the IIT Gujarat students are reported to start their classes at the Vishwakarma Government Engineering College campus at Chandkheda in Gandhinagar district where IIT Bombay has the extension center. They will be more prone to bring with them the culture, tradition and history of that govt. college. IIT Hyderabad students will have to start from scratch, as it is reported that their classes will be held in Isnapur near SangaReddy in Medak district, near Hyderabad.About the arrangements in IIT Rajasthan, Times of India has this to say: "Apartments of IIT-K’s guest house would be converted into hostels for students of IIT-Rajasthan. Classes and labs would be held in shifts. If IIT-K classes are held in the morning shift, IIT-R students would have to attend classes in the evening and similar arrangement would be made for labs".
The proposed IITs and their mentor institutions are IIT Gujarat/Gandhinagar (IIT Bombay), Punjab (IIT Delhi), Patna (IIT Guwahati), Rajasthan (IIT Kanpur), Bhubaneswar (IIT Kharagpur), and Hyderabad (IIT Madras). While all will offer electrical and mechanical engineering, IIT Gandhinagar will offer chemical engineering, IIT Bhubaneswar will offer civil engineering, and the rest will offer computer science and engineering.
“The curriculum, syllabus, fee structure and other rules for the new IITs will broadly remain the same as in the respective mentor IITs,” the IIT-B official said.
The first-year classes for IIT Punjab, Rajasthan, and Bhubaneswar will be conducted at the campuses of the mentor IITs. The students will be shifted to the respective locations in the second year. Classes for the other new IITs will be conducted in the cities where the IITs are being located.
“Consequent to the government of India issuing notification for the setting up of eight new IITs in the 11th Plan, admissions to three more new IITs in Punjab, Gujarat and Orissa, other than at Hyderabad, Patna and Rajasthan, for the academic session 2008-09 are likely to be made through JEE-2008,” said an official release.
… Counselling for admission begins on June 17 for the declared All-India rank holders. Courses allocated to the successful candidates will be declared on June 30.
“An extended merit list has also been drawn to facilitate admission to other government institutions. Students on the list might be counselled by the Indian Institute of Space-Science Technology, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and Rajeev Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology. The Indian Institute of Maritime Studies also offers admission based on JEE-2008 results,” said the release.
The Union ministry of human resources development, it is learnt, has given the nod to another three IITs to begin functioning from 2008-09. These are the IITs which are to be located in Orissa, Gujarat and Punjab.
So instead of the initial three IITs that were slated to begin functioning from the forthcoming academic session, the government has now decided to launch another three. A decision to this effect is reported to have been taken earlier this week and conveyed to the existing IITs that will act as their mentor institutes.
The three IITs that were initially expected to begin functioning from 2008-09 are the ones in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
… Punjab will have IIT-Delhi as its mentor institute while the one in Gujarat will have IIT Powai as its mentor. The one in Orissa will be mentored by IIT Kharagpur. As for the admissions to these three institutes, sources said no decision has been taken as yet on the numbers that will be admitted to each. However, they will be admitted on the basis of the joint entrance examination (JEE) that has already been held and whose results are yet to be announced, said ministry sources. In the case of the IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and AP, each will be admitting 126 students for the 2008-09 session. No decision has been taken yet on the numbers that will be admitted to the IITs in Orissa, Punjab and Gujarat.
