Following is an excerpt from a report in the Telegraph.
The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in West Bengal is set to become the first such institute in the country to offer an integrated masters degree in earth science.
There are five IISERs in the country, set up on the lines of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
The earth science course will be introduced in the next session and will cover subjects such as palaeontology, geo-chemistry, seismology, climatology and space science.
“Geo-chemistry will be a topical subject in Bengal. It will cover arsenic contamination, which is a major problem in the state. Space science, too, is neglected in Bengal,” said Dibyendu Nandi, an assistant professor at the IISER in Nadia.
… The institute will also offer an integrated PhD programme from August 2009 that will be open to graduates. The course duration will be five-seven years.
“The first two years will be for a masters course. A doctorate usually takes three to four years but may take longer in the field of science. Students will have up to five years to complete their PhD,” said Nandi.
In 2009, the PhD aspirants will be selected on the basis of their applications and interviews but from the next year there will be an all-India entrance test.
Both courses will be offered on the IISER’s new campus in Mohanpur in Nadia. “The 200-acre campus should be ready by the end of 2010,” said Nandi.
In keeping with its objective of making education and careers in basic sciences more attractive, the institute is also reaching out to students in schools and colleges.
… The institute is also planning to visit colleges across Bengal to spread awareness about science and research.
March 6th, 2009
(Thanks to Jagmohan Swain for suggesting to write about this.)
See the data at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1303.
Aggregate Total for every 500th rank in Common Merit List
|
Rank in Common Merit List
|
Aggregate Marks
|
|
1
|
433
|
|
501
|
287
|
|
1001
|
263
|
|
1501
|
248
|
|
2001
|
236
|
|
2501
|
227
|
|
3001
|
219
|
|
3501
|
212
|
|
4001
|
206
|
|
4501
|
200
|
|
5001
|
195
|
|
5501
|
191
|
|
6001
|
186
|
|
6501
|
182
|
|
7001
|
179
|
|
7501
|
175
|
|
7903
|
172
|
… first paper of IIT JEE 2008 consisted of 69 objective question with 246 marks. Second paper was also of same marks. So the full marks of IIT-JEE 2008 examination was 492. All questions were of objective type with negative marking. The duration of each paper was three hour.
… For OBC quota cutoff will be around 170 marks for rank 4000.
Based on the above and the open-close numbers given at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1303 one can see that one can get into an IIT by scoring 45% in the IIT JEE.
March 1st, 2009
Following is an excerpt taken today from IIT Bhubaneswar’s home page. It gives some idea on what IIT Bhubaneswar is aiming for.
IIT Bhubaneswar with its 935 acres of land will be designed to have a self contained campus for 10,000 students and 1100 faculty. A Science Park will be part of this institution. The Park will house a large number of industry supported R&D units. It will promote industry relevant collaborative R&D activities with the institute and facilitate practice relevant education.
The Institute will offer education and research programmes in disciplines of national and global interest. The specific local needs will also be taken care of. To promote inter-disciplinary education and research, the Institute will not have many narrow specialization oriented departments. It will have few Schools and each School can offer several programmes.
The Foundation Stone for this IIT was laid on February 12, 2009. An estimated amount of Rs.780 crores will be spent in next few years to develope this Institute. A Master Plan for this Institute is being developed. Global tender for choice of Architect has been floated. Within next 2 years, the Institute will be operational from the new campus.
February 26th, 2009
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Times of India.
A typographical error, it seems, has become a boon for the state. The Centre on Wednesday assured the state of an IIM, which was announced earlier, but termed as a “typographical mistake” made by the union HRD ministry.
“The HRD ministry has rectified the mistake. As announced, we will now take action to set up an IIM in Rajasthan also,” acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. In the recent budget speech, Mukherjee had said that the new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were to come up in Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.
However, Mukherjee later said he was informed that there was a typographical mistake made by the HRD ministry and these institutions were to come up in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.
This, however, led to strong protests in Rajasthan and MPs from the state raised the issue in the ongoing session of Parliament.
Mukherjee’s latest announcement has now put to rest the controversy over the IIM as the main opposition BJP was in a mood to make it a poll issue in the state. In fact, after the recent victory in assembly polls, the Congress high command has been heavily banking on Rajasthan and the party didn’t want to antagonise the voters of the state on the eve of Lok Sabha polls.
February 26th, 2009
The six new IITs that started classes last year are:
Here are some observations regarding visible progress with respect to these IITs.
February 15th, 2009
Following is the main contact person for IIT Bhubaneswar:
Bata Kishore RAY
Registrar
IIT Bhubaneswar
Samantapuri
(Behind Hotel Swosti Plaza)
Nandan Kanan Road
BHUBANESWAR-751 013
Tel: 91-674-2301982
Fax: 91-674-2301983
Email: iitbhubaneswar@yahoo.com
Web: www.iitbbs.ac.in
Beyond the above, the other names associated with IIT Bhubaneswar are:
- Director Designate: Prof. Madhusudan Chakrabarti
- Mentor Director: Prof. Damodar Acharya
- Chairperson of BOG (Board of Governors): B. Muthuraman (MD of Tata Steel)
February 12th, 2009
Following is from the PIB report http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=47448.
| Foundation Stone of Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, laid
TO ACT AS A CATALYST FOR THE RAPID INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE STATE
|
| |
15:15 IST |
Foundation Stone of the Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Bhubaneswar, was laid in Orissa today. Shri Arjun Singh, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, was to lay the Foundation Stone, but due to unavoidable reasons he couldn’t go to Orissa and the ceremony was held in his absentia at KANSAPADA ( Khudupur-Taraboi Road ) near Jatni Block Office, Khordha.
This new IIT at Bhubaneswar is part of the 8 new IITs that have been established in the country by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Ministry. Orissa is also to get a new Central University under The Central Universities Ordinance, 2009 which was promulgated by the President of India on 15.01.2009.
Following is the full text of the speech of Shri Arjun Singh, delivered on his behalf :
“ IITs are our national pride and owe their existence to the scientific temper and disposition of our First Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Making India, the knowledge hub of the world was a cherished dream of our first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Way back in 1951, the Government of India, under the leadership of Panditji, planned to have four such institutes of excellence in the field of Engineering and Technology. The first amongst four such institutes (one for each zone) came up at Kharagpur in eastern region.
During the Eleventh Plan Period, the Government of India has decided to have eight new IITs, including IIT Bhubaneswar. IIT Bhubaneswar was one of the new IITs to become operational with 120 students in July, 2008. It is also heartening to note that the mother of the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur, is mentoring this new IIT. I would like to compliment Prof. Damodar Acharyaji, Director, IIT, Kharagpur who has made all possible efforts to mentor this IIT. The necessary facilities are being created in IIT Kharagpur Extension Campus at Bhubaneswar so that the students of IIT Bhubaneswar could have their education from Bhubaneswar itself from the forthcoming academic session starting from July 2009. IIT Bhubaneswar will offer science based engineering graduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes of international standard in various disciplines.
The State of Orissa is a resource-rich state and we expect that IIT, Bhubaneswar will act as a catalyst for the rapid industrialization of the State. Indian Institutes of Technology are known the world over for imparting quality and relevant education to students. I am confident that this new IIT also carry forward the great tradition of IITs.
I am happy to note that the Government of Orissa has allotted 935 acres of land for this IIT. The State Government has also agreed to provide adequate facilities of water, electricity and road connectivity. I appreciate the support of the Government of Orissa to have this IIT in Bhubaneswar and would like to specially thank Shri Naveen Patnaikji for his support for the venture.
I take this opportunity to mention that we had made an assessment of various States about availability of degree and diploma level courses per lakh population in the field of technical education. We find that the availability of degree and diploma level courses per lakh population in Orissa is much below the national average. This obviously means that the regional imbalance in respect of technical education needs to be corrected. It is in this context that the setting up of an IIT in Bhubaneswar is a right and timely step. I am sure the Government of Orissa will derive maximum benefits from the Central Government schemes for educational advancement of this State.
The Government of India in its Eleventh Plan has given a major thrust to education. The Central Government has taken several initiatives in respect of new institution building. These include setting up of 30 new Central Universities, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, eight new IITs, seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), two new Schools of Planning & Architecture (SPAs), 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and 20 new IIITs. For this unprecedented expansion, the credit goes to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, who has been kind enough to accord very high priority to the education sector and provided a nine fold increase in the budgetary outlays for the higher education during the XIth Plan as compared to Xth Plan.
Capacity building in the diverse fields of basic science, engineering and technology, architecture, management will empower besides providing opportunities to the youth. It has been decided to launch a massive National Initiative for Skill Development under which it is proposed to give assistance for the establishment of 1000 new polytechnics. It is also proposed to upgrade infrastructure facilities of existing diploma level Government and Government aided polytechnics. In order to attract women in polytechnic education, we are proposing to provide financial assistance for the construction of women’s hostels in 500 polytechnics.
The Government is also going to incentivise the States for starting new Universities, besides giving a one time grant to the States on a matching basis to develop the infrastructure of State technical institutions. With these initiatives, we hope to increase access (by 5% GER during XI Plan) with equity and excellence.
8. I am happy to say that the State of Orissa is also getting its due share. We have decided in this Plan Period to have in Orissa State, one Central University, one National University aiming for world class standards, one IIIT, and several Polytechnics in those districts which currently do not have a Polytechnic. The Government and Private Engineering Colleges will also be getting opportunity to upgrade their facilities through TEQIP. This will provide our youth in the State with vocational and professional educational opportunities to realize their full potential.”
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KKP/ska
February 12th, 2009
In Section 8.44 (page 174) of Volume 1 (Inclusive Growth) of the 11th Five Year Plan, the following is mentioned.
The DAE has also initiated the process for establishment of the NISER at Bhubaneswar, at par with the IISER to undertake integrated five-year Masters’ courses and integrated M.Sc–Ph.D. programme in core and emerging branches of science to provide world-class education to students.
February 10th, 2009
Among the founding directors of all the new IITs, the founding director of IIT Bhubaneswar, Prof. Madhusudan Chakrabarti, seems to have the most administrative experience. His following interview to the IIT Kharagpur Scholars Avenue magazine shows his involvement in the expansion activities at IIT Kharagpur. It also shows his experience in dealing with tough issues.
February 1st, 2009
Following is from a report in Pioneer.
Prof. Madhusudan Chakrabarti will be appointed as the chief of the IIT, Orissa. Prof Chakrabarti is currently working as Deputy Director in IIT, Kharagpur. He is a Professor in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering. He is also a Life Member of the Indian Institute of Metals and Materials Research Society of India.
The following excerpt from a report in Telegraph lists the directors of all the six new IITs.
Directors to six new IITs were also appointed at today’s meeting. U.B. Desai, an electrical engineer from IIT Bombay, will head IIT Hyderabad. M.K. Surappa, who teaches metallurgy at IIT Delhi, will be the director of IIT Roopnagar (Punjab). IIT Kanpur civil engineer Sudhir Jain will head the IIT in Gandhinagar. Anil Bhowmick, from IIT Kharagpur’s rubber technology centre, will be the director of IIT Patna. IIT Kharagpur deputy director Madhusudan Chakraborty will head IIT Bhubaneswar.
This Times of India report names the IIT Rajasthan director as Prem Kalra.
January 29th, 2009
Unlike the IISERs that take students from the IIT exams and KVPY, NISER Bhubaneswar (an IISER-equivalent institute that is funded by DAE) teams up with UM-DAE and has its own exam called NEST. (They also took students from KVPY.)
The following information regarding NEST 2009 is from http://niser.ac.in/NEST/.
About NEST
National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) is a compulsory test for students seeking admission to National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar and University of Mumbai – Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (UM-DAE CBS), Mumbai. Both NISER and UM-DAE CBS have been started by Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India in 2007. Their mandate is to train scientific manpower for carrying out cutting edge scientific research and for providing input to scientific programs of Department of Atomic Energy and other applied science institutions in the country. The test is conducted in more than 25 centers across India. This brochure gives the detailed procedure for applying for the test, syllabus of the test and various dead lines.
NEST Brochure 
About NISER
NISER has been set up by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India to impart high-quality science education in a vibrant academic ambience with a faculty of distinguished scientists and teachers. NISER offers 5-year integrated M.Sc. programme in biological, chemical, mathematical and physical sciences. At present, NISER functions from the beautiful campus of
Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, a renowned Institute with state-of-art infrastructure that includes an excellent library, a large computer center and a number of research laboratories. Degrees at NISER will be awarded by the Homi Bhaba National Institute (HBNI), a deemed-to-be University within the department of Atomic energy.
This year there are 52 seats, including reserved seats for SC/ST/OBC candidates and persons with disability (PD) as per Government norms. Further details about the institute can be found on the NISER website (http://niser.ac.in).
NISER Brochure
About UM-DAE CBS
The Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India has set up a new autonomous center of excellence in basic sciences in Mumbai. UM-DAE CBS, is to be an international class center for high quality teaching embedded in a vibrant post-graduate and research environment with some of the best teachers and scientists from major institutions in the city (TIFR, BARC, IIT Bombay) and the University and its colleges on its faculty. The center is located in the Kalina campus of the University of Mumbai. The degrees at UM-DAE CBS are awarded by the 150 year old University of Mumbai.Tentatively, there will be 14 seats in Physics stream, 10 in Mathematics and 6 in Life Sciences with reservations as per Government norms, including reservation for persons with disability (PD). The details are on the CBS website (http://www.tifr.res.in/~cbs).
Important Dates
- Last date for request of application form : March 6, 2009
- Last date for receipt of completed application form with DD : April 3, 2009
- Online applications freeze : April 3, 2009
- Dispatch of offline admit cards begins : April 15, 2009
- Download of online admit cards begins : April 15, 2009
- Date of examination : May 10, 2009 (Sunday), 1 pm to 4 pm
- Announcement of results on NEST website : June 8, 2009
Eligibility for appearing NEST
Students securing at least 60% marks in aggregate (or equivalent grade) in Class XII (or equivalent) examination from any recognized Board in India are eligible to apply. For Scheduled Cast (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates and for Persons with Disability (PD), the minimum requirement is 55%. Students who have passed the Class XII qualifying examination in 2007 or 2008 or are appearing in 2009 are eligible to apply. (Where only Letter grade is given by the Board, a certificate from the Board specifying equivalent percentage marks will be required. In the absence of such a certificate the decision of the respective Admissions Committee will be final.)
How to apply (3 ways)
- Online form submission is the most convenient and preferred way. Follow these steps to go for it.
- Register yourself before you login.
- Confirm your registration from a mail sent to you just after registration.
- Login in the NEST homepage with your mail-id and password.
- Fill the form and save it or, modify an already saved form.
- Take the print-out and send along with DD.
- Form can be downloaded, filled and sent back with DD. Download form NEST Brochure Please set margin in the browser page-setup to accomodate the form in a single A4 sheet.
- A letter of request can be sent to get the printed form by post. This form will have to be sent back along with DD after filling it properly.
January 13th, 2009
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