The web page of the university is http://www.southasianuniversity.org/. Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India that talks about faculty salary at this university.
Faculty positions in SAU are the highest paid (tax-free) academic jobs in the government sector in South Asia. The to-be-appointed president of the university would get $80,000 salary per year, while a professor gets between $30,000 and $45,000 a year.
Their application period for faculty positions just ended in Feb 21, 2011. However, this ad gives an idea of the salary ranges. We give some excerpts.
For the second academic session commencing in July 2011, the University has the following openings for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor:
- Faculty of Economics (5 positions)
- Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (5 positions)
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (6 positions)
- Faculty of Legal Studies (6 positions)
- Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences (6 positions)
- Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences (6 positions)
Salary, Benefits and Incentives:
- Professor: – US$ 30,000 to 45,000 PA
- Associate Professor: – US$ 20,000 to 35,000 PA
- Assistant Professor: – US$ 15,000 to 25,000 PA
In terms of Indian Rupees, at today’s rate of $1 = 45.47 rupees, the amounts are:
- Professor: 13.64 lakhs p.a. to 20.46 lakhs p.a.
- Associate Professor: 9.09 lakhs p.a. to 15.91 laks p.a.
- Assistant Professor: 6.82 lakhs p.a. to 11.37 lakhs p.a.
February 25th, 2011
See http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=5021 for the details. I hope it is established in Berhampur. That would bring the first centrally funded institute to Berhampur. Following is from Samaja.
We take this opportunity to review the existing IIIT type institutes that are centrally funded. They are:
The "M" in IIITM Gwalior stands for "management", but the "M" in IIITDM Jabalpur and Kancheepuram stands for "manufacturing". The "D" stands for "design". I hope the above mentioned IIIT in Odisha has programs in management, design and manufacturing.
Besides the above there are several IIITs that are part state government funded. Those are: IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Bangalore, IIIT Bhubaneswar and IIIT Delhi. There are several other IIITs that are privately funded.
February 22nd, 2011
Update:
Following is from a report in sify.com.
Kolkata, Feb 17 (IANS) The central government has approved the plan to set up an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in West Bengal, the state’s Information Technology Minister Debesh Das said here Thursday.
Following is from a report in dnaindia.com.
The Himachal Pradesh government today said an Indian Institute of Information Technology will soon be set up in the state.
"We have been demanding an IIIT for last one year and are satisfied with the Centre’s response. The union government had asked whether the state could provide the land and funding for the project, and we gave an affirmative reply."
"I will meet HRD minister Kapil Sibal on February 17 in Delhi and put forth our claim for the allotment," state technical education minister Narendra Bragta said.
Following is from a report in prlog.com.
The Indian government has decided to set up an advanced institute to combat cybercrime. The proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) will groom IT professionals. The proposed institute will also develop advanced technologies to tackle cybercrime. The institute will be set up at a cost of INR100 crore on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The cost will be jointly borne by the Central government, concerned state government depending upon the location of the institute and the industry The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) will finalize the concept and details of the proposed institute.
So far there is no recent news on the proposed IIIT in Berhampur, Odisha.
February 18th, 2011
Update: As reported the NKN was launched. Its web page http://www.nkn.in/ was unveiled. As per the web page currently 104 institutions are connected to it, two of which are from Odisha. They are:
- IIT Bhubaneswar
- Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar
Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=69608.
Backgrounder on the eve of launch of NKN
National Knowledge Network (NKN) is a revolutionary step towards creating a knowledge society without boundaries. Launch of the website and logo of NKN tomorrow will open the NKN to the community at large. It will provide unprecedented benefits to the knowledge community and mankind at large. The purpose of such a knowledge network goes to the very core of the country’s quest for building quality institutions with requisite research facilities and creates a pool of highly trained professionals. The NKN is a state-of-the-art Pan-India network. It will facilitate the development of India’s information infrastructure, stimulate research, and create next generation applications and services. NKN is designed to provide high availability, Quality of Service, security and reliability
National Knowledge Network (NKN) project is aimed at establishing a strong and robust internal Indian network which will be capable of providing secure and reliable connectivity. bring together all the stakeholders from science, technology, higher education, healthcare, agriculture and governance to a common platform.
Using NKN, all vibrant institutions with vision and passion will be able to transcend space and time limitations in accessing information and knowledge and derive the associated benefits for themselves and for the society. Establishing NKN is a significant step towards ushering in a knowledge revolution in the country with connectivity to 1500+ institutions. NKN is intended to connect all the knowledge and research institutions in the country using high bandwidth / low latency network.
Globally, frontier research and innovation are shifting towards multidisciplinary and collaborative paradigm and require substantial communication and computational power. In India, NKN with its multi-gigabit capability aims to connect all universities, research institutions, libraries, laboratories, healthcare and agricultural institutions across the country to address such paradigm shift. The leading mission oriented agencies in the fields of nuclear, space and defence research are also part of NKN. By facilitating the flow of information and knowledge, the network addresses the critical issue of access and create a new paradigm of collaboration to enrich the research efforts in the country. The network design is based on a proactive approach that takes into account the future requirements and new possibilities that this infrastructure may unfold, both in terms of usage and perceived benefits. This will bring about a knowledge revolution that will be instrumental in transforming society and promoting inclusive growth.
Background
The idea of setting up the NKN was deliberated & finalised at the office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India (GoI) and the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) after a collaborative engagement with the key stakeholders including experts, potential users, telecom service providers, educational and research institutions. The discussions resulted in a consensus for an optimal approach to be adopted for setting up such a network, to provide a unified backbone for all the sectors.
Government of India has constituted a High Level Committee (HLC) for establishment of NKN, under the Chairmanship of the PSA to GoI. National Informatics Centre has been designated as implementing agency for NKN. The vision of NKN has been translated into an action plan by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) set up by the HLC.
NKN was approved in March 2010 by the Cabinet with an outlay of Rs 5990 Crores. As a forerunner of NKN Initial phase has been successfully executed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Highlights
The architecture of NKN has been designed for reliability, availability & scalability. The network consists of an ultra-high speed core, starting with multiple 2.5/10 G and progressively moving towards 40/100 Gigabits per Second (Gbps). The core is complimented with a distribution layer covering all districts at appropriate speeds.
The participating institutions at the edge would seamlessly connect to NKN at gigabit speed. The NKN shall be a critical information infrastructure for India to evolve as a knowledge society. NKN is a significant step which will enable scientists, researchers and students from across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas.
– Establishing a high-speed backbone connectivity which will enable knowledge and information sharing.
– Enabling collaborative research, development and Innovation
– Facilitating advanced distance education in specialized fields such as engineering, science, medicine etc.
– Facilitating an ultra high speed backbone for e-Governance
– Facilitating integration of different sectoral networks in the field of research, education, health, commerce and governance.
Connectivity
The backbone of the network starts from 2.5 Gbps and progressively moves onto 10 Gbps connectivity between 7 Supercore (fully meshed) locations pan India. The network is further spread out through 26 Core locations with multiple of 2.5/10 Gbps partially meshed connectivity with Supercore locations. The distribution layer connects entire country to the core of the network using multiple links at speeds of 2.5/10 Gbps. The end users are being connected upto a speed of 1 Gbps.
The network architecture and governance structure allows users with options to connect to the distribution layer as well.NKN enables creation of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) as well for special interest groups.
NKN provides international connectivity to its users for global collaborative research. Presently, NKN is connected to Trans Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3). Similar connectivity to GLORIAD network is in the pipeline.
Applications
Countrywide Virtual Classroom
The NKN is a platform for delivering effective distance education where teachers and students can interact in real time. This is especially significant in a country like India where access to education is limited by factors such as geography, lack of infrastructure facilities etc. The network enables co-sharing of information such as classroom lectures, presentations and handouts among different institutions.
Collaborative Research
The NKN enables collaboration among researchers from different entities like GLORIAD, TEIN3, GARUDA, CERN etc. NKN also enables sharing of scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.
Virtual Library
The Virtual Library involving sharing of journals, books and research papers across different institutions, is a natural application for NKN.
Sharing of Computing Resources
High-performance computing is critical for national security, industrial productivity, and advances in science and engineering. The network enables a large number of institutions to access high-performance computing to conduct advanced research in areas such as weather monitoring, earthquake engineering and other computationally intensive fields.
Grid Computing
The NKN has the capability to handle high bandwidth with low latency and provision to overlay grid computing. Some of the grid based applications are climate change/global warming, science projects like Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and ITER. The NKN can be the platform to realize many such innovative applications. The Garuda Grid has enhanced its power and stability by migrating to NKN.
Network Technology Test-bed
NKN provides test-bed for testing and validation of services before they are made available to the production network. NKN also provides an opportunity to test new hardware & software, vendor interoperability etc.
click here to see details
AT
February 4th, 2011
Following is from a report in TOI.
A barren stretch of land interspersed with a few rickety structures, construction equipment and promontories of red earth are all that greets a visitor at the proposed site for AIIMS here. While in Bhopal, Patna, Rishikesh and Jodhpur, the construction work of the hospital is nearing completion, Bhubaneswar is still struggling with bricks and mortar, making its ability to meet the construction deadline of mid-2012 an unattainable target.
At Sijua village on the outskirts of the city, where the speciality health centre is coming up, only foundation work was visible. The residential buildings are only 30 per cent complete. Even engineers felt the deadline for the 978-bed hospital, under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, with 15 super speciality and 18 speciality wards, would be difficult to meet.
The civil work for the residential buildings, including type-2, type-3 quarters and bungalows for the AIIMS director, which started in the last week of May 2010, is supposed to be completed by August 2011 (in 15 months).
Similarly, work for the medical college and hospital buildings, which started in the middle of September 2010, is supposed to be completed by September 2012 (24 months from the commencement of work). "The deadline will be hard to meet," said an engineer. …
But deputy secretary, Union ministry of health, Sube Singh, is confident the project will be commissioned in time in the second half of 2012. "The initial hurdles have been removed. The work is going on at a good pace," he said.
A fortnightly progress review of the Rs 820.49-crore project is being done by the health ministry.
The progress in the past two months has been satisfactory, another senior health department official said. Procurement of medical equipment and allied work are being undertaken simultaneously to avoid delay in commissioning of the hospital, he said.
I went to construction site. Indeed there has not been a whole lot of progress. But I could see construction going on in a break-neck speed. The person in charge seemed very hard working and it seemed like things were under control. My impression was that they could do enough construction to start classes in 2012.
January 21st, 2011
Now that the 12th plan discussions have started states have started pushing for various upgradations. Earlier we reported Karnataka’s efforts regarding upgrading UVC E to an IIT. Now there is report on West Bengal’s efforts to make Jadavpur University a central university. Following is from a report in Telegraph. It also mentions President Patil’s efforts to upgrade a university in her home area to a central university.
Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has thrown his weight behind an effort to convert Jadavpur University into a central university.
In a letter last month, Mukherjee requested human resource development minister Kapil Sibal to consider a proposal to turn JU into a central varsity by an act of Parliament.
“The letter is under the consideration of the ministry. The HRD ministry will seek the views of the finance ministry and the Planning Commission on the proposal for converting it into a central university,” a source told The Telegraph.
… JU has been identified by the University Grants Commission as one of the first five universities in the country with “potential for excellence”. It has also been accorded the highest grading of “five stars” by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
“The HRD ministry will move forward on the basis of the feedback from the finance ministry and the Planning Commission on the letter from Mukherjee. The finance ministry and the Planning Commission had approved setting up 16 central universities under the 11th Plan. All these universities have already been set up. Now if they give the go-ahead, the process will be initiated for the conversion of Jadavpur University into a central university,” the source said.
A few months ago, President Pratibha Patil had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for converting Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University in Maharashtra into a central university. A source said the conversion may be possible in the 12th Plan (2012-17).
Odisha needs to make similar efforts.
January 4th, 2011
Following is from a report in expressbuzz.com.
In order to set up 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) with a public private partnership (PPP) model, the Centre has decided to introduce the Institutes of Information Technology Bill 2010 in the Budget session of the Parliament.
The Human Resource Development Ministry has prepared the draft Bill to allow the setting up of institutes in PPP mode which can function with complete autonomy and at the same time with professionalism and integrity. The Bill also proposes to declare the IIIT, Kancheepuram, Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra IIIT, Jabalpur, Atal Bihari Vajpayee IIIT, Gwalior and IIIT, Allahabad as institutions of national importance, retaining the individuality and autonomy of each institute.
The new IIITs would offer under-graduate, masters and PhD programmes.
Each institute will have an intake capacity of about 1,000 students within a period of six to seven years of their functioning.
The capital cost of each IIIT would be `128 crore to be contributed in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the central government, the state government and the industry respectively. Land for the institutes would be provided by the states, for a completely integrated campus with science and technology parks.
Each institute will specialise on specific area of Information Technology and each IIIT would be a centre of excellence in that domain. The project would start from the financial year 2011-12 with setting up five to 10 IIITs depending upon the response of the state governments and private partners, according to sources.
The draft bill mentioned above is available at http://www.education.nic.in/Acts/IIITBill-2010.pdf.
January 2nd, 2011
Update: From a report in DNA.
Sources from the ministry of human resource development said that under the 12th plan, the Centre would announce 10 more IITs.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Deccan Herald.
The Bangalore University will submit a memorandum to the Union Law Minister on January 2 urging him to upgrade University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) to an Indian Institute of Technology.
"The HRD ministry has announced that it would set up ten more IITs soon. UVCE has the necessary infrastructure, expertise, faculty and students. This can be converted into an IIT with a campus at Muddenahalli," Vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev told reporters on Friday. The memorandum will be submitted at the mega reunion event of UVCE alumni, which will be held from January 1 to 3 on the occasion of Sir Visvesvaraya’s 150th anniversary. "UVCE might remain a constituent college of BU. Even if we have to let go of the administration of UVCE, we will not mind," he added.
VSSUT Burla must be watchful and take appropriate steps at the right time.
January 1st, 2011