Odisha HRD

2008 Open-Close ranks for EE and ME at various IITs, ISM and (I)IT-BHU

The following is excerpted from http://jee.iitr.ernet.in/openclose.htm.

To keep all these in perspective, following links ranks with raw score in the IIT JEE exam. It is from http://jee.iitr.ernet.in/aggregate.htm.

Aggregate Total for every 500th rank in Common Merit List

August 1st, 2008

Nominations invited for new IIT directors

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

104 students get admitted to IIT Bhubaneswar

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.

2 comments July 24th, 2008

New campus for Institute of Mathematics & Applications (IMA) inaugurated in Bhubaneswar

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman.

The new campus of Institute of Mathematics and Applications inaugurated here today was, in many ways, an idea conceptualised by chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik and a reflection of the fact that ‘Tata Steel was as much a state of mind as a corporate house’.

It is spread over 23 acre and laid out from spiral lines of the golden equation. Mathematical equations apart, the institute’s golden formula is not only to become a world class centre of excellence but also to train and teach rural tribal students. From conceptualisation to construction, it had taken just three years.

Inaugurating the institute campus, the CM praised Tata Steel for having contributed to the development of the institute and architect Mr Karan Grover. "We are committed to make this a world class institute," he asserted.
"Bhubaneswar has become a hub for education be it engineering colleges, management institutes, the IIIT, NISER or the IIT," he said. "Very soon I will hold a meeting with mathematicians and others to get a proper feedback on the problems and lacunae as well as to get ideas on developing this institute, from international quarters," he informed.

An Odisha Today report has some more information.

The institute will also have facilities like computer labs, class rooms, library rooms as well as residential accommodations for the faculty and researchers.

The campus of this institute has been built in 7000 sq metre complex, with an investment of Rs.140 million.

As many as 96 students can undertake higher research in mathematics.

Note: 7000 sq metre = 75600 sq feet.

See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/214 to compare IMA with the size of NISER.

10 comments July 24th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar first year students status at IIT Kharagpur

As per the details at http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/welcome.php the IIT Bhubaneswar students will be staying mostly in MMM Hall (females in MT Hall). MMM Hall is the largest hostel at IIT Kharagpur and it will also house IIT Kharagpur students.

For classes the 100+ IIT bhubaneswar students will be divided into all the 12 sections; so they will have their section mates as IIT Kharagpur students.

July 22nd, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar first off the block

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.

1 comment July 19th, 2008

DAE tender for a vehicle in Bhubaneswar – Is it for NISER construction?

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 :-

July 19th, 2008

Project cells created for the six AIIMS like institutes

Following is from the PIB report http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=40465.

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for creating Project Cells to expedite work in respect of 6 AIIMS like institution under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) Scheme.

July 17th, 2008

Cabinet approval of the new IITs

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

IIT Bhubaneswar classes to start at the same time as IIT Kharagpur classes

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.

2 comments July 9th, 2008

New IITs at the mercy of their mentors. Will IIT Kharagpur do the right thing for IIT Bhubaneswar?

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.

1 comment July 7th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar exact site not quite decided

Earlier reports had indicated that the site will be near Banki. But it seems that it is still not fully decided. I guess until the central government gives its seal of approval it won’t be decided. Most likely the central government will approve the site IIT Kharagpur (mentor institution) approves. But which is that site? The following Sambada and Samaja reports display this confusion.

June 22nd, 2008

Universities and university like institutes in and around Bhubaneswar: a map

Update: The IIT site has been changed. So the new map is as follows:

Old map:

1 comment June 20th, 2008

Is NISER’s pay package better than the IISERs’?

From http://niser.iopb.res.in/careers/ the NISER pay is:

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

.. 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.

From http://www.iiserkol.ac.in/career.html the IISER pay is:

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.

June 20th, 2008

Pioneer reports on IIT Bhubaneswar Website

(Update: New Indian Express also reports on it.)

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

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.

3 comments June 17th, 2008

IIT Bhubaneswar first batch stduents are likely to have the most IIT like experience (as compared to the students in the other new IITs of IIT Guajrat, IIT Rajasthan, IIT Patna, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Punjab)

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.
• More on IIT Bhubaneswar at the unofficial IIT Bhubaneswar web site.

In comparison,

• 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.
• As per IIT Rajasthan website:
  • 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 Patna. mentored by IIT Guwahati, will start classes in a polytechnique in Patna.
• IIT Punjab will have classes in IIT Delhi.

12 comments June 14th, 2008