Update: I thought this was new to NIT Rourkela. Based on the reader’s comments it seems it has been there for some time and it is also there at UCE Burla.
NIT Rourkela now allows students to change their branches after first year based on their grades and possibly subject to some rules. The students who were able to change this year are listed here. The top three changed to Computer Science. Branch changes were allowed at IIT Kharagpur based on first year performance and subject to a cap of 10% extra seat in each branch. I assumed a similar cap may be operational at NIT Rourkela. NIT Rourkela has close ties with IIT Kharagpur in that its director, Professor Sunil Sarangi, was a longtime facuty at IIT Kharagpur. Its great that he is bringing in good ideas from IIT Kharagpur and implementing them in NIT Rourkela. One idea, which was somewhat unique to IIT Kharagpur, and which should be brought to NIT Rourkela, if not already done, is the notion of a student budgeted hostel library.
June 11th, 2007
Following is a list of institutions with non-traditional programs that I compiled earlier. They are categorized as follows: Arts and Crafts, Design, Teachers training, Diploma in Engineering, ITIs, Film and TV, Homeopathy and Ayurveda, Hotel management, Journalism, Law, Library Science, Performance arts, Physical Education, Sanskrit and Social work.
Continue Reading June 8th, 2007
In an earlier post we mentioned that NITs will now become institutions of national importance. We have come across a draft of the NIT Bill and also the IIT Bill of 1961. It looks like the NIT Bill (draft) is a good one and has even some improvements over the IIT Bill. Once the NIT Bill is passed in the parliament it will become the NIT act.
May 21st, 2007
A PIB press release says among other things:
Shri Singh also informed that Parliament has also approved the Bill seeking to cover all National Institutes of Technology (NITs). They would be accorded status of institutes of national importance.
This is good news, as this may somewhat prevent the proposed IIESTs to have a higher status than the NITs, as IIESTs were to be accorded the status of “institutes of national importance.” Among the proposed IIESTs, IT-BHU is currently better than most or perhaps all the NITs; but many of the NITs are currently better than the other proposed IIESTs.
May 18th, 2007
May 13th, 2007
Today, there is an opinion piece in Times of India that suggests that some of the best NITs and IT-BHU should be upgraded to IITs. I wrote along the same lines in an Indian Express op-ed article last year. This is discussed in more detail in the blog specifically on this topic. Here is a quick overview of the issue.
Continue Reading May 4th, 2007
The Government of India has decided to establish 20 IIITs (Indian Institute of Information Technology) which will be mostly centrally funded. One of them is proposed to be in Orissa. Initial reports [Telegraph,EFYTimes,Kalinga Times, Samaja1, 2, Sambada] mention that the central government will contribute 120 crores to this while the state government will contribute 10 crores and 100 acres to this. The location of this IIIT has not been decided yet.
April 28th, 2007
Update: Telegraph also reports on this.
Business Standard reports that XIM, Bhubaneswar is about to open another campus in Orissa. XIM is scouting for 100 acres of land and has a budget of 50 crores for the second campus. It has applied to AICTE for doubling its capacity. There is no definite word regarding where the second campus will be, but there were some early rumors that it could be near Dhenkanal. If it indeed opens near Dhenkanal, then it will be a big addition to Dhenkanal’s higher education offerings. Currently, Dhenkanal has the branch campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication. With an XIM campus it will get into the national consciousness as both XIM and IIMC admit students through national level entrance examinations.
April 23rd, 2007
NIT Rourkela has decided to start the following departments/schools/centers.
- Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering
- B. Tech. (Biotechnology), B. Tech (Biomedical Engg), M. Tech. (Biotechnology), M. Tech (Biomedical Engg), M. Tech.(R ), Ph.D.
- Department of Life Sciences
- M.Sc., M.Tech. ( R) , Ph.D.
- Department of Industrial Design
- B. Des, M. Des., M. Des.(R ), Ph.D.
- School of Management
- MBA/MBM/MMS, PGDMS, PH D, Executive Development Programmes
- Centre of Tribal Development
Admission to all programmes of the department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering will start in the Academic Year 2007-08 and to the other Departments by Academic Year 2008-09.
This is a great move. I hope they will team up with RSP hospital and/or Rourkela General hospital to start a medical school.
(Thanks to Sandip babu for this news.)
March 5th, 2007
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