Odisha HRD

Some good news on national institutes front

Business Standard reports that central minister Chandrasekhar Sahu is pursuing with the central government regarding establishing three marquee institutions in South Orissa. Following is an excerpt of that:

While the first Central University is likely to be set up in Koraput, plans for an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and National Institute of Design (NID) in Berhampur are in the works. …

Sahu also said he has discussed the possibility of a National Institute of Design (NID) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) being set up in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. The recent discussions with the Union minister for commerce, Kamal Nath, and the minister for textiles, Shankarsingh Veghela, “were very positive and they assured us that they are willing to establish these institutes if the state government extended its cooperation,” said Sahu. …

While the Central University and IIIT are under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, the NID is under the Ministry of Commerce. NIFT and NIHT come under the Ministry of Textiles.

Lets analyze this. First of all if all these materializes then its great. However lets compare what Orissa will be getting vis-a-vis the other states.

1. In the Central University front, the central university in Koraput should be a distributed kind like the proposed Indira Gandhi National Tribal University. It should be designed such that it has branches in all KBK+ districts from the start.
2. The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows: 8 KBK districts total 38.72% (+ 16.63 % SC). Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC).
3. The literacy rates in the KBK districts are as follows: Overall in 8 KBK districts 36.58% with the female literacy at 24.72%. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.
4. India already has 20 central universities and if 30 more are going to be made then besides the central university in Koraput one of the other universities in Orissa should also be upgraded to a central university.
5. There will be 19 new IIITs. Orissa will be getting one of them. This is good but does not take Orissa out of the bottom of MHRD spending
6. NID is good. But it does not replace the IIT that was taken away from Orissa. The 2007-08 budget for the 7 IITs is a total of 1553.70 cores (i.e., an average of 221.96 crores) while the 2007-08 budget for NID is 20.25 crores.
7. Hence, Orissa must: (a) continue to push for an IIT in Orissa; (b) push for the Central University in Koraput to have branches in the KBK+ districts from the very beginning; (c) this central university should have special quote for tribals and locals as is the case in many north eastern states and as will be the case in the Indira Gandhi national tribal university; (d) push for one of the other universities in Orissa to be upgraded to a central university; (e) Make sure branches of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University exist in the north western districts with high tribal population, in particular Mayurbhanj (tribal percentage 57.87%, literacy 52.43%), Sundergarh (50.74%, 65.22%), and Keonjhar (44.52%, 59.75%); and possibly in Sambalpur (35.08% , literacy 67.01%), Deogarh (33.31%, literacy 60.78%), and Jharsuguda (31.88% , literacy 71.47%).

9 comments June 25th, 2007

CM writes to Dr. Birla for a BITS Pilani campus in Orissa

New Indian Express and Samaja report that the CM has again written to Dr. Birla for a BITS Pilani campus in Orissa and also for the proposed IIM like institute of management that Dr. Birla wants to establish.

May 18th, 2007

Politely writing Sir K. K. Birla for a BITS Pilani campus in Orissa

Dear all:

BITS Pilani now has a campus in Pilani (North India), Goa (West India) and Dubai and is in the process of making a campus in Hyderabad (South India). There has been good progress with respect to the Hyderabad campus [Hindustan Times, Economic Times, New Kerala,Deccan Herald].

There has been some word that they may be thinking about a campus in Eastern India. Perhaps we should politely request Sir KK Birla about creating the Eastern India campus in Orissa.

The CM of Orissa wrote to Sir KK Birla last November/December and they don’t want to write to him so soon again. So may be we can write very politely and request him to consider Orissa. (I plan to post a draft letter in these pages in a few days.) Note that one of the articles about the Hyderabad campus mentions how Sir KK Birla was impressed that so many people requested him about the Hyderabad campus. The address to send letters is:

Sir KK Birla

(i) Chandra Bhavan, Pilani (Rajasthan)-333031

(ii) Birla House, 7, Tees January Marg, New Delhi-110 011.

6 comments April 30th, 2007

Six new National Schools of Drama are in the offing: Orissa should ask for one

Pioneer reports that six new National Schools of Drama-NSD (or similar institutes) will be established in the coming years. Orissa should make efforts to have one of these new NSDs in Orissa. Currently the only NSD is in New Delhi.

February 18th, 2007