Odisha HRD

National Center for Animation, Gaming and Visual effects to come up in Pune

Following is an excerpt from a report in mydigitalfc.

Government is planning to set up a national centre for animation, gaming  and visual effects to meet shortage of skilled professionals in the field.

A sum of Rs 52 crore has been set aside by the Planning Commission for the purpose.

Sources in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the proposed centre would promote technical talent in the entertainment sector through specific courses such as animation, digitisation and visual effects.

The centre, which could come up at Pune, where the Film and Television Institute of India is situated, is being set up for meeting the shortage of skilled professionals in the field.

… With the Indian animation and gaming industry expected to grow, the I&B ministry is said to have engaged a consultant to prepare a report on the human resource requirement in this sector.

… Although there are several private animation-training institutes, apart from a few government-run colleges having animation curriculum, India, as of today, has only a handful of institutes teaching high-end animation techniques, sources say.

1 comment March 28th, 2010

Tourism and Higher Education minister Shri Debi Mishra proposes establishment of hotel management schools in Balangir and Rourkela

Update on May 9th 2010: Following is from a report in Daily Pioneer.

The Food Craft Institute, Balangir, has been awarded as the best food craft institute all over India for its excellent all-round performance. Established jointly by the Union Ministry of Tourism and State Department of Tourism, this institute offers diploma courses in Food Production, Food and Beverages Service, Front Office Operation and House Keeping Operation. … The institute is going to be upgraded as a State Institute of Hotel Management. Recently, a Central inspection team visited the campus.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… the state government has sought the conversion of the status of Food Craft Institute at Bolangir into an Indian Institute of Health Hotel Management (IIHM). The state government would provide additional land for it. Besides, the government has also urged the Centre to set up a IIHM at Rourkela, Mishra added.

Note that the Institute of Hotel Management in Bhubaneswar started as a Food Craft Institute in 1973. It became a centrally funded Institute of Hotel Management in 1984.

March 27th, 2010

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s Vrindaban Gurukul (second after the one in Mumbai) to come up in Ghatikia area of Bhubaneswar

Update: A picture courtesy Devasis Sarangi and Rajeswar Rao.

Update: Post-inauguration coverage from Dharitri.

Following is an excerpt from an older report in orissatv.

Renowned flute player, Hariprasad Chaurasia has decided to set up a training institute in Bhubaneswar to train students having penchant for classical music.

The flute maestro’s proposed institute has been christened as ‘Vrindaban Gurukul’ that would spread on two acre land at Ghatikia in the outskirts of the capital city. Nearly Rs 5 crore would be invested in the project.

His initial Vrindaban Gurukul in Mumbai came up in 1996. In this article in Hindu the reason behind a similar one in Bhubaneswar is explained. Following are some excerpts:

So the jet-setting flautist, who spends almost half-a-year in Holland as part of the Rotterdam Conservatory, realised the need to set up a gurukul. Situated in Versova (Mumbai), Chaurasia’s Vrindavan (the name of the gurukul) is where students with a passion for music live and learn sangeet free of cost. The students won’t come out of this gurukul armed with degrees and certificates. They will just have their talent to flaunt. Despite his hectic concert schedule, he takes time out to be with his students, guide and interact with them. “Though I stress on discipline; we laugh, crack jokes…there’s enough fun at Vrindavan. I share a good rapport with these youngsters.”

His second gurukul is coming up at Bhubaneshwar. “The progress has been really slow. Who wants to fund a gurukul?” But why Bhubaneswar? The maestro spent quite a few years in Cuttack working as a staff artiste for All India Radio. It is also where he met his wife Anuradha, then an established singer on radio.

Orissadiary reports that Amitabh Bachchan and his family will come to Bhubaneswar (first trip to Orissa for Mr. Bachchan) to "attend a program organized by internationally renowned exponent of the bansuri or bamboo flute Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. … They will attend in the inauguration ceremony of Brindavan Gurukul in Bhubaneswar." The older orissatv report also mentioned about the inauguration of the Gurukul in March 2010. The Orissadiary report has a nice description on what the Gurukul’s aims are. Following are some excerpts:

Brindavan Gurukul is dedicated to the teaching and promotion of performing arts of the world (music and dance particularly), yoga, and meditation techniques, in a serene atmosphere, along the ancient Indian "gurukul" principles.

BGI was established in 1996 by Pandit Hari Prasad and Dr. Shyamala Rajender, for promoting, presenting and teaching Indian classical music, Indian-Western integrated music, along with meditation techniques, yoga, and music theory. Focus will be on gifted or talented children and youth, especially underprivileged and needy children. Pandit Chaurasia’s mission is world peace, love and harmony through music, meditation and relaxation.

To create and inculcate in children and youth a love for and appreciation of Indian music, especially bansuri music as well as Indian-Western (jazz) fusion music. To provide for children at an early age, a constructive, disciplined, satisfying and creative alternative to the culture of drugs, gangs, violence and sex to which they are constantly exposed and to prepare them for the unique challenges of the 21st Century.

For the guru to work closely with sishyas (students/disciples) to identify, recognize, encourage and create a desire to learn and excel in the music or musical instrument of their choice.

To expose children at a very early age to different types and kinds of music and musicians and combination of styles; to expand their horizons and acceptability of styles new or foreign to them by encouraging them to attend various concerts and musical performances by great artists from all around the world.

To bring different artisans from India to practice their different art forms within Vrindaban Gurukul and to keep alive some of the great creative arts so unique to India which are being allowed to perish.

To build a library to house a large collection of books, audio and video cassettes, CDs, DVDs of Indian classical and bhajan music, literature, books, other types of recordings etc.

To promote other activities to make Vrindaban Gurukul an economically and emotionally self-supporting institution for the promotion of Indian classical performing arts, heritage and culture.

Following is an excerpt from an interview in Expressbuzz that adds more to the bond between Pandit Chaurasia and Orissa.

… After a sound training in Hindustani music, I learnt Odissi under great masters like Singhari Shyam Sundar Kar and Balakrushna Dash after I came to Cuttack for my college education.

Kabichandra Kali Charan Patnaik – the doyen of Orissa’s theatre, dance and music who was my maternal uncle – guided my music career. As a result I topped the State in the youth festival in 1959 and also became an AGrade singer for All India Radio (AIR) besides performing in many major music conferences in Orissa.

How was the first meeting with Chaurasia?

I was a student at Sailabala Women’s College and as a staff artiste of AIR he came there to play for a cultural programme.

He was only 19 then. I was mesmerised by the tonal quality of his rendition and you may say that it was love at first sight that grew up into courtship later during our association at AIR Cuttack. Finally we got married against the wish of my father and my mentor (Kalicharan Patnaik).

…

Was it a choice or coincidence that your daughter in law is an Oriya?

A coincidence but we are really fortunate to have a caring, efficient and noble ‘bohu’ like her. She has an excellent academic record and was a gifted Odissi dancer. But she also loved to serve the family. She now takes care of Hariji and the family so nicely that I am able to go back to music. I teach at Hariji’s institution in Mumbai known as Vrindavan.

Do you miss your motherland Orissa at times?

Not only me, our whole family loves Orissa more than any other place on this earth. I am happy that Hariji decided to build his Gurukul here that would link all of us to Orissa for the rest of our life more intimately.

11 comments March 21st, 2010

Kompass Aviation Training Center coming up in Bhubaneswar: Samaja

1 comment November 16th, 2009

Making Rourkela a Tier II city of India – HRD and other development of Rourkela (work in progress)

Update: See also https://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/4308.

Rourkela is the second largest metropolitan area of Orissa with an official metropolitan population of 550,668 but perhaps much more (at least 700 K) if one takes into account nearby places like Biramitrapur and Rajgangpur. It is probably the most cosmopolitan area of Orissa. Because of its steel plant it has world-wide name recognition. It has a lot of young talents; I am told that Rourkela youngsters have done much better in entrance exams like IIT JEE than from other parts of Orissa. Rourkela and the Sundergarh district have produced many national hockey players (both male and female), some of whom have gone on to captain the Indian national side.

Being an important station in the Mumbai-Howrah line, Rourkela is very well connected to both. The National Institute of Technology at Rourkela is often ranked among the top 5 NITs of the country; in recent years it has done much better and is in the process of starting a business program. Rourkela also has two private engineering colleges and at least one more is in the works. Rourkela has at least two good magament schools: Rourkela Institute of Management Studies (sometimes ranked nationally) and Indian Institute of Production Management, Kansbahal.  

Overall, Rourkela has the potential to be a Tier II city of India at the level of Vizag, Chandigarh, etc. But unfortunately, that has not happened so far and active organized efforts need to  be made to achieve that.

So here I will list some of the things that should be pursued so that Rourkela becomes a Tier II city of India.

Knowledge and HRD aspects:

• Metropolitan University: Rourkela is perhaps the largest metropolitan area of the country, or may be the whole world which does not have a general university. This needs to be rectified at the earliest. IMHO, the best model to follow would be of Delhi University. So a Rourkela Metropolitan University should be established  with graduate programs as well as with a few constituent colleges spread (offering Bachelors as well as Masters degrees) across the metropolitan area, but with no affiliated colleges. The exisiting government colleges in Rourkela (Govt. College, Rourkela; SG Women’s, Rourkela and Rourkela College) would be made constituents of this university.
• Medical College: Although a WODC sponsored PPP-based medical college is in the works, we must continue pursuing an ESIC medical college here. SAIL, which is making a medical college in Bokaro, should also be pushed to establish a medical college here.
• BPUT: BPUT must become fully operational from Rourkela.It  needs to have real departments and centers and offer its own courses. It should be expanded to have programs in Science and Humanities.
• Research Centers: The state should pursue one of the central government departments such as CSIR, DAE, Sc & Tech, etc. to open a research center in Rourkela.
• Centrally funded University: At some point a centrally funded university should be pursued for Rourkela.
• More private institutions: Rourkela has the population base and the amenities that metropolitan areas offer to have more private institutions such as engineering colleges, management institutions etc. A multi-pronged apporoach should be taken.
  • Local big industries should be cajoled to participate in this. For example, SAIL is also planning an engineering college in Bokaro. They should be pushed to have one in Rourkela.
  • Local people should also open private institutions on their own.
  • Educational foundations inside and outside state that have developed good private institutions should be approached and invited to open institutions in Rourkela. Inside Orissa, institutions like Silicon and NIST should be approached. 
• STP: The STP at Rourkela should be expanded.
• IT/BPO: Because of the cosmopolitan nature of Rourkela, it would be a good place for BPO and call center operations. This should be pursued.
• Sports Institute/University: Sundergrah district is considered by many to be the Hockey cradle of India, both in men’s and women’s hockey. It has produced both Men’s and Women’s hockey team captains in Dilip Tirkey and Jyoti Sunita Kullu. Orissa government should pursue to establish a National Sports Institute (of the kind in Patiala) in Rourkela. It should include programs in physical training, coach training, official training etc. This would specially contribute  in the enhancing the employment opportunities for Adivasis who constitute 50.74% of Sundergarh’s population.

Connectivity Aspects:

• Rail Connectivity -Trains: While the connectivity to Mumbai and Kolkata is marvelous, connectivity to other places needs improvement. Dilip has a good list of new trains needed for Rourkela at http://rourkelarail.wetpaint.com/page/DEMANDS. This list is:
  • Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express( Day Time)
  • Rourkela-Berhampur Gajapati Express
  • Rourkela-Secundarabad/Hyderabad Express
  • Trains to New Delhi from Bhubaneswar via Rourkela OR Rourkela-Nizamuddin/New Delhi Express (Any extension of Ranchi-Hatia or Tatanagar trains will also work)
  • Trains to Patna and Eastern U.P.
• Rail Connectivity-Others: The Talcher-Bimlagarh line must be fast-tracked.
• Roads: The 4-laning of the state highway 10 connecting Sambalpur and Rourkela must be expedited.
• Air Connectivity: Rourkela airport must be made functional with commercial flights at the earliest.

Metro area:

• A larger metropolitan area for Rourkela that includes Kansbahal and Rajgangpur in the west and Biramitrapur in the North must be formally established.
• The state government should pursue Rourkela to be included in JNNURM.

(The above is from Google Maps.)

(The above is from "sarini: Occasional papers, No. 4, Adivasis of Rourkela")

Work in Progress…

43 comments November 15th, 2009

Union Law Minister Moily plans 4 regional law institutes of excellence

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

… law minister Veerappa Moily has designed a grand plan to set up four regional institutes of excellence to equip lawyers and bring them on par with Indian IT professionals, who are known the world over for their competence.

Moily prefers to call these regional institutes of excellence simply "regional hubs" of legal education. "We have written to the Planning Commission for approval of the plan to set up these four institutes which will match standards of best law institutes anywhere in the world," he said, adding this move was spurred by one of the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission.

September 24th, 2009

Orissa Education and HRD related headlines from our sister site in Twitter

Our sister site in Twitter is http://twitter.com/orissalinks. (Often when we are busy or do not feel like writing a full posting here, we post a micro-blog in our Twitter sister site. The Twitter sister site also automatically adds the headline from this site and the orissagrowth site. Once in a  while we will collect those headlines here. But readers wanting a broader and more immediate coverage should consider following our Twitter site at http://twitter.com/orissalinks.) Following are some selected items from that site since July 12th.

• Orissa govt. adopts AICTE-introduced Tuition Waiver Scheme for women, poor & PH students in professional institutions. http://bit.ly/BVJPs.
• Century plus old Khallikote College in Berhampur Orissa is the first one in Orissa to get star status from UGC. http://bit.ly/11h750.
• Tathya: Xavier Inst. of Management in Bhubaneswar, Orissa plans to become a university. http://bit.ly/15OLcd.
• IHM, Ranjita IHM in #Bhubaneswar & the Food Craft Institute in Bolangir are top hotel management institutes in #Orissa. http://bit.ly/Z5Dtz.
• Members cutting across party lines from Balasore district in Orissa demand (in Assembly) medical college at Balasore. http://bit.ly/3YpLV6.
• Orissa plans to open plus two colleges in all the 118 integrated tribal development agency (ITDA) blocks in the State. http://bit.ly/vlKTX.
• Business standard interviews IIT Bhubaneswar director. http://bit.ly/2mjlQ.
• Central Univ Orissa Koraput advertises faculty positions. http://bit.ly/rcQcq.
• Central University of Orissa Koraput web page is http://cuorissa.org.
• Tata Steel Teams up with KISS. http://bit.ly/CN5jj http://www.tathya.in/2009/s….
• Nuapada, Deogarh, Subarnapur, Nayagarh, Kendrapara and Jajpur do not have Kendriya Vidyalayas. May get one each. http://bit.ly/GkkJZ.
• Pioneer: Efforts being made for a Sainik School in Western Orissa http://bit.ly/2D9bb9.
• Academic session of the Institute of Interior and Fashion Technology (IIFT), Bhubaneswar from August this year. http://bit.ly/1hOC2J Bus. St.
• XIM Bhubaneswar names its new acad. block as Tata Centenary Learning Centre; Tata Steel contributed about 1 crore to it. http://bit.ly/bwvES.

August 20th, 2009

B.Ed College to start in Kandhamal this year: Samaja

This was part of a package that the state government had announced after the Kandhamal events.

3 comments August 2nd, 2009

Admission notice for Bachelors in Visual Arts at Govt. College of Arts and Crafts, Khallikote

July 9th, 2009

Tradewings Bhubaneswar: Offers Diploma in Airlines and Toursim Management (Ad. in Dharitri)

June 22nd, 2009

List of B.Ed and CT institutions approved by the Orissa government: Dharitri

132 comments June 22nd, 2009

Admission notice of Food Craft Institute Balangir

This institute is established by Ministry of Tourism Government of India and Government of Orissa. This is the only centrally funded institute in the Balangir district.

3 comments May 28th, 2009

Intensive Advanced Course in Odissi at the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Center: Admission ad from Dharitri

April 27th, 2009

Zee Institute of Creative Arts opens its second campus (after Mumbai) in Bhubaneswar

The web page of ZEE Institute of Creative Arts is http://www.zica.org.There head office is Mumbai and as per their "Contact Us" page it currently has two campuses in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from a news Item in Express Buzz about the opening of their Bhubaneswar Campus.

Adding another feather to Capital’s list of institutions offering career-oriented professional courses, Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA) today opened its centre here at Niladri Vihar.

With animation industry in India poised to grow at 27 per cent to reach a 1,163 million dollar mark by 2012, the institute hopes to provide affordable animation courses to cater to the manpower demands when Bollywood alone plans to make another 12 feature films based on animation and special effects. Also the gaming industry is all set to grow rapidly with a huge demand of professionals.

Addressing mediapersons, Head, Youth Business, Zee Learn, Subhadarshi Tripathy said as traditionally Orissa has many well-known animation artists engaged at the national level, ZICA thought it appropriate to open its second centre outside Mumbai here so that students from the entire Eastern Indian states can be given an opportunity to learn the art and equip themselves to take various career opportunities in film making, visual effects, television production and advertising industry.

‘‘ZICA, which first started in Hyderabad way back in 1995, was later shifted to the Esselworld campus in Mumbai and has become the pioneer animation institute with its distinct training style and approach towards industry-oriented curriculum’’, he said adding, however, to maintain quality it never ‘‘opened branches elsewhere outside the city of dreams’’.

The local centre will impart a two-year diploma in animation film making and one-year course in digital arts, but later would also introduce short-term courses. ‘‘While the two-year course would need an investment of around Rs 3 lakh, the short-term ones may vary from Rs 40-75,000’’, he said adding, compared to Mumbai, the local centre will be more affordable with the same standard of teaching and infrastructure facilities.

‘‘For each course there would be a six-faculty team apart from industry professionals as guest faculty and the teacher-student ratio would be around 1:4’’, he pointed out. …

2 comments April 25th, 2009

Faizan Mustafa appointed as the first VC of National Law University of Orissa

As per comment 3 of an earlier post of ours, The National Law University Act, 2008 (Orissa Act 4 Of 2008) was published in the Orissa Gazette (Extraordinary) Vide No.2215, dated 4th December, 2008. So the official establishment year of this university will be 2008.

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in about the appointment of the first vice chancellor of this university.

Professor Faizan Mustafa is the first Vice Chancellor of the National Law University of Orissa (NLUO). 

Justice Dr. Balbir Singh Chouhan, Chief Justice of Orissa High court and the Chancellor of NLUO has appointed him in the top post here on 6 April. 

Professor Mustafa is at present the Director KIIT Law School, Bhubaneswar. 

He is a gold medalist in LL.M. from Aligarh Muslim University. who had completed his Ph.D. in Intellectual Property Law. 

Professor Mustafa also has a Diploma in International and Comparative Human Rights from International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France. 

Before joining KLS as Director, he was Dean of Faculty of Law, AMU and Registrar of AMU for a period of two years. …

… Finally the NLUO is taking concrete shape with Prof.Mustafa at the helm and initiative of the Higher Education department to place funds for the institution.

The State Government has already provided Rs.5 crore to the Corpus Fund.

Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister laid foundation of the institution on 5 January at Brajabiharipur near Naraj in Cuttack district.

The State Government has allocated 30 acres of land free of cost.

Similar National Law Schools opened earlier in the other states are listed here. So far there were 12 of them in Bangalore (1986), Hyderabad (1998),  Bhopal (1998), Kolkata (1999), Jodhpur (1999), Gandhinagar (2003), Raipur (2003), Kochi (2005), Lucknow (2005), Patiala (2006), Patna (2007), and Delhi (2008). Admission to all of them except the last one is through the common law admission test (CLAT).

13 comments April 7th, 2009

Colleges in Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri districts

Following is from http://www.utkal-university.org/utkal%20university/Academic/colleges.htm.

KHURDA DISTRICT

NAYAGARH DISTRICT

PURI DISTRICT

2 comments December 23rd, 2008