Update: Hindu also has a detailed report on this.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
As part of its ongoing Corporate Social Responsibility exercise, Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), Lanjigarh, has adopted all the 400 Anganwadis in six blocks of Kalahandi district under a project, Bal Chetna, in association with Sterlite Foundation and Government of Orissa through private-public partnership.
… The people were quite happy and enthusiastic about the new project, Bal Chetna, which will take care of their children’s health, nutrition and early education. Vedanta has already earned a good name for successfully operating 32 Child Care Centres with 1,139 children in the 18 peripheral villages at Lanjigarh. With free uniforms, nutritious midday meals, afternoon snacks and proper grooming, these centres have already laid a solid foundation for nurturing the future generation.
People are sure that children of areas beyond the peripheral villages and those of the entire district will now have access to similar facilities that can ensure a better future for them. The Collector said the Bal Chetna project would not only ensure a bright future for children but also open direct and indirect growth opportunities for the local youth. VAL vice-president Dr Mukesh Kumar said the company’s objective of taking up the project is to significantly upgrade the Anganwadi services under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
Vedanta intends to bring in visible improvement in the quality of education of the children, especially, the underprivileged, in the age group 0-5 years, by providing five-fold services that include play way method of learning, nutritious food, improvement in health status with focus on anaemia reduction and logistic support like education materials.
May 11th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in indiaedunews.
As per the last year records, 140 PhDs were awarded to engineering graduates by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) highlighting the increasing trend of students opting for research.
To further encourage Research and Development, IIT-D has also come up with scholarships up to Rs.20,000/- per month for research students. Furthermore, accommodation and in-house facilities are also being provided to research scholars.
According to Mr. M. Balakrishnan, Dean, Post Graduate Studies and Research at IIT-Delhi, "Industrial Research and Development (R&D) in India, is getting bigger day by day. Today, the private sector employs PhDs in all disciplines- Automobiles, Energy, Environment, Materials."
Mr. Balakrishnan, while disagreeing to the fact that salaries are a constraint for PhD-holders, pointed out, "A PhD done by a researcher in any of the engineering field today is paid anywhere between Rs.8 lakh to Rs.16 lakh per annum."
He further added that, the companies involved in the technology establishment pay the highest amount, "Companies such as Google and Yahoo, who work with new technologies, pay the highest amount to the researchers."
May 8th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pioneer.
Coming under a sustained pressure from the State Government, the Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd (MCL) has reportedly agreed to set up a Medical College at Talcher. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level joint meeting between the Coal India Limited (CIL) Chairman Partha S Bhattacharjee and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Thursday.
During the meeting, Patnaik placed a proposal before the Coal India Chairman to convert the existing 100 bedded hospital at Talcher to a 400-bedded hospital and to make it a full-fledged Medical College. Bhattacharjee promptly agreed to Patnaik’s proposal, sources said.
… Mahanadi Coalfields Limited CMD SR Upadhayay, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Bijay Kumar Patnaik and Secretary, Energy, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra were present at the meeting.
Earlier, in https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=168, we had argued that the govt. should indeed do this and wrote about how Bokaro Steel Plant has agreed to set up an engineering college and a medical college in Jharkhand and Central coal fields agreeing to set up an engineering college in Jharkhand.
The Orissa government should put similar pressure on NALCO, SAIL-RSP, CIL, NTPC, etc.
April 25th, 2008
Thanks to initiatives by activist, poet and story-writer Sruti Mohapatra and the VC of Ravenshaw University, Ravenshw University’s proposal to make it universally accessible has been accepted and the university has received initial funds for it. Ravenshaw may thus become Orissa’s first universally accessible college/university/campus; and may be even the country’s first universally accessible university.
The budget that was submitted was as follows. I think all of it has been accepted. (Not 100% sure.)
CONSTRUCTION & MODIFICATION
GENERAL
SIGNAGE Rs. 25,000
AUDIO SYSTEM Rs. 2,55,000
SERVICE & INFORMATION COUNTERS Rs. 3,33,000
TOILET Rs. 2,25,000
CLASSROOMS Rs. 10,00,00
SEMINAR ROOM Rs. 1,00,000
LIBRARY Rs. 8,00,000
TALKING LIBRARY Rs. 2,00,000
LABORATORIES Rs. 3,00,000
DRINKING WATER FACILITY Rs. 1,00,000
HOSTEL Rs. 15,00,000
PLAYGROUND Rs. 25,00,000
GROUND FLOOR
PATHWAYS Rs. 4,00,000
RAMP Rs. 2,00,000
FIRST FLOOR
HANDRAILS Rs. 3,20,000
RAMP FOR THE FIRST FLOOR Rs. 4,00,000
STEPS AND STAIRS Rs. 2,00,000
ELEVATORS Rs. 10,00,000
EMERGENCY EVACUATION Rs. 2,00,000
SETTING UP SPECIALISED LABORATORIES, LIBRARY
AND RESOURCE ROOM
TENTATIVE Rs. 25,00,000
SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
12 WORKSHOPS Rs. 12,00,000
ARCHITECT’S FEES
CONCESSIONAL Rs. 20,00,000
April 19th, 2008
Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=36632.
The Government has mounted a special scholarship scheme titled “Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)” to attract talented youth to study and careers with science. The main features of the INSPIRE are:
(a) Scheme for Early Attraction of Talents for Science (SEATS) providing Science innovation scholarship of Rs.5000 for a total of one million young learners of the age group 10-15 years once in their school career and mentorship through global science leaders including Nobel Laureates and Indians leaders in science at a summer camp for the top 1% performers in the Class X examination every year for period of five years;
(b) Scholarships for Higher Education (SHE) for the age group of 17-22 years @ Rs. 1 lakh per year for continuing science education at B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels for 10,000 candidates and
(c) Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC) for 1000 young researchers in the age group of 22-32 years for 5 years to pursue doctoral research in science backed by an assured career opportunity scheme for another period of five years on completion of their Ph. D.
The INSPIRE Programme, as it offers Science as a career option by providing necessary opportunities to youth with aptitude for science and a desire to innovate, in addition to reasonable financial assistance, would help in producing more science students and Ph.Ds and help in increasing the stock of the scientific community necessary for meeting future challenges including preventing the brain drain.
The scheme also envisages that the available number of scholarships would be distributed to students from various Boards based on total number of students taken their examinations in the respective Boards including West Bengal. The total allocation for the entire 11th Five Year Plan is Rs.2250 crores for the INSPIRE Programme and is presently at various levels of Government approval.
This information was given by Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sibal in a written reply to a question by Shri S.K. Kharventhan in the Lok Sabha today.
March 18th, 2008
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.
A sum of Rs 23. 35 lakh has been earmarked for scholarships to be given to 646 students of Ravenshaw University in the coming academic year, University sources said on Monday.
… At least 24 students will receive the national scholarships of an amount of Rs 1, 12,042 and another 510 students will receive about Rs 20 lakh as post-matriculation scholarship for SC and ST students.
Besides, there are 50 senior merit scholarships and 30 PG merit scholarships are available for students in the ensuing academic year. There are other scholarships like senior merit-cum-means (8), PG merit-cum-means (5), physically challenged (8), mining scholarships (4) and two SEBC scholarships available for the university students in 2008-09 academic
session.
All the annual scholarships will continue including the POSCO scholarship, which is given to four students for an amount of Rs 88, 696.
March 11th, 2008
From a Ministry of HRD press release:
To assess progress of States and Union Territories towards universalization of elementary education, an Educational Development Index (EDI), has been developed by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). The EDI is based on four broad parameters of access, infrastructure, teacher related indicators and elementary education outcomes. State-wise ranking on a composite index for primary and upper primary level of education for the year 2006-07 data, is at Annexure.
The following plot shows the EDIs of the surveyed states. Orissa is ranked 28th out of 35 with an EDI of 0.512.
March 4th, 2008
Following is from Volume 2 of the expenditure of Budget 2008-09.
- NISER/IOP: The IOP+NISER budget (item 9.04 of the DAE budget) is 69 crores in plan + 9 crores in non-plan = 78 crores. The nornal IOP budget is about 20 crores. Hence, 50-58 crores is the budget for NISER in 2008-09. (Note that in 2007-08 IOP was allocated 32.75+7 crores and it spent 27.6+8 = 35.6 crores. I..e, Probably 15-18 crores were spent for NISER. )
- IISER: There is a budget of 150 crores (item 61 of the Higher education budget) for the five IISERs. (The budget for three of them was 125 crores in 2007-08, out of which only 60 crores was spent.)
- new IITs: There is a budget of 50 crores (item 60 of the Higher education budget) for the establishment of three new IITs. (The budget for them was 80 crores in 2007-08, out of which only 0.01 crores was spent.)
- new IIITs: There is a budget of 21.4 crores (item 57 of the Higher education budget) for the establishment of new IIITs.
- AIIMS-like: There is a total budget of 490 crores (item 26 of the Health ministry budget) for the establishment of 6 new AIIMS-like institutes and upgradation of 10 other institutes. In 2007-08 the budget for this was 150 crores out of which only 90 crores was spent; most of it went to the upgradation part.
- NITs: The budget for the NITs (item 69 of the Higher education budget) is 808 (plan) + 285 (non-plan) = 1093 crores. Rs 608 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- IITs: The budget for the IITs (item 38 of the Higher education budget) is 1171 (plan) + 525 (non-plan) = 1696 crores. Rs 771 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- IISc Bangalore: The budget for the IISc (item 41 of the Higher education budget) is 130 (plan) + 91 (non-plan) = 221 crores. Rs 70 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- UGC: The budget for UGC (item 3 of the Higher education budget) is 3095.5 (plan) + 2009.4 (non-plan) = 5104.9 crores. Rs 875 crores of that is for enhancing the number of students to account for the OBC quota.
- NIRTAR and other 6 institutes for blind, deaf, mentally retarded and orthopaedically handicapped: The budget for them (item 21 of Ministry of Social Justice budget) is 47+27.05 crores.
- IIST (Indian Inst. of Space Sc. & Tech): Its budget (item 12 of ministry of space) is 65.25 crores. 25 crores out of a budgeted 75 crores was spent in 2007-08.
- ISIs: Its budget (item 4 of ministry of statistics) is 22.5 + 51.96 crores.
- NIFT: Its budget (item 11.01 of ministry of Textile) is 31.75 + 10 crores.
- Tourism: Its budget for training (item 5 of Tourism ministry) is 71 + 0.8 crores. It includes 26 Institutes of Hotel management, 7 Foodcraft institutes, IITTM, and NIWS (National Institute of Water Sports).
- CIPET: Its budget (item 2 of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) for the 15 centers is 31 crores.
- NIPER, Mohali: Its budget (item 7 of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers) is 75+15 crores.
- National Institute of design: Its budget for (item 3 of ministry of commerce) is only 0.25 crores. It was 20.25 crores in 2007-08. It seems the funding pattern has been changed. There is now 50 crores (item 7 of ministry of commerce) for project based support to autonomous institutions which includes NID and several other institutions.
February 29th, 2008
