Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer on this. If this is true, then it is a pathetic situation and the authorities must take steps to fill the positions.
Hundreds of students of Utkal University on Thursday called on Vice-Chancellor LN Mishra at his office and wanted to know from him whether the State Government planned to abolish 73 teaching posts of different departments and has written a letter in this regard. …
According to university sources, there are 300 sanctioned teaching posts for different departments of the university of which 180 posts are lying vacant.
450 Scholarships awarded on merit-cum-means basis under IndianOil Scholarships Scheme
Indian Oil Corporation Limited – India’s largest commercial enterprise and the No.1 Indian Company in Fortune ‘Global 500’ listing – awards 450 Scholarships for meritorious students all over India, under the IndianOil Scholarships Scheme for each academic year.
As part of IndianOil’s social responsibility programme, the scheme provides for attractive scholarships to bright students selected on ‘merit-cum-means’ basis for each academic year covering the first year students of 10+ / ITI, Engineering, MBBS and MBA, will is formally announced through newspaper advertisements inviting applications under the Scholarship Scheme on September 1, every year, coinciding with IndianOil day. A period of one month is given to students for submission of their applications forms & relevant documents.
Out of the total 450 scholarships, 250 scholarships for 10+/ ITI students will be on zonal basis @ Rs. 1000/- per month for two years. Engineering (100) and MBBS (40) students will be awarded scholarships @ Rs. 2000/- per month for four years, while MBA (60) students shall be entitled to a scholarship amount of Rs.2000/- per month for a duration of two years.
As part of the scheme, special encouragement is being given to girl students, physically challenged students, and students from J&K as well as the Northeast States.
Of the 30 new central universities proposed 16 will be in states that do not have any. It seems the rest 14 will be chosen from proposals sent by the state governments. Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report on this issue.
The State Governments have to compete among themselves in providing land in prime locations free of cost if they wanted to have prestigious Central University with world class facilities.
The Central Government is making mandatory for the States to provide land and other infrastructure facilities free of cost in the prime locations for setting up world class Universities.
After getting a nod from the Planning Commission for establishment of 14 Central Universities with world class standards in the 11th five-year plan, the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development made it clear that a prime location is the key for deciding the place for setting up such prestigious Central University.
Giving an example of what is prime location, the Union Ministry is asking the states to come out with proposals to provide land free of cost in attractive locations such as proximity to Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) Labs.
Sources said that prime location is very important keeping in view of the magnetism of the location for attracting top class faculty. The location of the new Central Universities would be decided on the basis of careful consideration of alternative possibilities proposed by the State Governments.
The 14 universities would be planned with careful planning to have various schools including medical and engineering. The Union Ministry would soon set up autonomous project teams comprising of eminent people for each proposed world class university to design and implement the project creatively. Sources said that initially the beginning would be made with five such teams. …
This report from Sambada talks about the government of Orissa establishing educational institutes via PPP. This is a good idea. They should take help of the major industries in Orissa, especially the ones involved in using natural resources from Orissa.
Orissa government has a loan stipend fund available for higher studies. This loan is available from its higher education department. There is a recent report in New Indian Express regarding it. Following are some excerpts:
The Higher Education Department has proposed to provide study loans to more number of poor and meritorious students pursuing higher studies in Government institutions from the current academic session. A meeting chaired by Higher Education Minister Samir Dey on Tuesday decided to increase the study loan ceiling from Rs 1.20 crore to Rs 2.20 crore.
… The Government had extended loan stipend to 963 students in 2006-07 and 460 students could be extended loan this year. Applications of more students could be considered only if the loan ceiling is increased to Rs 2.20 crore.
The study loan provided to the poor and meritorious students is interest-free and the loanee students should repay the loan within one year of completion of study or within one month of getting employment. However, 10 percent interest is charged for default in repayment, Dey said. The State Government has been extending study loans since 1954 and the number of beneficiaries is 23,445. While the outstanding loan stood at Rs 7.20 crore, the Government has so far realised Rs 63.86 lakh.
A majority of the loanees has simply forgotten that they had taken study loan from the Government, the Minister said adding, certificate cases have been instituted against 5,092 persons
The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Bill to set up a tribal university in Madhya Pradesh was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday by Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh.
To be set up an estimated cost of Rs. 60 crore during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the university will have its headquarters in Amarkantak and will be a Central university.
Though headquartered in Amarkantak, it will have a number of regional centres and campuses in the tribal areas, particularly in the Indian heartland.
According to the ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ attached to the Bill, Amarkantak was chosen because there was no Central university specifically catering to the population in the tribal concentrated areas of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. This is in contrast to the other area of high tribal concentration — the North-East .
While the proposed university is aimed at facilitating and promoting avenues of higher education and research facilities for the tribal population of the country, it will take in students from other sections of society also.
… Besides providing access to higher education to the tribals of Central India in particular, it will promote research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, medicinal systems, customs, and forest-based economic activities.
My observations: The budget sounds too low. With that fixed some of the regional centers and campuses should be in Orissa.
The Empowered committee also cleared a proposal to create a post of Chair professor in the Department of Metallurgy in IIT, Kharagpur, Benaras Hindu University and NITS at Rourkela, Durgapur and Jamshedpur and other institutes, where study of Metallurgical Engineering is pursued at a salary at par with the individual institute’s norm. These institutions will also provide scholarships to five undergraduate students in each of them to pursue studies in areas related to iron and steel. The undergraduate scholarships will carry a monthly stipend of Rs.4000 per month during the entire period of the course.
The U.S. produces about 1,400 Ph.D.s in computer science annually and China about 3,000. By stark comparison, India’s annual computer science Ph.D. production languishes at roughly 40. That number is about the same as that for Israel, a nation with roughly 5% of India’s population size.
While India needs all the new IITs, IIITs and Central Universities that the PM announced during his Aug 15 speech, one wonders where from these institutions will get Ph.Ds for their faculty. The government and the IT industry must brainstorm together and come up with a strategy to tackle this. Following are some initial un-coordinated half-baked thoughts.
Start motivating good students from an early age about the value of research. This can be done through science magnet schools.
In IITs and IISc and may be a few other selected institutions have a track similar to MD/PH.D tracks in US medical schools. Students in this track would pursue a B.Tech-P.hD program (no need for MS) and would be given a generous stipends.
To allow more time for IIT/IISc faculty to pursue research and guide Ph.D students these institutions (especially their CS depts.) should take in more M.Tech students and let them do most of the teaching.
Government should open special graduate centers in IT/Computer Science (may be as branches of exisiting IITs) that only focus on research. For example, the IIT Kharagpur center in Bhubaneswar may house a faculty of 5-10 CS professors and offer *only* a Ph.D program in computer science. Such centers may have affiliated faculty (who have Ph.Ds) from nearby engineering colleges. Such centers should be slowly opened in every metropolitan area with 15+ engineering colleges. (The IIITs could have served this purpose but it seems most IIITs are focusing on undergraduate education. Exceptions are IIIT Hyderabad, which has a good research program; IIIT Bangalore which only offers M.Tech and Ph.D and the nascent IIIT Bhubaneswar which will also only have M.Tech and Ph.D program, at least in the beginning. )
Government needs to offer better salary and perks to professors so that more students are attracted to a career in academia.
The PM’s independence day speech will be remembered for a long time for its groundbreaking educational steps. Here, we analyze them vis-a-vis Orissa.
K-12
"We will support 6,000 new high quality schools — one in every block of the country" [Orissa has 314 blocks. Currently the central govt has three kinds of schools: Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Ekalabya Vidyalayas. My guess is these will be Navodaya Vidyalayas. Until now, Navodaya Vidyalayas were being made one per district. Extending it to one per block will do wonders.]
Higher education
"We will also ensure that adequate numbers of colleges are set up across the country, especially in districts where enrollment levels are low. We will help States set up colleges in 370 such districts." [Orissa has 30 districts. As per the NSSO study of 2004-2005, Table 3.14.1 shows that in the 15-19 age group 29% people in Orissa are attending school/college and in the 20-24 age group this number for Orissa is 6.1%. (Both numbers are lowest among all but the small states/UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.) For the Scheduled Tribe population these numbers are 17.1% for the 15-19 age group and 4.1% for the 20-24 age group.]
"We will set up thirty new Central Universities. Every state that does not have a central university will now have one." [Orissa does not have one so it should get one. But considering that there are 23 other existing central universities, making it a total of 53 central universities, Orissa should get two.]
"we are setting up five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research" [The five IISERs are at Pune, Kolkata, Mohali, Bhopal, and Trivendrum. A NISER is being set up in Bhubaneswar.]
"eight new Indian Institutes of Technology" [Three of these IITs are announced to be in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Orissa should get one of the other five IITs.]
"seven new Indian Institutes of Management" [Announcements have been made with respect to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Shillong. If Orissa gets a new IIT then its chance of getting a new IIM this round is much less. Orissa should try though.]
"twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology." [There will be one in each main states, including Orissa, which does not have one. Existing ones are at Allahabad, Amethi, Jabalpur, and Gwalior and a new one is being established at Kanchipuram. ]
Vocational Education
"We will soon launch a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development, through which we will open 1600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres."
"We will ensure that annually, over 100 lakh students get vocational training – which is a four-fold increase from today’s level."
More scholarships
"We should seek not just functional literacy, but good quality education – education that is affordable, accessible, equitable – and available to every boy and girl who seeks to study. For the needy we will provide more scholarships."
Post-Graduate Merit Scholarship Scheme for University Rank Holders at Undergraduate Level for the academic session 2006-07.
The University Grants Commission, on the basis of a initiative of MHRD, had introduced Post-Graduate Merit Scholarship Scheme for University rank holders (in General and Honours Courses at Undergraduate levels) with the objective of attracting talents for pursuing post-graduate studies in basic subjects. The scheme is for non-professional courses only. The selection will be purely on merit basis. The awardees under this scheme can pursue their Post-Graduate programme in any area of specialization as also in any institution of higher learning in the country recognized by UGC under Section 2(f) and 12(B) of UGC Act.
Subjects identified at undergraduate level for the award of Scholarships
S.No.
Subjects
1
B.Sc. (General)
2
B.A. (General)
3
B.Com. (General)
4
B.Sc. (Botany) (Hons.)
5
B.Sc. (Chemistry) (Hons.)
6
B.Sc. (Mathematics) (Hons.)
7
B.Sc. (Physics) (Hons.)
8
B.Sc. (Statistics) (Hons.)
9
B.Sc. (Zoology) (Hons.)
10
B.A. (Economics) (Hons.)
11
B.A. (English) (Hons.)
12
B.A. (Geography) (Hons.)
13
B.A. (Hindi) (Hons.)
14
B.A. (History) (Hons.)
15
B.A. (Philosophy) (Hons.)
16
B.A. (Political Science) (Hons.)
17
B.A. (Psychology) (Hons.)
18
B.A. (Sanskrit) (Hons.)
19
B.A. (Sociology) (Hons.)
20
B.A. (Urdu) (Hons.)
21
B.Com. (Hons.)
Eligibility
While in General Courses the First & Second Rank holders at under-graduate level in the above mentioned courses only admitted in any Post-Graduate courses would be awarded the scholarship
In Honours Courses scholarship will be awarded only to the First Rank Holder.
These awardees will have to submit the proofs of their merit position at undergraduate level as well as their admission in first year of Post-Graduate courses during 2006-07.
The scholarship would however, be subject to securing a minimum of sixty percent marks at undergraduate level.
Duration of Scholarships: 2 Years
Number of Scholarships per year:
General Course
1800
Honours Course
575
Total
2375
Rate of Scholarship: Rs. 2000/- p.m.(10 months in a year)
Other Conditions:
A student who is awarded the Post-Graduate Scholarship will not be debarred from accepting any other Scholarship. But candidate is entitled for only one scholarship either PG Merit Scholarship for University rank holding or Indira Gandhi PG Scholarship for Single Girl Child.
Students desirous of leaving the studies mid-way without completing the PG degree will have to take prior approval from the UGC by submitting an application along with justification through the concerned university.
The University/College institution will have to submit a certificate of completion of the PG Course in respect of each student availing this scholarship.
Documents to be submitted at the time of application:
Proof of admission to Master�s degree course in a recognized Indian University.
Matriculation Certificate.
Verification certificate from the institution where the candidate has taken admission (Annexture-II)
University Rank Certificate at U.G. level (Annexure-III)
Procedure for application:
Eligible students who are pursuing postgraduate 1st year course in any of the above mentioned subjects in the current year, i.e. 2005-2006 may submit their application for the above scholarship (Annexure I) giving full details like name, father�s name, date of birth, permanent and postal address, name of the undergraduate course, percentage of marks obtained along with merit certificate, postgraduate, course being pursued etc. (with all relevant attested copies of documents).
The application may be submitted to Joint Secretary (NIC), University Grants Commission, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002 within 15 days from the date of publication of this advertisement.
Application received after the due date will not be considered. Those who have applied earlier need to apply fresh in response to this advertisement.
Candidates are advised before submitting application should read guidelines for the scheme which is available on UGC website www.ugc.ac.in.
Envelops containing application should be marked as APPLICATION FOR PG MERIT SCHOLARSHIP FOR UNIVERSITY RANK HOLDER.
