Samaja Ad for Distance Education programs by Sambalpur University
August 3rd, 2007
Times of India: 8 more IITs and 7 more IIMs under consideration
Following is the report from Times of India on this. I hope the full planning commission approves this idea.
NEW DELHI: In a major rollout for high and technical education, Planning Commission has proposed a seven-year special plan (2007-14) which includes setting up eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 NITs, 20 IIITs and 50 centres for training and research in frontier areas.
Of the IITs, three have already been cleared and one IIM at Shillong has received the green signal. The seven-year special plan for higher and technical education would start in the 11th Plan and spill over to the next without being diluted. The plan panel has proposed a funding of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for the seven year plan.
The full Planning Commission will discuss the proposal threadbare when it meets on August 6 to deliberate exclusively on the impetus that should be delivered to education for the 11th Plan.
The special plan envisages setting up of 30 central universities. One central university will be located in each of the 16 uncovered states while 14 new ones of world class will come up in states which provide land free of cost in attractive locations.
These universities will have various schools including medical and engineering institutions. Also, 370 new degree colleges in districts with low gross enrolment ratio would be established and 6,000 colleges would be strengthened.
In the field of technical education, the seven-year plan talks of expansion and upgradation of 200 technical institutions in various states. There is also a plan to upgrade seven technical universities which include Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Andhra University Engineering College, Vishakapatnam, University Engineering College, Osmania University, Jadavpur University, Institute of Technology BHU and Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, AMU.Apart from eight IITs and seven IIMs, there is a plan to have five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, two Schools of Planning and Architecture, 20 National Institutes of Technology, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology and 50 centres of training and research in frontier areas.
The central assistance under the special plan has a very strong reform component and looks up to states to agree for a minimum set of reforms to restructure higher education system covering admission, revision in curricula, collaboration with foreign universities and networking.
August 2nd, 2007
Further news on the proposed new central universities
Following are some excerpts on this topic from a report in Hindustan Times. However, the numbers below look wrong. A previous article had mentioned the total cost to be 5000 crores. That number appears more reasonable.
In a bid to have similar higher standard of education in the new 14 Central Universities proposed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the government wants to bring a uniform legislation to govern them all. The new universities would cost government Rs Rs 41,802 crore.
… Recently, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had told HT that the government intends to develop these institutes into “centers of excellence” at part with one of the best in the world.
The decision to have a uniform legislation is said to be a step in this direction. HRD ministry officials, who deliberated on the issue on Monday, said uniform legislation would ensure better regulation and maintaining of high standards of education. “It will also give a sort of uniformity to higher education system in India, which is lacking,” a ministry official said.
The government has also proposed that the new Central universities should be modeled on Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the only university in the country among top 200 in the world.
The proposed law will also ensure linkages between Central universities enabling easy mobility of students from one university into another and a centralized admission system. However, the HRD ministry has some reservation on whether the centralized admission system would be possible for graduate and post-graduate studies in arts or commerce as evaluating students’ ability through a test may not be possible.
Government officials also said the proposed law will frame complete autonomy for these universities based on JNU governance model to check “political interference” in appointment of vice-chancellors and faculty. The law would provide complete autonomy to the executive and academic council on how to run the university within University Grants Commission guidelines.The government also plans that 14 Central Universities will have an engineering school, a management school and a law school. But, the decision on the fees to be charges will rest with the university, an official said. The Planning Commission had recommended that the fee for undergraduate courses should be Rs 12,000 per annum with 40 per cent of students getting substantial scholarships. “The fee structure should cover 20 per cent of the cost for running the university,” the official said.
August 1st, 2007
Demand for KBK central varsity gains momentum
The Pioneer reports on demand of KBK central university by all KBK districts. It says,
All KBK districts are echoing with the demand for a Central University in the region, thanks to the initiative of the intelligentsia in the area. For the last one-week, concerned citizens of the KBK districts have been meeting at different forums raising the demand. Meetings were organised at Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Jeypore, Koraput and Sunabeda, which culminated at a workshop in Koraput on Sunday.
People’s representatives, intellectuals and a number of other leading citizens assembled at Koraput to chalk out the future plan. A well-documented presentation of Chitta Baral, professor of Arizona State University was discussed at length over the status of educational standards of the KBK districts vis-à-vis other parts of the State. Organisers like Umi Daniel and Saroj Padhi presented the research document.
Baral, sitting thousands miles away, was able to make an impact on the minds of all the 50 participants at the workshop. Agriculturist Bibhu Mohanty of Jeypore, who improvised Kala Jira Rice in Kalahandi on behalf of the Swaminathan group, highly appreciated the detailed study done by Baral.Lalit M Patnaik of Agamee Odisha harped on the improvement of the poor standards of higher education in the State.
The meeting decided that crying over the poverty index is bringing shame to the State. So, the Infrastructure of progress should be referred to rather than the poverty index, which in itself is misleading about the progress of the State.
By taking seven sub-sectors of the infrastructure such as transport, energy, irrigation, banking, communication, education and health, one can really compute the composite development index of infrastructure for different districts of the State, said speakers.
August 1st, 2007
Tathya writes on movement towards KBK Central University and Agami Orissa
Following are some excerpts from Tathya’s article.
Entire KBK districts are echoing with the demand for a Central University, thanks to the initiative of the intelligentsia of the area.
For last one week, concerned citizens of the KBK districts have been meeting at different forums, while raising their demand for a Central University.
Meetings were organized at Malkangiri, Nawrangpur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, which culminated at Koraput on July 29.
The people’s representatives,intelectuals and a number of leaders assembled here to chalk out the future plan.
A well documented presentation … was discussed at length over the status of educational standard of the KBK districts vis-à-vis other parts of the state.
The organizers like Umi Daniel and Saroj Padhi presented the thorough researched document in a lucid manner, which has a long lasting impression on the participants of the workshop. …
Agriculturist Bibhu Mohanty of Jeypore, who improvised "Kala Jira Rice" at Kalahandi on behalf of Swaminathan group, highly appreciated the detailed study …
Lalit M Patnaik of Agamee Odisha harped on the improvement of the poor standards of higher education in the state.
Mr.Patnaik said that “they are not alone rather a large group of intellectuals inside the country and in abroad are behind the struggle to make Orissa the Major Destination of Higher Education”.
The meeting decided that crying over the poverty index is bringing shame to the state.
So the Infrastructure of Progress should be referred rather then the Poverty Index, which in itself is misleading about the progress of our State and it’s Districts.
By taking seven sub-sectors of the infrastructure such as transport, energy, irrigation, banking, communication, education and health, we can really compute the composite development index of infrastructure for different districts of Orissa, said speakers in the meeting.
July 31st, 2007
Draft bill 16 new central universities under consideration
Hindu reports on a draft bill with 16 new central universities. Following are excerpts of that report.
The Union Human Resource Development Ministry is ready with a draft Bill for establishing 16 Central universities across the country.
The draft of the umbrella legislation that will govern all the new proposed Central universities — for the first time — has been sent to various Ministries for their comments. All Central universities so far have been established under different Acts.
As of now, there are only 22 Central universities in the country with Delhi having as many as four while 16 States have none. The proposed universities are believed to have been modelled as unitary, non-affiliating universities on the pattern of the Jawaharlal Nehru and Hyderabad universities.
The States identified for setting up these universities in the next five years at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore in addition to the annual grants are Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Punjab. …
Dr. Singh’s initiative for improved university system came in June when he announced at least one Central university for each State and a degree college for every district following a meeting on higher education with Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram
Comparing the above list with our list of 19 states which do not yet have central universities following are some observations: (i) Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura are not in the above list perhaps because universities for them was earlier announced, (ii) Goa is replaced by Maharastra and (iii) Madhya Pradesh is in the list, although it is not clear if this is in addition to the tribal university that is to be head quartered in Madhya Pradesh. Five thousand crores for 16 universities means 312.5 crores for each university.
Hindu has another article in its website with much of the same content except the following additional point.
In the 350 districts, where the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) was below the national average, Dr. Singh had asked the Centre to assist the States through the University Grants Commission (UGC) in setting up degree colleges to improve the enrolment ratio.
July 26th, 2007
Apparel training center inaugurated; land alloted for IIHT Baragarh; etc.
Sambada reports the inauguration of an Apparel training center in Bhubaneswar. (There are 20 such centers now in India.) It also mentions land allotment with respect to IIHT Baragarh. Finally it mentions that more apparel training centers may be opened in Nuapatna, Sambalpur, Rourkela and Baragarh. Following is the news item from Sambada.
July 25th, 2007
Interim Supreme court order on Satyasai Engineering College in Balasore
Following is from Samaja.
3 comments July 23rd, 2007
Meeting in support of KBK Central University called in Malkangiri.
Odisha.com reports on this. Pioneer also reports on this and also on Agami Orissa’s plan for a meeting in Koraput. Following are some excerpts.
A meeting to chalk out the future course of action on demand of a KBK Central University was held at Malkanagiri. Local MLA Nimain Sarkar was the convener at the meeting, … Over 100 persons of the district, including senior citizens, intellectuals, educationists, journalists and representatives of civil society organisations attended the meeting.
A committee, KBK Bikas Parishad, was formed after the meeting with an aim to look into the various developmental aspects of the most neglected undivided KBK districts. RK Patra was nominated as the convener of the committee while Durga Prasad Tripathy was chosen as the president.
Ratnakar Dash was nominated as the general secretary of the committee. Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Prahallad Dora and MLA Nimain Sarkar were chosen as the advisers of the committee.The committee alleged that the Central Government cheated the people of tribal KBK districts on many occasions. While it was decided to set up a KBK Central University at Koraput, it is now mysteriously shifted to another State by the order of the Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, the members of the committee alleged. Reiterating the demand for KBK Central University, the members warned of an intense mass movement throughout the State. However, the foundation of the movement will be laid on July 29 at Koraput meeting, which is going to be organised by Agami Orissa.
July 23rd, 2007
Prof. Bijay Sahu is the new vice chancellor of Berhampur University; Sambalpur VC’s term extended
Following is Sambada’s news item on this.
July 21st, 2007
OPECA Ad: Private colleges want students to report within a week of their counseling
46 comments July 19th, 2007
Orissa JEE Recounseling for medical seats will be in first week of August.
Odisha.com has a report on this.
July 17th, 2007
Yet another engineering college coming to Bhubaneswar
Indus College of Engineering has advertised for positions and mentions in its website that it has received letter of intent and waiting for letter of approval. Earlier we mentioned some of the other colleges that are listed in the BPUT 2007 counseling brochure for the first time. Indus does not appear there.
From the "about us" page of this college, I found out that it is being established by a trust led by Dr. Ravi Reddy. Dr. Reddy is a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and a Ph.D from University of Houston, USA. He was one of the main person at NIST, Berhampur. Based on this information, I think this will become a good engineering college.
2 comments July 16th, 2007
Tathya reports that medical counseling will be redone
Tathya.in first reported that in light of the fact that Berhampur and Sambalpur medical colleges will now have additional 43 seats each, the medical counseling in Orissa will now be redone. This will allow students who were forced to pick a private college, or who just opted out because they could not afford paying the fees in a private college, to now try to get one of the new seats in Berhampur and Sambalpur medical colleges. Following is an ad on this that appeared in Samaja.
July 15th, 2007