Sometimes people question that how an IIT in Orissa is going to help Orissa. Earlier we had given some arguments in regards to this. A recent Economic times article bolsters our contention and gives current examples of companies that want to establish units in certain places because of the marquee institutions there.
May 21st, 2007
CALLING ATTENTION
Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa
1408 hours
SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, I call the attention of the Minister of Human Resource Development to the following matter of urgent public importance and request that he may make a statement thereon:
“Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa as proposed in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and agreed to by the Government earlier.â€
Continue Reading 3 comments May 19th, 2007
Details of this scolarship is in this document. Following are some excerpts.
Title of Scheme: “Maulana Azad National Scholarship Schemeâ€
Objective of the Scheme: To recognize, promote and assist meritorious Girl
students belonging to national Minorities who can not continue their
education without financial support.Purpose of Scholarship: Sholarship will be admissible for expenditure on Payment of School/College Fee, purchase of syllabus books, purchase of stationery/equipments required for the course & payment of Boarding/Lodging charges.
4 comments May 19th, 2007
During the last several years several new plus two science colleges have opened in Orissa; especially in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area. Here is an attempt to make a list for the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area, as I am more familiar with it. (I will appreciate if the readers can point to the ones I am missing so that we can create a more comprehensive list.) I start with the plus two programs that have been there for some time.
Continue Reading 59 comments May 19th, 2007
Sri Sri University is planned to be established in Naraj (Cuttack) near Bhubaneswar, Orissa. It will be established by the Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir (SSRVM) Trust, the educational wing of the Art of Living. I am in touch with a couple of people associated with the Sri Sri University project. I have requested them for more information (plans, time lines etc.) on the project. If and when I receive them I will post it here.
So far the only information that is available on this are the ones in the news items about the MOU, and its wikipaedia entry.
May 18th, 2007
Dear Readers of this site:
Lalit Patnaik, the working president of Agami Orissa met the CM as well as minister Chandrasekhar Sahu. They both highly appreciated what we common people have been doing on the IIT issue. They suggested that we should do that even more vigorously. It was conveyed that at the PM level the efforts of common people have a much bigger impact than efforts by party cadres. Hence my appeal to all of you to write or fax letters to the PM and copy it to to the CM as well as minister Chandrasekhar Sahu. Sample copies of letters are available at http://iitorissa.org.
Relevant addresses and fax numbers:
2 comments May 18th, 2007
Sambada reports that WIPRO will visit SCS College Puri for campus selection. They will conduct a test for students in Maths, Computer Science, Statistics, Electronics, IT and Physics.
1 comment May 18th, 2007
New Indian Express reports that:
A release issued by Sahu‘s office stated that Sahu had also proposed to the Textile Minister for a National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) centre at Bhubaneswar.
The proposal was accepted by Vaghela who promised to open the centre.
The news item also states that the center has decided to establish IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) in Baragarh and minister Chandrasekhar Sahu’s office issued a release to that effect. The IIHT part is somewhat old news. The NIFT news, if true, is most welcome. However, if these small budgeted institutes are in lieu of an IIT then minister Sahu is selling Orissa cheap. He should not think that Orissans are so gullible that they would be happy to lose a 1000-4000 crore IIT and instead get 5-10 crore type institutes.
2 comments May 18th, 2007
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
A PIB press release says among other things:
Shri Singh also informed that Parliament has also approved the Bill seeking to cover all National Institutes of Technology (NITs). They would be accorded status of institutes of national importance.
This is good news, as this may somewhat prevent the proposed IIESTs to have a higher status than the NITs, as IIESTs were to be accorded the status of “institutes of national importance.” Among the proposed IIESTs, IT-BHU is currently better than most or perhaps all the NITs; but many of the NITs are currently better than the other proposed IIESTs.
1 comment May 18th, 2007
Sambada has a nice analysis on how Arjun Singh has hoodwinked CM Naveen Patnaik. The main point is that in the Lok sabha one of the HRD minister already said that the MHRD has already sent in its recommendation on the IITs in the 11th plan to the planning commission. So Arjun Singh’s assurance to reconsider when sending his recommendation to the planning commission for the 11th plan does not make any sense. He has already made his recommendation! If he had said he will reconsider MHRD’s decision then it would have made sense. But he did not say that!
Sambada follows up with the above opening with an analysis of how MHRD has been biased against Orissa during the last UPA term. This analysis and a similar analysis by Samaja (both were probably fed by Tathya.in) are based on the initial tabulation of fully MHRD funded marquee institutions in our article “MHRD discriminates against Orissa: You be the judge!”
May 17th, 2007
It has been widely reported [Times of India, Statesman, Telegraph, Pioneer, New Indian Express, Samaja, Pragativadi, Kalinga Times] that the CM met HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh on the IIT issue and Mr. Singh promised to consider Orissa for an IIT when the 11th is finalized.
However, Mr. Singh’s promise does not mean much. He has made such promises before during the time when the CM met him for NIS. In fact with respect to IIT Kharagpur’s campus in Bhubaneswar Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on September 29 2006 as follows:
The Chief Minister, Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik met the Union Minister for Human Resources development, Shri Arjun Singh today to discuss about the establishment of a campus of IIT, Kharagpur in Orissa. Shri Patnaik stated that the Government of Orissa have offered 300 acres of land next to Bhubaneswar city for setting up the campus and the State Government is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance for the institution. Since Orissa is fast emerging as a hub for industrial activities, an institution of the stature of IIT will provide the much needed boost to the efforts of the Government in providing support to these industries. The Union Minister, Shri Arjun Singh stated that the Central Government is positively inclined for setting up such an institution soon.
Similarly, with respect to KBK Central University Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on October 24 2005 as follows:
Statesman News Service BHUBANESWAR, Oct. 24. — Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to accord approval for a central university in the undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, besides expediting setting up the proposed Regional Centre of Studies in Integrated Sciences at Bhubaneswar. These requests were made by the Chief minister during his meeting with the Union Human Resources Development minister Mr Arjun Singh at New Delhi today. Mr Singh sought a formal proposal from the state government for the establishment of a central university in KBK region while appreciating the rationale behind the idea, said an official release.
So we should not get lulled by Mr. Singh saying that he will consider. We need to put pressure on him from all sides to actually grant an IIT for Orissa.
3 comments May 16th, 2007
Orissa Minister of Tourism and IT Surya Patra talks to journalists about central apathy and specifically lays out what happened with respect to the IIT shifting as well as cancellation of the plans to establish a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Orissa. This is reported in major papers in Orissa: Dharitri, Samaja [1,2], Sambada, Pragtivadi, Statesman etc. In Samaja it is a front-page headline.
Samaja also has an article with a picture on the protest organized by BJD in regards to the IIT issue.
May 15th, 2007
Samaja reports on couple of IIT related protest meetings in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar; one is in Cuttack by CPI-M and the other in Bhubaneswar by the association of engineers.
Similarly Telegraph reports that the youth wing of BJD announced to launch a state-wide stir against UPA apathy, especially in regards to the IIT issue.
But it is somewhat funny that the AICC general secretary has been reported in Statesman to say that his party (i.e., Congress) had been pressing for establishment of an IIT in Orissa. It begs the question what he means by “his party.” Why then the Congress MPs did not join the protest by Orissa MPs in the parliament?
May 15th, 2007
The Ministry of Textiles has established four Indian Institutes of Handloom Technology at Varanasi, Salem, Jodhpur and Guwahati under the central sector. At present the four Institutes conduct 3 years Diploma Course in Handloom Technology. The Institutes at Varanasi and Salem are also conducting 1-1/2 (one & half) year duration (Three Semester) Post Diploma Course in Textile Chemistry. Recently it has been announced that a new one will be set up in Bargarh, Orissa.
2 comments May 14th, 2007
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