Odisha HRD

KIIT National Law School ad in Samaja

5 comments July 31st, 2007

Allahabad bank educational loan

I came across this Allahbad bank site about education loans. They give loans up to 4 lakhs without any collateral security to students of a selected list of colleges/institutes. The current list includes four Orissa institutes. They are:

• AMITY Bhubaneshwar
• XIM Bhubneswhwar
• Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT)
• NIT Rourkela

5 comments July 31st, 2007

School Choice

This is something I have talked about in various forums earlier. Its great that it is gaining momentum in India. I will now follow it more closely and cover its progress. To start with, today’s Statesman has a report on this. Following are some excerpts.

PARALAKHEMUNDI, July 30: The New Delhi-based Centre for Civil Society inaugurated the “School Choice Campaign in Gajapati district” at a function at the Town Hall here. …

Dr Mishra said the programme was meant to create awareness among the people about the need for a student to be able to study in a school of his/her choice.

There is an obvious disparity in the education system where the rich have the option but a poor child has none whatsoever.
The school choice campaign being organised in nearly eight states has plans to collect 10 lakh signatures, to highlight the issue.
“Crores of rupees are being spent in the name of education but when it comes to real evaluation of results, one finds that pass results are poor, drop-out rates abominable, corruption galore, misappropriation of funds and no accountability.
Why should the bureaucrat decide how education funds should be spent and should they bear no responsibility for the failures,” asked Dr Mishra.

Despite the progress of projects such as the Sarva Sikhsha Abhijan and National Child Labour Project, results are not up to the mark.
After the meeting, Dr Mishra said they have found out that the government investment in education is about Rs 5000 per annum, per student.
The money is being spent in the form of infrastructural development, books purchase, teacher recruitment , purchasing of materials and so on.

Spending is decided by government officers who are unaware of the ground realities.
Had the same money been handed over to the parent or the guardian, giving him or her the choice of school, there could be rapid transformation in the system.

However radical or antagonistic the proposal may be, it is fast catching up and the Delhi-based CCS has been trying to make the government understand that the money is best given to the guardians in the form of vouchers.
If 1,000 students are selected from a particular block and given Rs 5,000 each year for their education, it comes to Rs 50 lakh per annum, he said.

This is bound to encourage good schools to come up in the block.

These can be an alternative to locally run government schools where the poor people are forced to study because the government is investing money on them.

July 31st, 2007

Zee Interactive Learning Systems plans to set up Kidzcare centers in Bhubaneswar

Following are excerpts from a report in televsionpoint.com.

Mumbai based Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) is looking at its child care division, Kidzcare, as a major growth-driver in the years to come. …

Arun Khetan, CEO, ZILS said, "The franchised childcare centres, Kidzcare, are geared to meet the gap in proper existing childcare programmes. We will be setting up a total of 35 Kidzcare centres in this financial year."

According to Khetan, the demand for these centres is mostly from the IT and BPO crowd. "Thus, the Kidzcare centres will mostly come up in places like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai."

July 31st, 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

Summary of GE seat situation at the end of JEE counseling on 30th July 2007 [GE 1-5000]

Following are the branches and colleges that no longer have any GE seats. On the side we mention in which counseling the seats got filled up.

1. CV Raman  Bhubaneswar  (AE & I 2401-2800, Comp Sc 2001-2400, Electrical 2401-2800, Elec & TC 1601-2000, IT 2401-2800, Mech 3201-3600)
2. College of Engg. Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 3201-3600, Elect & TC 3201-3600, IT 3601-4100, E & EE 4501-5000)
3. CET Bhubaneswar (Civil 1201-1600, Comp Sc 401-800, Electrical 401-800, I&E 1-400 (?), IT 801-1200, Mech 801-1200, Biotech 4101-4500)
4. East Bhubaneswar (Elect & TC 4101-4500)
5. Gandhi Engineering College Bhubaneswar (ECE 3201-3600, Comp Sc 3601-4100, E & EE V, IT 4501-4500) – ALL GE GONE by 5000
6. Gandhi Institute for Technology Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 4501-5000, ECE 4501-5000)
7. GIET Gunupur (Comp Sc 4501-5000, ECE 4501-5000)
8. GITA Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 2401-2800, E & EE 2801-3200, IT 3201-3600, ECE 2401-2800, Electrical 4101-4500, Mech 4501-5000) – ALL GE GONE by 5000
9. IGIT Sarang (Elect 1601-2000, Mech 2401-2800, Metallurgy 4101-4500, Civil 4501-5000)
10. ITER Bhubaneswar (AE&I 1201-1600, Civil 3201-3600, Comp Sc 1201-1600, Electrical 1601-2000, E &EE 1201-1600, ELE & TC 1201-1600, IT 1201-1600, Mech 2401-2800) – ALL GE GONE by 3600
11. Krupajala Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 4101-4500, Elec & TC 4101-4500, IT 4101-4500)
12. NIST Berhampur (Comp Sc 2001-2400, E & EE 2401-2800, I & E 2801-3200, IT 2801-3200, ECE 2001-2400) – ALL GE GONE by 3200
13. Orissa Engineering College (Comp Sc 2401-2800, ELE & TC 2401-2800, IT 3201-3600, Electrical 3601-4100, Mech 4501-5000)
14. Orissa school of mining Engg Keonjhar (Elec 4101-4500)
15. Silicon Bhubaneswar (AE & I 2001-2400, Comp Sc 1601-2000 , E & EE 1601-2000, ELE & TC 1201-1600, IT 1601-2000 ) – ALL GE GONE by 2400
16. Trident Bhubaneswar (Elec & TC 3601-4100, Comp Sc 4101-4500, E & EE 4501-5000)
17. UCE Burla (Civil 1601-2000, Comp Sc 401-800, Electrical 801-1200, Elec & TC 401-800, IT 801-1200, Manu 2801-3200, Mech 1201-1600) – ALL GE GONE by 3200

5 comments July 31st, 2007

PIB: Significant increase in DST research fellowship amounts (Update: Also CSIR fellowships)

Updated dated Dec 8 2007: Thanks to reader Priyanka (comment 108-109) we now have details on the increase in CSIR fellowship amounts. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=867 or http://www.csirhrdg.nic.in/fellowship%20revision.pdf for details. In short, the amount go up in two stages. From 1st September 2006 the amount for JRF goes up from Rs 8,000/month to Rs 10,000/month and then from 1st April 2007 the amount goes further up to Rs 12,000/month.

From a S&T department PIB press release.

Government of India, Department of Science & Technology (DST) has been considering the revision of research fellowships of Research Fellows and Research Associates from time to time. There are various practical considerations in deciding on the revision of fellowships which should take into account all possible scenarios and specially, availability of resources and the sustainability of increased fellowships. While attractive fellowships have to be instituted to attract promising candidates to take up research as a career, there is also a need to create an ambience required for pursuing research, which is a  pre-requisite. 

The Exercise of revision of fellowships is conducted through an inter-agency and extensive consultative process. The Department, as a part of the consultative process, had discussions with all the S&T agencies including the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). The revision had taken into account the need for redesigning the research fellowships for meeting the needs of a competitive market environment for talent, and longer-term time horizon. It was also decided that both the Scientific Departments and the MHRD would harmonize the fellowship levels and effective dates for implementation. The following were the main recommendations apart from the revision of fellowships:

The candidate who qualifies through NET examination or its equivalent for admission to do Ph.D. should get a fellowship amount of Rs 12000.

All eligible candidates admitted in different disciplines to do Ph.D may be  covered under a suitable fellowship programme in a phase- wise manner.

Fellowships to candidates, other than those qualified in NET or equivalent examination, admitted to pursue Ph.D in the institutions, recognized by relevant S&T agencies, would be covered by UGC norms.

Based on these extensive deliberations, the Department of Science & Technology has proposed the enhancement in research fellowships. Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences told media persons in New Delhi today that the Government has accorded approval for this enhancement, as given below.

Table: Enhancement of Research Fellowships for NET or Equivalent

(Rupees per month)

224 comments July 30th, 2007

Private detective courses and programs

Samaja has the following article on this.

1 comment July 30th, 2007

OUAT counseling details – Ad from Samaja

6 comments July 30th, 2007

Meagre state funding and incompetent leadership at Utkal University of Culture

That is my opinion after reading the following. Both the culture department of the Orissa government as well as the university leadership should be ashamed of the performance of this university. Its been 8 years since it was established in 1999 and it is yet to get the "funded by UGC" tag. Perhaps the government and the university leadership will learn and be inspred by what has been acheived at Ravenshaw University in 8 months. Ravenshaw has done it in 8 months what Utkal University of Culture has not been able to do in 8 years. Fakirmohan University, North Orissa University and BPUT leaderships should also be ashamed of their incompetence in not being able to make a case with the state government as well as UGC to get the "funded by UGC" tag. Hopefully, they will also be inspired by Ravenshaw University. Following is Dharitri’s article on Utkal University of Culture and the dire financial situation there.

2 comments July 30th, 2007

KIIT to have a law school that will also offer five year integrated B.X+LLB programs

KIIT  has started a law school that will offer five year integrated law school programs.  Following are excerpts from Kalinga Times’ report on this.

"KIIT National Law School (KNLS) fills up the absence of a national law school in Orissa and will meet the surging demand for legal professionals in the wake of globalisation and rapid expansion of corporate sector and influx of multinationals in the country," according to an official release issued by the University.

N. L. Mitra, a renowned law academician, has consented to be involved with KNLS as its chief advisor, giving a boost to its mission to be at par with the best law schools.

Mitra has been instrumental in setting up almost all reputed national law schools in the country. He is former Director of National Law School of India University, Bangalore and former Vice-Chancellor of National Law School, Jodhpur.

KNLS is offering five year integrated law programmes (B.A.LL.B; B.Sc. LLB; and BBA.LL.B) as well as three Year LL.B course from the current academic year. …

The School is headed by Faizan Mustafa, who is former Dean and Registrar of Law School, Aligarh Muslim University.

5 comments July 29th, 2007

No GE (general category) seats left in Silicon, ITER, NIST and UCE Burla at the end of 29th July counseling [GE 1-3600]

Following are the branches and colleges that no longer have any GE seats. On the side we mention in which counseling the seats got filled up.

1. CV Raman  (AE & I 2401-2800, Comp Sc 2001-2400, Electrical 2401-2800, Elec & TC 1601-2000, IT 2401-2800, Mech 3201-3600)
2. College of Engg. Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 3201-3600, Elect & TC 3201-3600)
3. CET Bhubaneswar (Civil 1201-1600, Comp Sc 401-800, Electrical 401-800, I&E 1-400 (?), IT 801-1200, Mech 801-1200)
4. Gandhi Engineering College Bhubaneswar (ECE 3201-3600)
5. GITA Bhubaneswar (Comp Sc 2401-2800, E & EE 2801-3200, IT 3201-3600, ECE 2401-2800)
6. IGIT Sarang (Elect 1601-2000, Mech 2401-2800)
7. ITER Bhubaneswar (AE&I 1201-1600, Civil 3201-3600, Comp Sc 1201-1600, Electrical 1601-2000, E &EE 1201-1600, ELE & TC 1201-1600, IT 1201-1600, Mech 2401-2800) – ALL GE GONE by 3600
8. NIST Berhampur (Comp Sc 2001-2400, E & EE 2401-2800, I & E 2801-3200, IT 2801-3200, ECE 2001-2400) – ALL GE GONE by 3200
9. Orissa Engineering College (Comp Sc 2401-2800, ELE & TC 2401-2800, IT 3201-3600)
10. Silicon Bhubaneswar (AE & I 2001-2400, Comp Sc 1601-2000 , E & EE 1601-2000, ELE & TC 1201-1600, IT 1601-2000 ) – ALL GE GONE by 2400
11. UCE Burla (Civil 1601-2000, Comp Sc 401-800, Electrical 801-1200, Elec & TC 401-800, IT 801-1200, Manu 2801-3200, Mech 1201-1600) – ALL GE GONE by 3200
    

July 29th, 2007

NTS Exam Schedule announced by NCERT

July 29th, 2007

Economist, UK profiles Anil Agarwal and mentions Vedanta University

Economist, UK has a nice profile of Anil Agarwal and mentions Vedanta University. Following are some excerpts.

… Around half of India’s dozen richest businessmen are self-made men. But none more so than Mr Agarwal, now 53, whose personal fortune is estimated at $5.4 billion. …

He is Indian, and proud to be—hence, he says, his philanthropic scheme to donate $1 billion to found a world-class university in India. Vedanta University will be constructed on a 3,200-hectare site in Orissa and will cater for 100,000 students when it is completed, around 2025. “When you go to the US, you see their large universities, Harvard and Berkeley, and we don’t have them,” says Mr Agarwal. “Yet the biggest thing you can give to people is education.” Sceptics say he has chosen Orissa as the site for the university for political reasons. It is certainly an extraordinarily ambitious scheme. But there is no doubting Mr Agarwal’s ability to overcome obstacles and establish giant enterprises with surprising speed.

July 29th, 2007

Appeal on behalf of Ravenshaw University

Dear all:

Many of you may know that Ravenshaw became a university http://ravenshawuniversity.com/ on November 15 2006. It received UGC approval on February 6 2007. (https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=60 ) Now it is reported that it has become eligible to apply for UGC funding. (https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=447 )

The last one, by virtue of the little time it took, is an *unbelievable* achievement for Ravenshaw and opens the way for it to take big steps towards its future. For this all Ravenshaw administrators deserve mega kudos. The difficulty of getting the "funded by UGC" status can be judged by the fact that several other universities established by the Orissa givernment, some for more than 5 years, do not yet have the tag. This includes BPUT, North Orissa U at Baripada, Fakirmohan U at Balasore and Utkal Univ of Culture. Sure, Ravenshaw’s past history must have helped; nevertheless this is a great achievement.

One can also have a look at the presentation that Ravenshaw VC gave at Detroit on July 1 2007 available at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=323
and notice how the VC and his staff have made a visionary plan; and not just a plan, they have acted on some of it already. The later includes convincing the
government of Orissa to promise (allocate?) land and funds for a new campus.

I had the opportunity to meet Devdas babu (VC of Ravenshaw) in January and also in July in Detroit. He has been very receptive to ideas. He suggested that it would be great to have an electronic gathering place for friends and alumni of Ravenshaw. Hence, I have created a yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ravenshawnet/

If you are serious in suggesting ideas, and not just that but in acting towards the fulfillment of those ideas, please consider joining the group to network with
like-minded people. For the next week or so, I will open up the group so that people can join directly, without needing an approval.

best regards
Chitta
ps — I am not a Ravenshaw alumnus. I think Ravenshaw is Orissa’s pride and we must help make it a top university in the world and an opportunity where we
have a VC who welcomes help, and who has shown his ability to do things and cut red tapes should not be missed.
pps- PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO OTHERS WHO HAVE CONCERN FOR ORISSA.

FOLLOW-UP

How will this group be different? How exactly can it help Ravenshaw?

Let me illustrate this by an example.

After many people heard Devdas babu (VC of Ravensha) in Detroit a group of them decided to help develop a school of contemporary music, possibly named as "Akhaya Mohanty School of contemporary music" at Ravenshaw. They are now in the process of raising an amount of money suggested by Devdas babu. Devdas babu said that if they raise X then he will be able to use it to get 5-10X from the government.

Another group (mostly consisting of professors in science disciplines in North America) has discussed with Devdas babu about renovating the Science curriculum at Ravenshaw.

Yet another group is interested in the establishment of Creative Writing program where budding poets and novelists can learn and practice their art. Apparently their are not many programs like that in India. I wonder if there is any in Orissa.

Other groups have suggested their help in establishing a Journalism program and making Ravenshaw, perhaps the first university in India to have its daily newspaper, if not paper based, but at least in the web. (Most US Universities have daily newspapers.)

Yet another group is interested in helping Ravenshaw to use the availability of past judges in the Cuttack area (including some supreme court judges) to establish a law school in the mold of National Law School in Bangalore.

These are some of the ideas that are under works. Devdas babu has said that he welcomes more such ideas, and actions towards the fulfillment of those ideas.

So this is what the group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ravenshawnet/ will aim to do.

best regards
Chitta

3 comments July 29th, 2007

CET Bhubaneswar Computer Sc & Electrical and UCE Burla CS and Electronics filled in the second GE counseling session

The first six sessions of the JEE Engineering general category counseling is over and based on the data the following subjects and colleges are in high demand.

1. CET Bhubaneswar, Computer Science; CET Bhubaneswar Electrical; UCE Burla Computer Science and UCE Burla Electronics: Seats in these were filled by the second GE session which counseled students ranked 401-800.
2. CET Bhubaneswar, Info Tech; CET Bhubaneswar Mechanical Engg; UCE Burla Electrical and UCE Burla Info Tech: Seats in these were filled by the third GE counseling session which counseled students ranked 801-1200.
3. CET Bhubaneswar Civil; ITER AE&I; Computer Science; Eⅇ E&TC; IT; Silicon E&TC and UCE Burla Mechanical: Seats in these were filled by the fourth GE counseling session which counseled students ranked 1201-1600.
4. CV Raman Electronics; IGIT Electrical; ITER Electrical; Silicon Computer Science, IT, E & EE; UCE Burla Civil: Seats in these were filled by the fifth GE counseling session which counseled students ranked 1601-2000.
5. CV Raman Computer Science; NIST Computer Science; NIST ECE; Silicon AE&I: Seats in these were filled by the sixth GE counseling session which counseled students ranked 2001-2400.

Silicon with only five branches: AE&I, CS, E&EE, E & TC, and IT is the first college to have completely filled its GE seats.

July 29th, 2007