Pratham and Dhanada sign MOU with Sambada on primary education
October 27th, 2007
Archive for October, 2007
Vocational training in Koraput for mentally challenged students
Following is an excerpt from a report on this in topnews.in.
At least 56 children with various mental-disabilities are taking vocational training at a special centre in Orissa’s Koraput to be self-reliant and prove wrong those who doubted their potential.
At the Manas Education and Vocational Training Centre for the Mentally Challenged, operated under the aegis of Koraput district administration since 2001, training is imparted to children between 6 to 18 years of age. …
The institute provides an opportunity to students to develop their hobbies besides attending the inmates for their mental and physical disorders. Student can learn stitching, candle making, spices packing, book-binding and other similar works.
Fourteen of the students at Manas, who had a harrowing time in their immediate society, now are earning a handsome amount of money.
"Here we stitch mosquito nets and sell them in markets. I will take it as a vocation. If I was in my village my life would have been ruined," said Dinesh Sarika, a student.
According to Bidyadhar Paramanik, Principal of Manas Education and Vocational Training Centre for the Mentally Challenged, the centre is facing financial constraint.
"We have started this school with the objective of looking after such mentally challenged children who are not usually accepted by the society. We gather these children from different villages and provide them with right health treatment and vocational training so as to make them self-sufficient,” Paramanik said.
“Although much is being done by this institution, it is facing financial constraints. The Centre provides 75 per cent funds for this school. The rest is borne by the district administration. We need at least Rs. 65,000 a year, but we get much less," he said.
October 26th, 2007
More news on the 1 lakh/year scholarship for science students
Following is an excerpt from an Economic Times report on this.
If you figure in the list of meritorious 1 lakh students, you will get Rs 1 lakh annually for pursuing university education in science stream and the amount may continue up to five years. The government is planning to institute scholarships to encourage education in science and technology. While modalities of selecting meritorious students are yet to be worked out, it is proposed that the future scientists would be caught young in the 12th class itself.
The financial assistance would be given to such students while pursuing BSc and MSc courses. “We have proposed to give adequate financial support to sufficient number of students to foster talent in scientific research. The government is considering to award 1 lakh scholarships of Rs 1 lakh each.
Meritorious students pursuing university education in science stream would be eligible for the award. The proposal is expected to be incorporated in the 11th Five-Year Plan, and expected to be announced in the forthcoming National Development Council (NDC) meeting,” a source in the government said.
It is understood that the proposed scholarship would be modelled on the line of INSPIRE programme mooted by the department of science & technology (DST).
INSPIRE stands for innovations in science pursuit for inspired research. The programme aims at reaching out to the young talent and help them to pursue their interest in science.
“It is also an intervention devised to redress low entry of students into science and technology streams,” a DST source said. After the programme would get a formal approval, the selection procedure for the meritorious students would be announced.
… It is expected that the budget allocation of scientific departments would be enhanced significantly in the 11th Plan. The plan allocation has been doubled from about Rs 12,000 crore in the 9th Plan to about Rs 25,000 crore in the 10 Plan and it is planned to increased it approximately four fold in the 11th Plan, official sources said.
10 comments October 26th, 2007
Radhanatha Institute of Advanced Study in Education to become part of Ravenshaw University? : Samaja
Samaja writes about the plan to shift the Radhanatha Institute of Advanced Study in Education to Ravenshaw University campus. (Note: The site http://www.nuepa.org/libdoc/addresses/iase.pdf lists other institutes of advanced study in education in India. Its a old list though as it does not list the other IASEs in Orissa. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=238.)
October 25th, 2007
Cabinet approves IISERs in Bhopal and Thiruvanthapuram
Following is the PIB release on that.
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for setting up of two Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram, at a total cost of Rs. 1000 crores ( Rs. 500 crore per Institute).
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram are the fourth and fifth in the chain of IISERs to be set up in the country by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Government of India has decided to create the IISERs with the unique objective of integrating undergraduate education, postgraduate education and research under the same umbrella.
The basic idea of IISER is to create research universities of the highest caliber in which teaching and education will be totally integrated with the state of the art research. These universities will be devoted to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in sciences in an intellectually vibrant atmosphere of research. One of the important goals of creating these universities is to make education and careers in basic sciences more attractive by providing opportunities in integrative teaching and learning of sciences and breaking the barriers of traditional disciplines. One other significant concept of the proposed IISER is to actively forge strong relationship with existing universities and colleges and network with laboratories and institutions, in order to share and complement faculty resources as well as research, library and computational facilities.
The IISER shall have programmes of study called Schools in various interdisciplinary areas of Biological Sciences, Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Materials Sciences. Each Institute is expected to have about 2000 undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research scholars, and about 200 faculty members, across disciplines.
Our earlier article at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=630 gives numbers related to NISER and some IITs.
October 25th, 2007
Stanford Daily on Vedanta University
Stanford Daily has an article on Vedanta university with the title "Indian College to be modeled after Stanford." It talks about the vision behind Vedanta University and asks Indian students in Stanford if they would prefer Vedanta University over Stanford. Most students say they would prefer Stanford; this is understandable as Vedanta University does not exist yet. Here is an excerpt from that article:
Revti Gupta ‘09 was impressed by Vedanta’s high expectations.
“It is high time someone took action to establish a world class institute in India that is not just IIT and IIM,” she said, referring to the top technology and management schools in the South Asian country, home to nearly one-sixth of the world’s people.
However, like Mehra and Forbes, Gupta said she would still prefer to travel to California to study.
“I would still come to Stanford because it provides a new perspective and an immersion in a cultural experience for me that I would not have been exposed to in India.”
Despite the lack of enthusiasm from students, Linda Hess, co-director of the Center for South Asia at Stanford, emphasized the positive impact of the initiative in the long-run.
“While Indian students who are at Stanford today may not be tempted to go to a university that’s ‘like Stanford’ in India,” she said in an email to The Daily, “the creation of a place like Vedanta University is part of a much bigger picture — the picture called ‘globalization.’
“The assumptions that used to be made about the sources of economic and intellectual power, about who is ‘ahead’ and who is ‘behind,’ are being turned around,” Hess added. “If the vision of its founders is realized, Vedanta University will attract top students from across the globe to India for the same reasons that Stanford is able to do that now.”.
October 24th, 2007
PM asks to freeze the location decisions on new central universities and elite institutions until the 11th plan is finalized
We mentioned this earlier in https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=746. Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in Hindu. (New Indian Express also reports on this.)
In an effort to ensure spread of higher education avenues in an even manner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has advised the HRD Ministry not to decide on locations of proposed establishment of new central universities and other elite institutions in the country till a mechanism was evolved for the purpose.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has indicated that the Ministry should await the finalization of the XI Plan before deciding on locations for the new central Universities, IITs, IIMs, IIITs and IISERs, the PMO said in a recent communication to the HRD Ministry.
"He (the Prime Minister) has also desired that the Ministry put in abeyance all further locational decisions till a formal mechanism is evolved for this purpose," it said.
The communication from the PMO was in response to a letter of HRD Minister Arjun Singh had written last month to the Prime Minister regarding establishment of these institutions.
1 comment October 23rd, 2007
Startover wrt Balangir medical college while Class is expected to start in 2008-09 in Kalahandi medical college: From Dharitri
1 comment October 23rd, 2007
Steps for getting a commercial pilot liecence
Following is from an article in Rediff/Business Standard.
The route to the cockpit starts with a Student Pilot License (SPL). This can be attained at the age of sixteen years only. The cost of such courses is almost Rs 1 lakh. Once you have your SPL, you can go for Private Pilot License (PPL) or Commercial Pilot License (CPL). But the former does not allow you to fly commercially and is generally taken up by those who have a passion for flying.
A CPL allows you to fly for airlines, corporate private planes or even cargo airlines. To obtain a CPL, 200 hours of flying is necessary. The cost is as high as Rs 11 to 12 lakh. Then, you also require to have knowledge of handling multi-engine aircraft which is another three weeks of training and comes with an extra price tag of Rs 2.5 lakh. Similar courses done abroad come for almost Rs 25 to 30 lakh.
As the training costs are really steep, many banks offer loans for them. Student education loans of Rs 10 to 20 lakh are available for pursuing pilot training courses in India and abroad. Interest rates charged are between 12 to 13 per cent. Banks approve such loans easily, if the chosen training school is one from their own list of approved flight training schools.
The salaries start from Rs 10,000-20,000 (stipend) till the pilot successfully undergoes the initial training of six months to one year to become eligible for sharing the cockpit with the flying team. Going forward in the career, there are two other levels — first officer and commander. A first officer (junior and senior) can earn in the range of Rs 1.2 lakh to 1.8 lakh per month. The commander commands anywhere between Rs 2.5 to Rs 4 lakh a month.
As in any other field, your remuneration will rise with your years of experience. The best bait airlines use is to lure trained pilots by flashing huge salaries. That’s one good reason for aspirants to reach for the skies.
Salaries of professionals
* Trainee pilot – Rs 15,000-20,000
* First officer (junior) – Rs 1 lakh and up
* First officer (senior) – Rs 1.8 lakh and up
* Commander – Rs 2.5 lakh and up
8 comments October 23rd, 2007
EU worried about IIT. Interesting!
Following is an excerpt from http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=28553.
The societal dimension of information and communication technology (ICT) was the centre of attention at the Information Technology for European Advancement (ITEA 2) Symposium 2007. At the annual event on 18 and 19 October in Berlin, stakeholders from industry, politics and academia discussed what ICT can contribute to global challenges such as the ageing society, the digital divide, climate change, security and healthcare.
‘ICT is not an end in itself, but helps meet major societal challenges,’ says Rudolf Haggenmüller, chairman of ITEA 2. However, decision-makers seem to be losing interest in ICT, he adds. …
An increased investment in research and development in ICTs is essential to boost innovation, growth and jobs creation, agrees Rosalie Zobel, Director of the ICT Components & Systems unit of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society and Media. ‘Half of the productivity growth over the last 20 years has been shown by the OECD and others to be due to the use of ICT in all sectors of society and also through the development of ICT industries themselves. So, it is a major contributing factor to the competitiveness of Europe.’
Under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the EU will invest just over €2 billion in ICT themes in the first two years of the programme alone, making ICT one of FP7’s key areas for research and technological development. But be it at EU or national level, there is currently more money available than good ideas for projects, Mr Haggenmüller thinks.
However, every funding programme has its weakness, he says. In the case of EU research grants, for instance, ‘the problem is that administrators instead of scientists define research topics’.
ITEA 2 is a EUREKA cluster. EUREKA is an intergovernmental initiative and its clusters, like those funded by the EU, involve research institutes and companies from various countries. Under EUREKA, every project partner must apply for funding at national level, having to abide by different rules and meet different deadlines, Mr Haggenmüller points out. …
Generally speaking, Europe is too hesitant to pick up new trends and developments. ‘Europeans always want proof that an idea is going to be a success,’ says Mr Haggenmüller. As a result, they lag behind the US and India. In order for Europe to be able to compete with them, he feels that an effective instrument is needed to counterbalance the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Mr Haggenmüller therefore welcomes the idea of a European Institute of Technology (EIT), which – from his point of view – should incorporate a ‘faculty’ exclusively dedicated to ICT. ‘IT-specific architectures and standards are not created by chance,’ he says. ‘Considering the fact that ICT is responsible for 80% to 90% of innovations in some areas, I do indeed think that we need a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) devoted to ICT.’ …
October 23rd, 2007
An MIT co-sponsored International Competition for the Best Research Paper on India’s Urbanization
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Institute for Financial Management and Research are jointly organizing an international competition for the best research paper on innovative responses to India’s urban challenges. The purpose of this competition is to highlight usually overlooked cases of innovation and success in response to rapid urbanization. Additional support for this competition is provided by the MIT-India Program.
Deadlines:
ABSTRACT: October 30, 2007
FINAL PAPER: December 01, 2007
For more information: http://hidden-successes.mit
October 23rd, 2007
UP embarks on making its own state-funded institutes in the lines of IIT and IISc: Orissa should follow the examples of UP and Maharashtra
Following is an excerpt on this from Business Standard. An earlier article on this appeared in Times of India.
The Uttar Pradesh government has started the process for setting up Manyawar Sri Kanshiram Uttar Pradesh Institute of Technology on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and an Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on the pattern of the prestigious Bangalore institute.
The Kanshiram institute is proposed to be set up in Lucknow while the IISc will be set up in Greater Noida. An eleven-member committee has been set up under the chairmanship of the chief secretary for the projects.
For the Kanshiram institute, the Lucknow Development Authority would provide 200 acres, while the Greater Noida Authority would give 200 acres for IISc. Both these institutes would be set up by the Rajkiya Nirman Nigam.
In a recent meeting presided over by Principal Secretary to the chief minister Shailesh Krishna, it was decided that the proposed institutes would be centres of excellence and set up under the Acts passed by the state legislatures.
With the help of TCS, Maharashtra has made a plan (3 MB file) to upgrade couple of its state engineering colleges to "IIT level." (See this 3 MB presentation for what is meant by "IIT level.") The initial colleges they have shortlisted for this are VJTI Mumbai, College of Engineering, Pune and Guru Govind Singh College of Engineering, Nanded.
Orissa should follow Maharashtra’s example and take a PPP approach to upgrade UCE Burla and CET Bhubaneswar to IIT level. (Orissa did initiate a plan to upgrade the Keonjhar School of Mines to the ISM level; but that plan has not progressed much.)
4 comments October 22nd, 2007
IIPH funding sources
A Rajya Sabha report gives some idea about the funding for IIPHs. Following is an excerpt from that report.
The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a Public Private Partnership created for capacity building in Public Health Education, training and research. Considering the public health challenges that India faces, the demand for Public Health Professionals far exceeds the availability of adequately trained Public Health manpower. PHFI seeks to address this concern. Therefore, in the next 5-10 years, the PHFI would over the next 5-10 years help in creating around 2000 plus Public Health Professionals annually. This would be through establishment of world class Schools of Public Health (IIPH); strengthening of existing Schools of Public Health in the country. PHFI would also help establish standards in Public Health Education by enabling the formation of independent accreditation system.
The Government of India is contributing Rs. 65 Crore approximately one-third of the initial seed capital required for kick-starting the PHFI and for establishment of two Schools of Public Health. The remaining amount (approximately Rs.135 crore) is being raised from outside the Government, namely, Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation (Rs.65 cr.) and from high net-worth individuals. PHFI is managed by an independent Governing Board that includes 3 members from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares viz. Secretary (H&FW); DG ICMR and DGHS. Shri T.K.A. Nair Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Dr. M.S. Ahluwalia, Vice Chairman, Planning Commission; Smt. Sujata Rao, AS&PD, NACO, Ministry of Health; Dr. Mashelkar, DG CSIR are also members of the Governing Board. The presence of the officials from Government would ensure that the decisions taken in PHFI are in consonance with the objectives for which PHFI has been supported by Government of India. It is expected that all members of the Governing Board would ensure the functioning of the Foundation as a professional organization and with complete transparency.
In the yahoo article http://in.news.yahoo.com/070628/48/6hhzm.html it is mentioned that the cost of IIPH in Gujarat is 140 crores of which the Gujarat government will contribute 25 crores.
October 21st, 2007
PHFI and the new IIPHs (Indian Institutes of Public Health)
Following are extracts from the web pages of the Public Health Foundation of India (http://www.phfi.org/home.asp).
What is public health?
Public health has often been defined as a science dealing with the determinants and defense of health at the population level, while clinical medicine deals with multiple maladies and their remedies at the level of the individual patient.
Public health aims to elucidate and influence the social, cultural and economic determinants of health as well as to study and structure health systems as efficient channels for health services delivery. Public health thus is a discipline built on an academic tradition of inquiry involving research, teaching and professional practice to prevent disease and promote health in populations.
Why a foundation for public health?
As India experiences a rapid health transition, it is confronted both by an unfinished agenda of infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies and unsafe pregnancies as well as the challenge of escalating epidemics of non-communicable diseases. This composite threat to the nation’s health and development needs a concerted public health response that can ensure efficient delivery of cost-effective interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and affordable diagnostic and therapeutic health care.
These health challenges urgently require capacity building for health research, policy development and analysis, programme development and evaluation, health systems organization, models of health care financing and operationalized scientific research.Education and training in public health needs to be inter-disciplinary in content so that the pathways of public health action are multi-sectoral. Public health education must include subject areas like epidemiology, biostatistics, behavioral sciences, health economics, health services management, environmental health, health inequities and human rights, gender and health, health communication, ethics of health care and research. The interventions proposed need to be evidence based, context specific and resource sensitive.
The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. It is a public private partnership that was collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments in India, multi & bi-lateral agencies and civil society groups in India.
The mission of PHFI is to benchmark quality standards for public health education; establish public health institutes of excellence based on these standards; to undertake meaningful public health research; and to advocate for public policy linked to broader public health goals.
…The PHFI is working towards building public health capacity in India by:
* Establishing 5 -7 new institutes of public health over the next 6 years;
* Assisting the growth of existing public health training institutions/departments and facilitating their evolution into major institutes of public health;
…Directors: Indian Institutes of Public Health (Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar)
The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is seeking three dynamic and enterprising public health experts as Directors of its upcoming Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPH) at Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar. The first IIPH is to come up by July 2008 and the other two will begin operations in 2009.
Following are excerpts from an yahoo article that gives an idea of the cost involved in making an IIPH.
THE Gujarat government has decided to set up an Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) under the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) project, initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.
This will churn out healthcare professionals and also to establish a strong national research network of public health, assisting in the growth of existing public health training institutions.
The State Cabinet, in its meeting on Wednesday, had cleared a proposal to allot 50 acres of government land for the Rs 140-crore IIPH at Chiloda near Gandhinagar. The institute has proposed a deemed university status.
An abridged version of an memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the PHFI and the state government had been signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January, 2006, for setting up of the institute.
The work on the institute is expected to begin in a month or so. When ready, the institute will offer degree courses, including a two-year master course in public health, one-year diploma in public health management and a three-year BSc course in public health.
For students from Gujarat, 10 per cent seats will be reserved for the Master Public Health (MPH) courses.
One-year diploma in public health (DPH) and other short-term courses will also be designed specifically for government servants and a subsidised fee structure for such candidates will be worked out.
… The official said the institute will also offer several short-term programmes in regard to in-service training in public health issues.
The setting up of the institute will certainly help the state in getting resource support and further strengthen health services for all sections of the population.
Of the estimated project cost of Rs 140 crore, Rs 80 crore will be used for construction, Rs 10 crore for learning resources and Rs 50 crore to cover operating deficit in the first 3 to 5 years.
Gujarat’s share will be Rs 25 crore, while the Public Health Foundation of India will provide the rest of the funds for the institute, the official added.
A newkerala.com article dated Sept 26th 2007 mentions that the fourth IIPH will be in Shillong, Meghalaya. A PIB release of last year mentions that there will be an IIPH in Mohali, Punjab. Hence, the five announced for IIPH will be in Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar, Shillong and Mohali.
84 comments October 21st, 2007
On the new NIPERs
Following is an excerpt from a report in http://www.siasat.com/.
After Hyderabad, the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) would commence operations at Ahmedabad, Hajipur (Bihar) and Kolkata this year, Arun Ramanathan, Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said.
NIPER at Hyderabad, the second in the country after Mohali in Haryana, was inaugurated on Friday on a sprawling 150 acres of the sick Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL).
Full-scale operations
Mr. Ramanathan told reporters after the inauguration that the four institutes would take up to two years to commence operations on a full scale. The establishment cost of each of the institutes would be Rs. 200 crore but it would be lesser here as the existing building of the R&D centre of IDPL was utilised for accommodation.
Answering a question, the Secretary also said the Centre was yet to identify a consultant to determine the roadmap for successful functioning of NIPERS in public-private partnership.
In the case of Hyderabad, there was no need of their presence in the initial stages as the State Government had donated the land and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) offered to be mentor organisation, providing its lab facilities and faculty, Mr. Ramanathan added.
Trained manpower
He also said the Centre decided to start six NIPERs in the country at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hajipur, Kolkata, Guwahati and Rae Bareli during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. They planned to provide highly trained manpower for pharma industry which recorded the second highest growth rate after Information Technology. Manpower, however, was a major bottleneck for the pharma industry.
… The Hyderabad NIPER commenced its academic activity with an intake of 40 students in three post-graduate courses.
A joint counseling of four of the new NIPERs, that were initially mentioned in 2006, is at http://www.niper.gov.in/distbu_seats.htm. Earlier this year Guwahati and Rae Bareli got added to the list.
October 21st, 2007