Odisha HRD

A private engineering college being made in Talcher

Following is an excerpt on it from Pioneer. (My understanding is that it is not yet an engineering college, but is on its way to become one.)

… former Union Minister Devendra Pradhan.

Inaugurating the first session of the Pabitra Mohan Institute of Technology (PMIT) at Talcher on Tuesday, he said local people are not getting proper employment opportunities as they do not have the required technical education. Pabitra Mohan Institute of Technology, which is named after the great freedom fighter and former Deputy Chief Minister, would solve this problem, he said.

Local MLA Mahesh Sahu also emphasised the need of technical education in the area. He criticised the vested interests who are opposing the establishment of the only private engineering college at Talcher.

Among others, the meeting was addressed by Atul Ku Sahu, Principal, Orissa School of Engineering, Bichhand Pradhan, freedom fighter, LD Nayak, Principal, PMIT,  …

8 comments October 3rd, 2007

Fourth of the 8 new IITs in Himachal Pradesh

Following is an excerpt from Economic Times on this.

The Centre on Tuesday announced it would open a central university and an IIT, besides carrying out an over 100 km railway line project in Himachal Pradesh.

    "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told me to announce a central university, an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), over 100 km Bhanupalli-Bilaspur railway line and extending Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in remaining eight districts of Himachal Pradesh," Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after launching the "Aam Admi Bima Yojna" here.

    The announcements come ahead of the assembly elections in the state due in February next year.

    … Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said opening up of a central university and an IIT in the state would lift the educational standards in the hill state.

    "The Bhanupalli-Bilaspur broad gauge line has been a long pending demand of the state from the railways. As per the agreement, the Centre would bear 75 per cent of the cost while the remaining 25 per cent would be spent by the state," Singh said.

October 3rd, 2007

Narayana to start plus 2 : Samaja

October 2nd, 2007

Orissa JEE counseling drags on further

Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report.

… the Orissa High Court on Monday directed the State Government to initiate fresh centralised counselling for filling up the seats in the different professional colleges and complete the entire exercise in two weeks.

The single-judge bench of Justice AS Naidu, however, asked the Government and the JEE authorities to declare the total number of seats available in different colleges first and within three days. Students already taken admission would be allowed to exercise their option to switch to available seats of their choice in preferred colleges first and they have to be fixed by JEE in three days after declaration of total seats and this should be followed by the fresh counselling.

The ruling came in response to a batch of writ petitions filed by different college bodies and the Orissa Private Engineering College Association praying for initiation of steps to fill up the seats in the institutions. They submitted that while counselling was on the AICTE granted approval for establishment of new colleges with a combined intake capacity of 240 in each discipline and enhanced seats in different old colleges.

As per norms, 30 percent of the seats were to be filled up by management and AIEEE qualified students by equal share. The rest was to be filled up by JEE qualified students. But despite assurances, the authorities have taken no steps towards filling up the added and enhanced seats.

The petitioners had submitted that AICTE approval was for two years only and the colleges would sustain huge financial loss along with loss of image topped by threat of withdrawal of approval by AICTE during scrutiny. The State Government had earlier and even last year allowed admissions way into October in some institutes but this time it is unyielding, they alleged.

Considering the submissions, the Court observed that discrimination was writ large in the action of authorities and debarred them from taking a different stand this year while allowing admissions to enhanced seats last year.

So as to not cause any prejudice to the students who had already taken admission in different colleges, Justice Naidu said they should be given the chance first to exercise options in seeking switches to colleges or disciplines of their choice.

2 comments October 2nd, 2007

Adopt an ITI scheme

Sify.com reports on a central govt. proposal encouraging various companies to adopt ITIs. In particular, it mentions that:

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd has plans to adopt the ITI at Talcher in Orissa …

October 2nd, 2007

Appeal to readers: need your urgent help on the IIT issue

Dear all:

I was told that the CM’s office has not sent a letter to the PM after the announcement of 5 more new IITs were made. This while, other states have staked their claim. He was supposed to have sent a letter a month back, but apparently he has not sent it.

Apparently his office can not decide which one of the options to pursue: upgrade Burla (300 crores); IIT KGP campus in BBSR (800 crores);  greenfield IIT 1000-4000 crores.

I can not believe that they are that indecisive.

Please send a short email immediately to the CM cmo@ori.nic.in withh cc to Industry Secretary indsec@ori.nic.in and urge them that the CM must send a letter to the PM on a new IIT followed by a vision document.

best regards
Chitta

========================================================

Follow-up to this: I had made the above appeal by email to certain groups. In response, many of you sent the mail on this. Thank you very much. I am being told that the emails have made the cmo office take notice. See the mention in http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1235

My purpose of writing this is to convey that your emails are not thrown away without reading. They are being read and not thrown away. How else a journalist will get hold of them and write about it?

I hope they will take action soon.

Please participate in such email writing, if the cause resonates with  you.

best regards
Chitta

3 comments October 1st, 2007

NRO appeal Naveen on IIT: Tathya.in

Following is the article on this at Tathya.in.

Leading Non Resident Oriyas (NROs) have requested Naveen Patnaik to claim for a Green field Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa.

Mandarins in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) are busy in sorting out a number of e-mails that flooded from various parts of the Globe.

All most all the e-mail senders have raised serious concern over the indecision over demanding an IIT for the state, when the Prime Minister announced that there will be 8 IITs in the country.

While addressing the nation on 15 August Dr.Man Mohan Singh announced that five more IITs will be established in addition to the newly proposed three IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

While other states have already staked their claims for IIT including Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Orissa is yet to ask for the same.

“Unless we do the same, we will lose out”, lamented ….

“The Chief Minister must immediately send a letter to the Prime Minister followed up by a vision document”, said …

Joining the issue Priya Ranjan Mahapatra, President of the Orissa Society of Americas (OSA), New York chapter said in the past Orissa has made several different proposals to the Centre.

The proposals including upgrading University College of Engineering (UCE) Burla to an IIT with a budget of about Rs. 300 crores, an IIT Khragpur campus in Bhubaneswar of a budget about Rs.800 crores and a new Greenfield IIT having a budget of Rs. 2000-4000 crores were demanded earlier.

But now we must demand for a Greenfield IIT, said Mr.Mahapatra.

Priyadarshan Patra, Secretary OSA has echoed in the same line and asked Mr.Patnaik to stake the claim immediately in an e-mail.

Dr.Patra has written to the Chief Minister reminding to push the Greenfield IIT in Orissa as that involves the largest amount of investment.

Professor Gopal Mohanty from Canada has also sent an e-mail to the CM and has advised him to act decisively over the issue.

The list is unending, said a senior official in the CMO.

Expressing concern over the issue, leading NRO Dhirendra Kar has ringed up Members of Parliament, the top mandarins of the CMO and state secretariat to act immediately over the issue.

Mr.Kar said that we just have to make sure that the Greenfield location is not exactly in Bhubaneswar but about 100 km away from it in South Orissa.

So that later we can ask for an IIT Kharagpur extension centre at Bhubaneswar, said Mr.Kar.

October 1st, 2007