Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would lay the foundation stone of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST).
The Central University sanctioned by the IHRD Ministry will be started in Kasargod district.
The Centre has also sanctioned another Central university with world class standards.
An Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)
Upgradation of CUSAT into Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).
A sub centre of Aligarh Muslim University will be established in Malappuram
… government of Orissa is planning to set up medical colleges in Angul, Koraput, Mayurbhanj and Balangir, revealed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Initiative document.
… According to sources, the Chief District Medical Officers (CDMO) of these districts has been asked to identify at least 25 acres of land nearby the District Headquarters Hospitals (DHH). These DHH will be attached to the medical colleges to facilitate practical training to the students.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) on Thursday suggested the 20 cities for setting up new Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).
Delhi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Jammu are among the cities suggested.
… In its model detailed project report (DPR) presented to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Nasscom, the trade body representing the Indian information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, has also included the names of Chandigarh, Dehradun, Lucknow, Patna, Shillong, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Indore, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Visakhapatanam, Mysore, Mangalore and Coimbatore for establishing new IIITs. PPP model
In its model DPR that will serve as a template for the preparation of the DPR for each individual IIIT, Nasscom has proposed that the new IIITs be set up as a fully autonomous institutions, through a public-private partnership (PPP) model. The partners in setting up the IIITs should be the Ministry, the respective State governments and industry members.
National importance
According to Nasscom president Som Mittal, each IIIT has been envisioned to become a world-class academic institute and evolve into technology and functional ‘Centres of Excellence’ through a strong focus on research in frontier technology areas.
To achieve this, it is imperative to attract best-in-class faculty, and students; develop sustainable linkages with industry; and provide an environment conducive for research excellence.
To justify the large investments being made in the IIITs, it is important that they provide a sufficient scale at undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral research levels, he added. …
Autonomy
“The model for the new IIITs proposed in the DPR focuses on both academic and research excellence through innovative governance and operational approaches and a strong and sustained participation from the IT industry.
“However, achieving this will not be easy and it is important that each institute is supported, especially in the initial years, and is also allowed complete autonomy to define its roadmap and implement it,” Mr. Mittal added.
While required investment into the IIITs could vary depending on the city, close to Rs 100 crore has been estimated for each IIIT. …
The locations of IIITs have been arrived at on the basis of how well connected they are in terms of transport and facilities and their prominence to industrial hubs. Considering the dire faculty crunch in the country, Nasscom has made it clear that faculty members must be be given salaries prevalent in the market.
It has been suggested that each IIIT must have the autonomy to decide its own salary structure to compete with private educational institutes. Collaborating private organisations would be requested to send their experienced employees as visiting faculty members. A higher number of visiting faculty and faculty-exchange programmes with universities in India and abroad have been suggested.
…
The report says all programmes in an IIIT should be given equal importance, having noted that generally it is the undergraduate programme in institutes that receives most of the attention. It has been suggested that other post-graduate programmes, especially the PhD programmes, should not be compromised with.
The development of the PhD programme, according to one of the suggestions, is vital to the growth of IIITs as these doctoral students could be groomed for teaching positions in IIITs, creating a strong pool of candidates for top academic positions.
It has been recommended that the undergraduate programme of IIITs could be scaled up to 600 students, the post-graduate programme could take about 400 students and the PhD programme could have an intake of 100 students.
A faculty-student ratio of 1:14 has been suggested. The report has suggested an integrated campus model and a hub-and-spoke campus model, depending on the IIIT.
The Orissa government has to figure out a way to have this IIIT in Berhampur and if not then convince the central govt. to establish one of the proposed 10 NITs in Berhampur.
Now the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has been asked to identify the land. IDCO has identified 3 spots for the proposed IIT.
Interestingly last week only, the MHRD sent a letter to identify a land measuring 600 acres for the proposed IIT in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, which will be directly accessible to the airport, railway and national highway.
Nearest to Bhubaneswar is a temple land near Jatni is available which is only 25 km from the capital city. This is approachable with railway and national highway. But snag is that only 400 acres of government land is available, so it may not be acceptable for IIT.
Second place is near Banki-Cuttack Road, which is around 65 km from Bhubaneswar. There is a patch of more than 2000 acres of government land. However the place is not directly connected with national highway, but it lies the side of a state highway.
Third one is in Tangi of Bhusandpur near Chilka. More than 4000 acres of land is available in the low lying areas of Chilka. It will be more than 70 km from Bhubaneswar. The place is picturesque and its scenic beauty is enchanting. The NH-6 5 is passing nearby the place.
Out of these 3 places, one will be chosen.
Experts are visiting the places and it will take much time to reach a final decision. How ever nothing prevents MHRD to declare IIT Kharagpur as the ‘mentor institution’ of IIT Orissa and start the classes from this education year. IIT Kharagpur needs 3-4 acre of land as it is having an extension centre at Bhubaneswar. Only 70,000 square feet is needed to begin the classes.