Following is from a report in Pioneer.
The Vedanta University Project has commenced significant initiatives for education, healthcare, infrastructure and livelihood improvements in the local area here comprising over 20 villages. This includes sponsoring 500 children for high quality education in Puri DAV School, mobile health units and mobile veterinary units.
Besides, electrification of villages, upgrading infrastructure of schools and villages, a programme of sustainable livelihood solution and training of local youth in skills development etc, have also been initiated under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drive. According to CSR executive of the project Abhijita Panigrahi, the project is working to develop the local communities to a standard of living to cope with the world class township of the Vedanta University that will bring huge economic prosperity to the State.
The project envisages setting up a world class multidisciplinary university with quality higher education facilities in arts, science, medicine, engineering, law, business, education, design and architecture, journalism and communication, etc. The university will also have research centres and complete infrastructure for the students, faculties and staffs and will become an academic township over the 6,000 acres campus near the Puri-Konark marine drive. The university being set up with an initial donation of over Rs 4,000 crore will be a "Not for Profit" institution.
August 29th, 2008
Following are excerpts from a report in livemint.com.
In the new IIITs, the government is actively considering a model where a majority stake goes to the private sector, while reducing the government to a minority shareholder. So, on an equity base of Rs30 crore, the government would get Rs14.90 crore maximum; and industry, Rs15.10 crore minimum.
“This is where the concept of autonomy begins. Even IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and IITs, which are autonomous institutes, can’t decide on fees and number of seats without government approval because they are dependent on it for grants,” said Rajdeep Sahrawat, vice-president of industry lobby group National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), who led the drafting of the detailed project report on IIITs.
The government is also looking at a loan model, prepared by Nasscom, for IIITs to be set up as autonomous bodies, where the government would give loans to the institutes—and not grant funds—to be paid back over 10 years after a five-year moratorium.
The partners in setting up these IIITs would be the HRD ministry, the governments of the respective states where each institute will be established and industry members.
The committee member said it is hoping the model has no management quota. “There will be a board of governors that will decide policy matters for the institutes, and have representations from academia, industry and government,” this person said.
To further clip government interference, the board of governors at these IIITs will have just one government representative, based on the policy of “one seat per investor”.
“Each institution should have three-four industry partners, with a pedigree for research. Even the age of the people to be appointed to the governing board can’t exceed 70 years,” the member said.
With a focus on research, the new IIITs will also have a faculty-student ratio of 1:10, as in IITs. While Nasscom’s public-private partnership model for the new IIITs skips any mention of reservations for students from backward classes, a provision for merit-cum-means scholarships for the students is proposed, where an institute is granted subsidy from the government for the scholarships granted.
This, however, continues to be the toughest call for the government. “The industry wants merit to be the sole criteria, but the government would like to push through reservations, as applicable in other educational institutions. However, the IIITs would have some kind of a relaxation of marks for students from certain backward classes,” the member said.
August 29th, 2008