Odisha HRD

PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi

August 19, 2009

Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa met Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry at New Delhi and discussed various issues pertaining to development of Industry Clusters and handicrafts in Orissa.

Chief Minister requested for establishment of a National Institute of Design (NID) at Bhubaneswar for which the Govt. of Orissa has offered to provide necessary infrastructure including land.  As the new National Design Policy of GoI envisages to set-up four new design Institutes on the pattern of NID, Ahmedabad during the 11^th Five Year Plan and three locations have already been identified to cover Central, Southern and North-Eastern regions of the country, CM emphasised that an NID focusing on handlooms and handicrafts could be ideally located in Orissa which could serve tribal regions of not only Orissa but also Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and the entire Eastern region. The Union Minister has agreed to consider the proposal.

Considering the largest diversity of Mangrove forests in Orissa,  Chief Minister  suggested that a National Institute of Mangrove Research be established in the State which may  provide required data base for management of mangrove and coastal vegetation and also  develop models for conservation and propagation of mangroves and coastal shelter belt plantations. He also urged  the Union Government to consider setting up  a National Institute of Wetlands and Coastal Ecosystems in Orissa for which the nucleus is already available at Chandraput.

The HRD Ministry has unveiled a blueprint for world-class universities (WCUs) that proposes a free hand and more autonomy to varsities, exempting them from audit systems and placing them outside the UGC-style regulatory system, offering a range of scholarships and a flexible faculty recruitment process. The ministry has also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy to attract quality faculty from across the globe proposing to amend existing legislations to permit foreign citizens to be engaged as faculty in India.

The concept note for the universities, circulated to select academicians, proposes a strong focus on research at these varsities and government aid in the form of a corpus.

…The varsity will have just two pay bands for faculty and the varsity will be free to recruit as many faculty members as its suits them within these two pay bands.

… The ministry also announced its ‘Brain Gain’ policy on Monday which aimed at attracting best quality teachers from across the globe to work at the 14 National Universities, proposed to be set up by the Centre in the 11th Plan. To ensure that quality faculty of foreign nationality join these universities, the government may amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 which does not allow persons of Indian origin, who are citizens of another country, to be appointed to public services and posts.

The government also intends to amend the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Services) Act of 1971 to exempt national universities from the CAG’s scrutiny.

These universities will be kept out of the purview of existing regulatory bodies in higher education in academic matters.

"The government shall ensure that the governance structure of the university shall be tuned to towards ensuring autonomy over all matter, specially academic matters, including but not limited to admissions, curriculum, research, assessment, award of degrees, selection of members of the professoiorate and the basic direction of the academic work in the university," the concept note said.

The autonomy will be at various levels — at the level of university via-a-vis government, at the level of faculty vis-a-vis the university and at the level of researcher via-a-vis the faculty.

These proposed universities will get Research Endowment Fund of an amount less than Rs 200 crore each annually.

Following the preparation of the concept note, the Ministry will make a draft bill on setting up the universities which will go to the cabinet for approval and then placed before Parliament.

The universities will have the freedom to get funding from non-governmental sources subject to condition that it will not be from dubious or unverified sources.

An research peer group, comprising eminent academicians, will evaluate the research proposals. The varsities will have the freedom to decide remuneration for research personnel.

As a major exemption, the transactions of these universities will be kept out of the purview of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

  … Accountability will be ensured by the review of the academic research peer group for research work and teachers peer group for course work and teaching.

"To that end, scrutiny and accountability shall be defined by outcomes rather than processes," the note said.

The universities will be free to establish Chairs of Studies with funding through non-government endowments.

Similarly, the universities will have freedom to make appointments by invitation based on the recommendations of a standing search committee.

"Recognising that brilliance is not a factor of age of a person or years spent in research, the appointment by invitation shall not be subject to limitations of age or years of experience of the considered candidate," the concept note said.