Odisha HRD

Sibal in Singapore; talks about co-operation in building Innovation Universities

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

Sibal, who was speaking at a Singapore Symposium here, said both India and Singapore will cooperate in setting up 14 innovation universities in India.

India needs modern universities to bridge the huge skill shortage gap and Singapore can be the best country to partner with in this area. Infrastructure, education, and skill development are the potential areas of cooperation between the two countries," he said.

Sibal said India is grappling with the challenge of building architecture for 21st century cities and cooperation with Singapore in this sector can be beneficial in identifying a possible solution.

Singapore has achieved an enormous level of excellence in innovation and India is rich in skilled manpower, and greater cooperation between the two countries can result in win-win opportunities for the two countries," he added.

Sibal said India has very recently initiated steps to reform the education sector and added that positive results are expected by 2014.

Following is excerpted from a PTI report in Hindu.

With a large number of rural people migrating to urban areas, the government is planning to set up an innovation university dedicated to study and research in sustainable city development, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said today.

This university will work on all issues, including city planning, water management, urban transport, housing and energy, he said at ‘The Singapore Symposium’ here.

The government will set up 14 innovation universities. One of them could be on the area of city development which will work on technology solutions for urban planning,” he said.

Mr. Sibal said that urban areas in the country are yet to be developed. They suffer from myriad problems starting from power crisis to drainage and water management. The government is looking for partnerships with various agencies for starting such innovative universities.

Why cannot we have a partnership with Singapore to move forward?” he asked.

The government is in the process of setting up 14 innovation universities aiming at world class standards. Some of these universities would be set up in partnership with foreign institutions.

After US and UK, Singapore is the third country where the Inidan government has mentioned possible partnership/co-operation for developing its proposed innovation universities.

December 16th, 2009

Education city plan in Bhutan

Following is an excerpt from a report in http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=14230.

A Kolkata-based company Infinity infotech parks limited has proposed to invest a billion dollars or Nu 47 billion in creating an ‘Education/Knowledge City’ in Bhutan.

The project, by far the largest FDI investment proposal, aims to bring in the branches of around 15 to 30 top universities, along with 40,000 foreign students, into a 1000-acre education city.

The Infinity groups representative in Bhutan, Palden Tshering, the head of Chundu enterprises said, “The FDI project should provide employment for around 100,000 people, most of whom will be Bhutanese and eventually generate up to 500 million dollars a year in foreign exchange.”

“The education city, apart from universities, will have high quality schools for faculty members, labs, hotels, health care, cultural and entertainment centres, sport centres, libraries, stationery, cafes and others to service the student population, which will all vitalise the local economy and allow Bhutanese to invest in,” said Palden Tshering. He said even IT companies and corporations that would want to hire this talent pool could set up offices in the city.

… “What Infinity wants is 1,000 acres on lease or for sale, where 60 percent of the area can be built on,” said Palden.

… MoEA secretary Dasho Sonam Tshering said, “Since the investment proposal is of such a size and land intensive, the government will have too discuss, see what we want and do a feasibility study.”

… Palden said that Bhutan would be a good location for the project due to its pristine environment, political stability and because it can provide the same quality of education being charged at 50,000 to 60,000 dollars annually abroad at around 15,000 dollars in Bhutan. He said that Infinity was in discussion with many ivy-league universities in the U.S. and other countries and some of them had expressed interest.

I was told there is such a city in China. I don’t know which one it is. Will look for a link.

December 16th, 2009