Odisha HRD

National Institute of Open Schooling

Its webs site is http://www.nios.ac.in/. Following is information from that page.

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) formerly known as National Open School (NOS) was established in November,1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), Government of India. NIOS is providing a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and community oriented courses besides General and Academic Courses at Secondary and Senior Secondary level. It also offers Elementary level Courses for 14+ age group through its Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE).Government of India through a gazette notification vested NIOS with the authority to examine and certify learners registered with it upto pre degree level courses.

Academic programs it offers are given in the page http://www.nios.ac.in/AcadPC.htm. They are:

Open Basic Education: Open Basic Education (OBE) Programme providing a elementary education at three levels, for school drop-outs and neo-literates, out of              school learners through Accredited Agencies.

– Secondary Course equivalent to Class X
 

– Senior Secondary Course equivalent to class XII

– Vocational Education

NIOS has established an International Centre for Training in Open Schooling (ICTOS)

Training Packages for ODL functionaries

 NIOS HQ is in NOIDA. It has regional centers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Pune, Chandigarh, Kolkata (with a subcenter in Bhubaneswar), Patna, Kochi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Allahabad (with a sub-center in Dehradun).

It has study centers across the country and across Orissa. The list is available at http://www.nos.org/nosresults/nos/searchai.html.

Odisha should push for having a regional center.

April 25th, 2010

Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF)

Following is from the page http://rrrlf.nic.in/aboutfrm.htm.

RRRLF is a central autonomous organization established and fully financed by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. RRRLF is registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. It is the nodal agency of the Governemnt of India to support public library services and systems and promote public library movement in the country  commensurate with the objectives as embodied in its Memorandum of Association.

… The Foundation works in close association and active cooperation with different State Govts. and Union Territory Administrations through a machinery called State Library Planning Committee (SLPC/SLC) set up in each State at the instance of the Foundation. To participate in Foundation’s programmes, a State Government/U.T. is required to contribute a certain amount fixed by the Foundation.

Since 2005-06 the Foundation has also taken up the initiative to develop the District Youth Resource Centre (DYRC) in collaboration with Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangathana, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Sports & Youth Affairs.

The objectives of RRRLF, as listed in http://rrrlf.nic.in/objecfrm.htm are as follows:

RRRLF function as a promotional agency, an advisory and consultancy organisation a funding body for public library developement in India. Some important objectives are :

	to promote library movement in the country ;
	to enunciate a national library policy and to help build up a national library system ;
	to provide financial and technical assistance to libraries ;
	to provide financial assistance to organisations, regional or national engaged in the promotion of library developement ;
	to publish appropriate literature and to act as a clearing house of ideas and information on library developement in India and abroad ;
	to promote research in problems of library developement ;
	to advise the government on all matters pertaining to the library developement in the country.

 As per http://hkmsl.gov.in/librariesorissa.htm Odisha collaborates with RRRLF for its libraries.

4 comments April 25th, 2010

Ali Yavar Jung National Institute For The Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) has a Training Center for Teachers of the Deaf near Bhubaneswar

The page http://www.ayjnihh.nic.in/aw/centers.html lists the 5 centers of this institute with HQ in Mumbai. Besides Bhubaneswar, the other centers are at New Delhi, Kolkata, Secunderabad, Bhopal. The whereabouts of the Bhubaneswar center is:

At – Ogalapada, Post – Janla                    
Dist. Khurda, Orissa  – 752 054
Telephone: 0674 – 2460641
Telefax : -0674-2460641
E-mail : tctdbbsr@yahoo.com

It offers the following two diploma programs in Bhubaneswar. More details are available at the page http://www.ayjnihh.nic.in/aw/manpower1.html.

1 comment April 25th, 2010

Why scoff at a cancer hospital built near Raipur by Vedanta, the aluminum corporate, or the proposed Vedanta University in coastal Orissa?

The Outlook article http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265171 by B. G. Verghese counters well the Arundhati Roy type viewpoints. Following are some excerpts.

… Why scoff at a cancer hospital built near Raipur by Vedanta, the aluminum corporate, or the proposed Vedanta University in coastal Orissa? Are these by definition all wicked enterprises? Arundhati extols the joys of sleeping in her private open-air jungle suite in a “thousand-star hotel”. And then she meets the doctor, obviously a dedicated soul, who serves this tribal area. The health conditions in Dandakaranya he describes make her “blood run cold”. It’s a terrible tale of chronic anaemia, TB, kwashiorkor (extreme malnutrition), malaria, severe eye and ear infections…. “There are no clinics, no doctors, no medicines” in this beautiful place for these beautiful people. (The word “beautiful” appears like a recurring decimal). So where do we begin? By burning down the Vedanta hospital?

Are these corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions merely to be seen as bribes to fulfil Arundhati’s prophecy that tribal people will be moved to make way for steel plants, aluminum refineries, mines and dams. Yes, there will be land acquisition and displacement—that is the story of civilisation; but there will also be resettlement, compensation and training for new vocations. Admittedly, this has not always been done wisely or well. But times are changing. New legal frameworks, better norms, closer monitoring, improved R&R and livelihood packages have continuously been put in place.  

… The country needs to lift itself out of poverty and create 12 million additional jobs every year to cope with the population bulge. This requires wherewithal—financial, human, natural resources, managerial, marketing and technological. The vast bulk of the country’s mineral resources and headwaters of major rivers are located in Fifth Schedule areas, where tribal people live. Are these not to be exploited? The corporate world, both public and private, has been dubbed predator—the Maoists have repeatedly attacked the National Mineral Development Corporation in Chhattisgarh. However, the tribals themselves are incapable of working the minerals, apart from scratching the surface. Yet they have a vital stake in the land, forests and environment and must be made stakeholders and partners and trained for ever higher levels of participation. Unfortunately, every effort has been made to stall any kind of development.

There is much virtue in translating Gandhi’s concept of trusteeship in a new and evolving idiom of CSR to which corporates, the state and courts have variously given expression. The new deals being worked out by the POSCOs, Vedantas, Tatas, Mittals and others are greatly in advance of what was on offer even five years ago. These packages and the legal framework around them will keep improving too. India’s diversity defies “one size fits all” solutions; it is in variety and experimentation that best practices will keep emerging.

The corporates may have something to answer for too. Fly-by-night operators are part of the problem but the more responsible entities are becoming part of the solution as huge long-term stakeholders in the enterprises, people and environment they work in. They command the resources, manpower, technology and organisation to deliver. Various partnerships involving community and area development can be forged. This is happening. ‘People’s Tribunals’ keep mouthing yesterday’s tired slogans. They do not see tomorrow; may be they even fear it.

April 25th, 2010

IISc second campus being pursued at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

Update: The Karnataka CM says the second campus of IISc will be in Chitradurga, Karnataka.

Following is an excerpt from a report in outlookindia.com.

Union Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal today said the Centre has examined a proposal of setting up a second campus of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Sibal, in a letter to Chief Minister K Rosaiah, said he had mooted the idea of opening a second campus with the IISc management.

The Andhra Pradesh government has, for some time now, been pursuing the issue with the Centre.

Initial proposals were to create an Advanced Research Centre, extending the Academia-Government-Industry interactions, and also creation of a Science Park and an Incubation Centre.

The IISc team visited the state to survey the sites and found a 1000-acre piece of land in Anantapur district suitable for the project as it was just 70 km from the Bengaluru International Airport, well connected by 4-lane national highway.

The Union Minister informed the Chief Minister that modalities like Memorandum of Understanding for sale of land and time-frame for making available the basic infrastructure were being worked out. "Further developments in this regard will be communicated on receipt of fresh inputs from IISc," Sibal said in the letter.

April 25th, 2010