Odisha HRD

VSSUT Burla (Sambalpur) benefits from being a unitary university: able to declare results in 17 days

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Vir Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) declared the results of all its semesters for the year 2010 on Sunday, just 17 days after completion of the examinations, claimed to be the quickest time for any technical university across the country. The results are also available on www.vssut.ac.in, the university’s website.

Vice-Chancellor Deba Kumar Tripathy thanked all the teachers for their sincere efforts in making this feasible and said this would help the students, especially the final year students, continue their future plans and pursue higher studies.

It is a matter of pride for the teachers and the students of the VSSUT since the Vice-Chancellor, who also was the Odisha-JEE chairman for this year, proved the worth of the Unitary University status given to this college in the recent past and also stood up to its expectations of conducting the JEE as well its own exams as smoothly as it could have been, admitted the students. It is a fact that the VSSUT conducted its all end-semester exams and published its results before the BPUT exams.

13 comments May 31st, 2010

Odisha’s second flying training institute being explored in Rangeilunda near Berhampur

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report.

Plans are afoot to develop Orissa’s second flying training institute at Rangeilunda airstrip near here.

The ministry of Civil Aviation wants to use Rangeilunda airstrip as a flying training institute. Binodini Devi, a senior captain from the ministry, visited the airstrip recently and discussed the project with engineers of the works department here, Ganjam district collector V K Pandian said.

… A senior pilot of the ministry also visited the site last week and asked the works engineer to develop it as a Visual Flight Rule (VFR) airstrip and to provide at least two rooms to conduct the pilot training institute.

"We have agreed to provide all necessary infrastructure facilities to the ministry to use Rangeilunda airstrip as a flying training institute," K Pandian said.

3 comments May 30th, 2010

Tender invitation (again) for construction of hospital complex for the six new AIIMS like institutions

Update: The press release corresponding to the ad below is now available at http://www.mohfw.nic.in/31Press%20relaease.doc. It does not have any additional info though.

The advertisement below appeared in various newspapers today. Although the ad mentions that more details are in the http://www.mohfw.nic.in/ site, nothing is there yet. (It may take a few days for more details to appear there.)

A similar tender invitation was issued in November 2009. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3610 and https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3408. Earlier in May 2008, tenders were floated for the housing complex. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1121.  (Even older links related to tenders for the AIIMS-like institution in Bhubaneswar are at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=970.)

The PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59071 (see also https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3962)  gives the status of the construction of residential complex until March 2010.

May 30th, 2010

Odisha signs MOUs with 8 companies for Industrial Training Centers (ITCs)

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

To bridge the gap between the available skilled manpower and demand from the upcoming industries, the Orissa government today signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with eight mega industries for setting up quality Industrial Training Centres (ITCs) in the state.

… The companies which inked the agreement with the government are Orissa Power Generation Corporation (Hemagiri), Tata Power Ltd (Banki), Emami Paper Mills (Balgopalpur), RSB Metaltech (P) Ltd (Kalyansinghpur), Surrendra Mining Industries Ltd (Bonei), Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd (Teleibani), Uttam Utkal Steels (Jhumpura), Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd (Lakhanpur).

Though twenty seven industries and public sector undertakings had evinced interest to set up ITCs in the state, eight have signed the MoU in the first phase.

The remaining industries are expected to sign MoUs with the state government in phases.

As per the MoU, the government would identify and transfer the land required for setting up the ITCs. The sponsoring companies would have to develop the required infrastructure in those centres as per the norms of National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT). However, the mega industries would have to pay for the land whether it is government or private land.

… the admission to the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), polytechnics and degree engineering colleges has increased from 30,000 to 1.2 lakh per annum in the last decade.

1 comment May 25th, 2010

Expert visit dates of proposed new AICTE colleges and programs in Odisha (as of 28th May 2010)

The following is from http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/expertsch/Expert%20Visit%20Schedule%20as%20on%2028.05.10.htm. 

Following is the list of Colleges and Programs that are in the pipeline. It is obtained from http://www.aicte-india.org/excel/30april/Orissa_300410.htm.

2 comments May 23rd, 2010

Everonn plans business schools at Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Pune

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Everonn Education Ltd, a Chennai-based education services company, announced plans to set up seven management institutes at a cost of Rs 25 crore each, by the next academic year. These would be set up in collaboration with a partner at Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Pune.

The proposed investment would be funded through debt and internal accruals, said P Kishore, Everonn’s managing director. “While our partner will invest in infrastructure and land, we will be bringing content and technology, where company has its expertise,” he said.

May 20th, 2010

Kalinga Bharati Residential College shines in the +2 performance: top three in science and topper in commerce are from this college

The website of this college is http://www.kalingabharati.org/. This year students from this college have done extremely well in +2 results. Only BJB College’s performance is close to them. While earlier it used to be a contest between BJB and Ravenshaw, this year Ravenshaw has bitten dust and its place has been taken by this college.

In particular its performance in +2 is as follows:

• In +2 Science, 16 of the top 20 ranks are from this college, including the topper and 3 from the top 2 ranks.
• In +2 Commerce, the topper is from this college.

Upon further browsing their web pages I am of the opinion that this college will be a trendsetter and pioneer in Odisha. Just look at their faculty listed at http://www.kalingabharati.org/FACULTY_LIST.HTM.

Based on this faculty I am going to go out on a limb and predict that this year there will be at least 10 students from this college in the IIT JEE top 1000.

I hope some of the other private +2 colleges will immediately copy from this college and assemble a similar faculty and beat Kota at its own game and send more Orissans to IIT and other top institutions.

As per Dharitri the +2 Science topper from Kalinga Bharati, Kiity Jain (a girl) is from Khariar in Nuapada district and the +2 Commerce topper Bhabani Acharya (also a girl) is from Semiliguda in Koraput.

23 comments May 19th, 2010

Top 20 in Plus 2 arts in 2010

Following is from http://orissaresults.nic.in/artst20.html.

The list has 27 students. The top colleges/schools from where these students come from are:

• Ravenshaw Jr College Cuttack (Ranks 1, 3, 5, 16)
• BJB Junior College Bhubaneswar (Ranks 2, 8, 14, 17 )
• Women’s College Baragarh (Rank 3)
• Rajendra College Balangir (Rank 4)
• Babaji Sahu College Gajabandha, Sonepur (Rank 6)
• Govt. Junior College Phulbani (Rank 7)
• Nigamananda Mahila Mahavidyalaya Charichhak Puri (Rank 8 )
• Anchalika Mahavidyalaya Hatadihi Keonjhar (Rank 9)
• SSDA College Sankhamari Cuttack (Rank 9)
• Govt. Women’s junior College Balangir (Rank 10)
• NC Junior College Jajpur (Rank 11)
• RD Women’s Jr College Bhubaneswar (Rank 12, 20)
• LN Mahavidyalaya Jamsuli Balasore (Rank 13)
• Saheed Mahavidyalaya Barapur Bhadrak (Rank 15)
• SCS College Puri (Rank 15, 16)
• Anchalika Mahavidyalaya Baripada (Rank 18)
• Maharshi Bhubaneswar (Rank 19)
• FM Jr College Balasore (Rank 20)
• Angul Mahila Mahavidyalaya (Rank 20)

May 19th, 2010

Top 20 in Plus 2 Commerce in 2010

Following is from http://orissaresults.nic.in/comt20.html.

There are 29 students in the top 20 list. The top colleges from where these students come from are:

• KBR College Cuttack (the topper)
• Ravenshaw Junior College Cuttack (Ranks 2, 6, 15, 19, 19)
• Rairangpur College (Ranks 3, 17)
• VN College, Jajpur Rd (Rank 4)
• Belpahar College (Rank 5)
• Rourkela Municipal College (Ranks 7, 11, 18)
• Nimapara College (Rank 7)
• BJB College (Ranks 8, 14, 14, 14)
• UN College Adaspur Cuttack (Rank 9)
• FM Junior College (Ranks 10, 11, 14)
• MPC College Baripada (Rank 12)
• RD Women’s College Bhubaneswar (Rank 13)
• AC & A College Sunabeda (Rank 15, 20)
• Khallikote College (Rank 16)
• Govt. College Bhawanipatna (Rank 18)
• NC College Jajpur (Rank 20)

May 19th, 2010

Top twenty in plus 2 science in 2010

Following is from http://orissaresults.nic.in/scit20.html.

There are 53 students in the above list. The top junior colleges/schools from where these students come are:

• 16 are from KBR College Cuttack, including the topper and 3 from the top 2 ranks
• FM College Balasore (ranks 2, 17, 19, 19)
• 24 are from BJB College Bhubaneswar, but none from the top 2 ranks
• Irodov College Bhubaneswar  (rank 11)
• Royal College Bhubaneswar (ranks 13, 19)
• Ravenshaw Junior College Cuttack (ranks 15 )
• Saraswati Vidya Mandir Nilakanthanagar Berhampur (rank 15, 18)
• Vikash Junior College Baragarh (ranks 17, 19)
• Jupiter +2 Science College (rank 19)

The performance of KBR College (Pira Bazar, Jagatpur, Cuttack) is extremely impressive. (Before today, I had not heard of it.) the performance of the older colleges, especially Ravenshaw is disappointing. Except BJB, Ravenshaw and FM, none of the other older colleges (such as Khallikote College, SCS College, GM Junior College, Govt. College Rourkela, RD Women’s college, Sailabala Women’s college etc.) are in the above list.

My guess is that there is not much teaching going on in the traditional colleges and the performance in BJB is perhaps only due to the top students going in there.

14 comments May 19th, 2010

IIPM Kansbahal to start M.Tech in Production Management; first such M. Tech in Odisha

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Indian Institute of Production Management (IIPM) located in Kansbahal, Sundergarh, has scored a first in the State by starting an MTech programme in Production Engineering. Classes are expected to start from July 10, 2010. The course will be conducted by the Wellteach University of Chennai and 25 students will be taken in through a Joint Entrance Examination to be conducted by the university in June. The course fee for the 2-year course has been pegged at Rs 2 lakh.

Announcing this to the media in a meeting organised here on Sunday, Director Prof MR Nayak emphasised that even though the institute does not have any BTech course on offer it has ventured to conduct the MTech course because of its close to three decades of experience in training and consulting activity in the field of production engineering which has seen over 30,000 trainees pass through its portals including 1,400 persons from abroad. Because of its uniqueness of expertise and experience it has been included as an approved training institute under the Colombo Plan and the international trainees are sent here for training after selection by the Ministry of External affairs of the Government of India.

Last year it created a school of management and started an MBA program.

May 18th, 2010

Odisha government finally approaches SAIL for a medical college in Rourkela

Update: Following is from Samaja.

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

Finally it seems Tarun Kanti Mishra has come to the rescue of thousands of citizens’ genuine demand for a Medical College at Rourkela.

Chief Secretary has taken up the issue with the Secretary of the Ministry of Steel.

Citizens were demanding for the ESIC Medical College in the Steel City for more than two years.

However ESIC decided to set up the Medical College here as the State Government offered land on the outskirts of the Capital City.

… While Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has proposed to up grade Bokaro Steel Plants’ hospital to a Medical College, similar move is needed feel, Mr.Mishra.

So the Chief Secretary discussed the matter with Union Secretary Steel to set up a Medical College at Rourkela under the aegis of Ispat General Hospital (IGH).

IGH is an excellent hospital and has lot of facilities along with top medical personnel.

Now the State Government will take up the issue with Chief Minister batting for the same, said sources.

Chief Minister is likely to discuss the issue with Union Minister Steel in this regard, said sources.

For long we have been urging the Odisha government to take up with SAIL for a medical college. Finally the Odisha government came to senses. I guess better late than never. In particular we pointed out that since SAIL is making a medical college in Bokaro, it should be pursued for one in Rourkela.  Following are some pointers regarding the medical college SAIL is making in Bokaro.

(i) News articles that mention this: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070226/asp/jamshedpur/story_7441681.asp

(ii) The web page of the Bokaro Ispat Educational trust which talks about this: http://www.bietrust.com/

(iii) The site http://www.hsccltd.com/secured%20projects.htm which mentions that its is doing a pre-feasibility study for SAIl medical college in Bokaro.

Also, some time back there was news that SAIL Rourkela was looking for renewing its mining lease. If it is still hanging, then it makes it a perfect time to broach this topic with SAIL management and the Steel Ministry in Delhi. (http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowBussinessNews.asp?id=8891 )

 Some of our earlier articles mentioning this point are at: 

• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/59.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/96.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/97.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/168.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1101.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1134.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1172.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1465.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3108.
• https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4022.

10 comments May 17th, 2010

Education through entrance tests: Excerpts from an interesting article by Profs. P. Jalote and A. Singh

Prof. Jalote is the Director of IIIT Delhi and is on leave from IIT Delhi. Previously he taught at IIT Kanpur and University of Maryland. Prof. Singh is a professor at Auburn University, Alabama. Both are alumni of IITs. Following are excerpts from their article in Economic Times.

… The difficulty of cracking these tests have led to the booming coaching industry — it seems the vast majority of students appearing in these exams undergo some form of coaching for them. This impact of coaching has been decried by many. In academic circles, it is a common complain that coaching is allowing even average students to crack the exams, and how exams ought to be changed so that deserving students can clear even without coaching.

It should be clearly understood that the success of coaching is not due to the nature of the exams, but due to the low acceptance ratio in these exams. With these low accept rates, it is irrelevant whether the nature of exam is such that coaching will help or not.

… Anybody who thinks that coaching can be made redundant by reforming the admission tests is living in a state of denial.

There is another aspect of coaching that deserves attention. Coaching is big business: by some accounts, coaching for IITs is bigger than IITs themselves in terms of turnover. Consequently, it is able to attract good teachers by offering high salaries. One hears about IIT/IIM grads teaching in these coaching institutes, but one cannot come across an IIT/IIM graduate as a teacher in a school — even elite schools do not have this distinction. So, in many coaching centres, the quality of education is superior to that of schools, particularly with respect to the entrance test subjects. As the business success depends on how well they help the students do in the entrance exams, their teaching, as measured with respect to success in these exams, continues to improve and they take great care to improve it.

So, we have the following situation. Coaching institutes will continue to thrive as long as the accept ratio remains small. And coaching business will ensure that its teachers and teaching processes are well-equipped to impart training to students to do better at the competitive exam.

This situation, undesirable thought it is, can, however, be converted into an opportunity to improve education. As coaching institutes focus on the entrance tests and the syllabus for them, it provides a power to these exams in that whatever they put as syllabus or as expected knowledge, the coaching institutes will ensure that students get good at that. Even for those students who do not undergo coaching, these exams are highly influential — students learn/ study for these exams with a mission and dedication that they don’t show for anything else.

IF THESE large exams were to be oriented such that preparation for them will make the foundations for the key subjects much stronger and will force the students to really understand the subjects better, the coaching industry will ensure that this knowledge is imparted to students. That is, the syllabus and expectation is potentially a strong force on what students learn in the 2-3 years they prepare for the entrance exams, through coaching or on their own.

If this learning can be strengthened, then even if the students do not get through in these exams — which the vast majority will not — the preparation for them will give them strong foundations in some key subjects. This can be leveraged by other institutions.

… So, instead of fighting coaching by making exams like JEE harder and more theoretical every year, such large exams can leverage the competition for the larger good of improving the education and preparedness of students.

If these exams are thought of as a potential tool in the armory of the country for fighting the poor education standards, rather than just for admitting students into these institutes, then they can favourably impact the lakhs of students who attend JEE, and not just of the selected few thousands who actually enter the IITs, whose skills will be upgraded anyway to top levels by the top quality education that they will be provided. By doing so, institutions like the IITs and the entrance exams they have, will be making a solid contribution to improving the workforce in the country , as they have done in creating the top-level manpower.

I agree with the main point in the above mentioned article. Earlier I wrote my views on coaching at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4178.

However, there is an issue with respect to many students not being able to afford coaching. Couple of things that the governments may do are:

• Provide coaching in some government schools such as Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Provide other avenues for good coaching such as attempts to replicate the Super 30 in Bihar by other governments.
• Bring coaching classes and the +2 level under the ambit of RTE and require that certain percentage of the students there are from poorer background.
• Provide scholarships to poor students to be able to afford good coaching.

2 comments May 16th, 2010

Application form for PG Diploma in Public Health Management at IIPH Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Gandhinagar and Hyderabad: Deadline May 31st 2010

The following is a jpg version of the application form found at http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/Application%20form%20-%20PGDPHM.pdf.

See http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/ for various other PHFI and IIPH documents and forms. They are not properly linked from the homepage.

6 comments May 16th, 2010

A single place to apply to 53 degree colleges in Odisha; extended from a similar initiative with respect to junior colleges (+2) that was done last year

The review of the processes of admission in Orissa, has led the Higher Education department, formulate a strategy for the admission process…

3 comments May 15th, 2010

IIT Kharagpur to start 3 year executive MBA in Bhubaneswar and Kolkata

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

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management is starting two MBA programs for working executives at it Kolkata and Bhubhaneswar campuses. Working on a 3-year structure that will allow participants to work while they study, the courses are largely targeted towards the local population of each city they shall function in. While the Executive MBA at the Kolkata campus has a general management bent the Knowledge Industries MBA (KIMBA) at the Bhubhaneswar campus would focus on the IT and ITES sectors, explained EMBA coordinator Prof Gautam Sinha.

The intakes for both the programs would be 15 to 30 students each while the minimum eligibility will be three years of work experience and either an engineering education or post-graduate education in commerce, science or economics. More about the application system to the courses on the VGSoM website.

Prima facie, there are few differences between the EMBA and KIMBA except for a couple of core courses. The IT/ITES focused KIMBA has courses such as Technology Management and Services Management, which in the EMBA are replaced by International Management and IT & Business Applications Laboratory. Interestingly, the KIMBA has two courses on Financial Accounting while the EMBA has none. Both courses cost Rs 6 lakhs in fees, including a one-year international immersion program, which according to Prof Sinha may be carried out with one of IIT Kharagpur’s 99 tie-ups with various international institutions.

While both the courses look similar to 3-year part-time MBA courses in structure and content, Prof Sinha argues that several executive MBA courses across the world follow the part-time model. While that may be true, popular executive MBA programs in the USA or Europe wrap up in an year’s time, recognizing that the opportunity cost for working executives to stay away from work is high. To that extent, VGSOM’s Executive programs seem like 3-year part-time MBAs that give you an Executive MBA degree at the end, thus keeping you away from the stigma attached to the ‘part-time’ bit of part-time MBA.

Prof Sinha defends the three-year pattern of VGSOM’s Executive MBAs saying, “One-year or two-year programs are high pressure situations which might not be conducive for people with families.”

The links for the two programs are:

1. E-MBA at Kolkata  for all industries
2. KI-MBA at Bhubaneswar  for knowledge industries like Information Technology sector.

Note that earlier IIT Kharagpur also introduced 3 year weekend and after hours M.Tech programs in both cities. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4118.

1 comment May 12th, 2010