Odisha HRD

Open Letter to Mr. Anil Agarwal regarding Vedanta University

Dear Mr. Anil Agarwal:

I am not sure if this message will reach you or not. I hope somebody forwards it to you.

I am very concerned with the lack of progress with respect to Vedanta University and I am sure you are too. I am not sure who is advising you, but with the Vedanta University Bill passed by the Odisha assembly, there is really no excuse, especially for Vedanta (I will explain why), to not commence the university.

The Vedanta University MOU was signed in 2006. That same year the Govt. of India announced an Indian Institute of Science type institute in Bhubaneswar and that institute NISER http://niser.ac.in/ started classes in 2007 and its 4th batch of students will be starting this August (2010). An IIT for Odisha was announced in 2008, and that same year classes started and this August (2010) the third batch will be joining IIT Bhubaneswar http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ .

In Saudi Arabia KAUST http://www.kaust.edu.sa/ was also announced  in 2006 and classes commenced there in 2009.

I realize the grand plans for Vedanta University and I have seen the masterplan document; it is really a masterpiece and there is nothing like that in India and for that matter in the world. But with the delays happening in land acquisition, getting environmental clearance and construction, please consider starting some individual units immediately while the matters are sorted out by the environment ministry (not Odisha govt. fault) and the Odisha high court.

Let me give a particular suggestion.

India is in dire need of good Mathematics Ph.Ds.

The new IITs, IISERs and NISER are having difficulty in finding good Mathematics Ph.Ds to hire as faculty. You can verify this by talking to their directors. I have. There are only few institutions in India which have good graduate programs in Mathematics. They are Chennai Mathematical Institute http://www.cmi.ac.in/ , Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Chennai) http://www.imsc.res.in/, TIFR, Indian Statsitical Institute and some of the IITs. But their output is not able to match the demand.

So what Vedanta University could do is to immediately open a "Vedanta Institute of Mathematics" in a temporary rented accommodation in Puri or Bhubaneswar.

It can then hire young mathematics Ph.Ds from top institutions in US and western countries. Note that, while it is hard to find good Math Ph.Ds in India, in the US, even Math PhDs from top universities like Stanford, MIT, Princeton and Berkeley have difficulty finding good academic job. Many end up teaching in community colleges. Many Ph.Ds from these top institutions will jump at the chance to have a good academic job in a university like the one Vedanta University aims to be. Vedanta Univ can take advantage of this and within TWO months can easily hire 20-25 such faculty and become the best Mathematics Institute in India or perhaps Asia. Within 4 years after that this "Vedanta Institute of Mathematics" would graduate Ph.Ds who will then join top institutions across India.

Imagine if you had done this in 2006. Vedanta graduates would now be faculty in all IITs.

The above is just an example. Vedanta University could identify 2-3 such areas that do not need huge infrastructure and that have the kind of mismatch mentioned above and start graduate programs in them within THREE months.

This will bring the much needed credibility and everyone will take notice. It will also silence many of your critics who make all kinds of allegations. Most of these allegations are baseless, but they did push the Environment minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh to stop progress.

The way to counter that is to show them that you are really serious. You can do that by immediately opening a few graduate institutes of Vedanta University.

You have done this in other context. The Lanjigarh factory is an example.

Please consider a similar approach here. Please do not wait any longer in commencing the Vedanta University.

sincerely,

Chitta Baral
Professor
Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral

8 comments June 23rd, 2010

New Kendriya Vidyalayas (Central Schools) to come up in Aska, Bhanjanagar and Digapahandi: Samaja

Update 2 on July 12 2010: Orissadiary gives the locations of 11 of the schools.They are:

… one school each in Kutra in Sundargarh district, in Cuttack city, in Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district, in Mayurbhanj town, in Sonepur, in Deogarh, in Jajpur, in Digapahandi of Ganjam District, in Aska of Ganjam district, in Nuapada, in CISF in Cuttack district. Besides, … Prabhakar said.

Update: As per http://www.c2clive.com/latestnewsdetail.php?id=1354 in total Odisha will have 12 new Central Schools. They will be in the districts of Mayurbhanj, Cuttack, Ganjam, Subarnapur, Deogarh, Jajpur, Nuapara and Sundargarh. Earlier in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4222 we listed the districts in Odisha that did not have Central Schools. These new schools will cover that list except the district of Kendrapada.

7 comments June 23rd, 2010

Update on the upgradation of the Dr A C Homoeopathy Medical College in Bhubaneswar to a national institute

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

The Department of Ayush has initiated efforts to upgrade nine more institutions in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy as National Institutes of Ayush under the central sector scheme to uniformly improve quality of tertiary level healthcare and improve facilities and standards of medical education to meet global demand of Ayush.

The institutes, which would be upgraded to National Institutes through the current and the next Five Year Plans are the Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, Gujarat, Govt Ayurvedic College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Govt R A Poddar Ayurvedic College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Govt Ayurvedic College, Patna, Bihar, Rajiv Gandhi Govt PG Ayurveda Colege, Paprola, Himachal Pradesh, Govt Ayurvedic College, Guwahati, Assam, Govt Ayurveda & Unani Tibbiya College, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, Govt Dr A C Homoeopathy Medical College, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa and Govt Nizamia Tibbi College, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Detailed project reports on requirements to upgrade these institutions, aiming to achieve the optimum infrastructure in the next five years, would be prepared soon. The project would be divided into two phases, where in the first phase would cover the capital work at equipment required and the salary, stipend and cosumables to be put in place in the current Five Year Plan, posted to end in the financial year 2010-11.

The second phase of upgradation to develop infrastructure to achieve optimum requirements, would commence in the 12th Five Year Plan, starting from the financial year 2011-12. Since these are existing and functioning institutions, the two-phased project would be appropriate for the proposed upgradation, comments Dept of Ayush sources. A call for eligible consultant firms to engage in preparing detailed project report has been issued by the department of late.

Post upgradation, the Ayurvedic institutions could accommodate 100 BAMS, almost 100 MDs and PhDs and 25 nursing students per year, even as the Unani and Homoeopathic institutions would have 100 BUMS/BHMS seats and 35 MD seats for seven subjects per year, uniformly.

The proposed National Institutes are part of the departments effort to upgrade the educational standards in the Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges in the country, strengthen existing research institutions and ensure a time-bound research programme on identified diseases for which these systems have an effective treatment, draw up schemes for promotion, cultivation and regeneration of medicinal plants used in these systems and to evolve pharmacopoeial standards for ISM and Homoeopathy medicines.

… The existing bed strength will be upgraded to 200 for Ayurvedic and Unani institutions and to 100 for Homoeopathy institutions with adequate treatment and diagnostic facilities and full-fledged testing laboratories with complete computer facilities will be in place in each of these institutes to bring in development of the segment in regional level.

At present, the department has eight apex educational institutions established to promote excellence in the Ayush segments – The National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, Rajasthan, National Institute of Siddha, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, National Institute of Unani Medicine, Bangalore, Karnataka, Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, National Institute of Naturopathy, Pune, Maharashtra, National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata, West Bengal, Rashtriya Ayurved Vidyapeeth, New Delhi and the Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, Gujarat.

While it is good that Dr A C Homoeopathy Medical College in Bhubaneswar will be upgraded to a national institute, I wish it was an aurvedic college instead of a Homeopathy college. Thats because I do not think "Homeopathy" is backed by science. See for example the videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFtJgCzPgL0, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvLCkajxc0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jqP_1beVXQ&feature=related.

1 comment June 23rd, 2010

Two Ekalavya Schools to come up in Malkangiri and Nuapada; Total in Odisha goes to 13

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

… the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has already showed green signal for setting up of two such schools one at Malkangiri and another at Nuapada. Presently, there are 11 such schools in the State of which 10 are operating in tribal areas and the rest one has been set up Ramfilo in Jajpur district.

It is to be noted here that education is imparted to students from Class VI to +2 in these residential schools. There are 210 seats each in both +2 Science and Commerce streams of these schools. The Central Governments provides Rest 12 crore for establishment of each such school.

June 23rd, 2010