Archive for August, 2010
I noticed that the fact that NISER currently has 43 regular faculty and 18 visiting faculty is not by accident or not because the institute is new and it needs visiting faculty to help in teaching, but is because NISER is designed to have additional 40% faculty as visiting faculty.
This comes out clearly in the design specs for the academic campus. For example, in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1820 it is clearly stated that there will be offices for 250 faculty and additional 100 visiting faculty. This is in addition to having space for 150 post-doctoral fellows. (IISERs talk about 200 faculty and do not mention visiting faculty.)
This feature of having about additional 40% visiting faculty is more of a feature of DAE institutes like TIFR and is in contrast to most MHRD institutions. For example, the IISERs do not have that many visiting faculty.
Having such a high percentage of visiting faculty will enrich NISER’s environment and will be one of its signature distinguishing features. It will also help in faculty recruitment in that it can take in some highly regarded prospective faculty immediately as visiting faculty while they go through the formal approval process of a regular faculty position.
NISER has not yet advertised or highlighted about this feature of having such a high percent of visiting faculty positions. It should. Also, it should spread the word about its visiting positions widely to attract visitors from all over the world.
Another design feature of NISER vis-a-vis IISERs is its lower faculty student ratio. Its target is to have 250 regular faculty plus 100 visiting faculty and 1750 students (including 150 post-docs); making it a target ratio of 1:7 (if one just counts the regular faculty). In comparison IISERs are designed to have 200 faculty and 2055 students (including post-docs); making it a target ratio of 1:10.
While NISER’s target faculty-student ratio is 1:7, its current regular-faculty-student ratio is about 1:4.6. That means NISER is ahead in its faculty recruiting. For this all kudos go to the NISER director Prof. T. K. Chandrashekar.
August 16th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in indiaeducationdiary.in.
Sri Sri Ravishankar University would start enrolling students for MBA and BBA courses for first batch from July 2011. This was announced by chairman of the Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust of Governors Srinivasan on Thursday.
According Srinivasan, the work for the proposed university has already started and they would start to enroll students for 120 seats for common MBA programe, 30 seats each in Agro-MBA and Entrepreneurs MBA from next academic session. Similarly, there are 60 seats for the BBA programe.
The authorities of Sri Sri Ravishankar University have also informed that the courses in medical, engineering, vedic school and other courses would be launched subsequently.
The state government had signed MoU with Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir Trust in December 2006 for the university project pegged at Rs 350 crores. The proposed campus is likely to come up in approximately 200-300 acres of land in Naraj, 10 km from Cuttack. The campus will include academic buildings, recreational facilities, meditation halls, and a sports complex. It will be designed to cater to the needs of 1,500 faculty members, an equal number of non-academic staff members, and 15,000 students.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.
THE ICFAI Group, known for its chain of B-schools, is planning to set up eight universities in as many states in the next two years with an investment of Rs400 crore, says a senior official.
It has received the necessary approvals from the governments of Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, said SK Sharma, director, planning and coordination, ICFAI.
The universities are expected to be operational first in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh next year. “The construction work at these campuses is almost through. The state government has to inspect the facilities,” said Mr Sharma. The universities in Gujarat, Assam, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh will follow suit in 2012.
August 16th, 2010
Following is from http://www.dheorissa.in/DHE/PDF/OOU-Notice.pdf.
Higher Education Department, Government of Orissa
Notice eliciting PUBLIC OPINION on establishment of Orissa State Open University
It has been felt that the National target of 30% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2020 is difficult to be achieved with the capacity of existing colleges and institutions. To have desired expansion for bridging the gap by providing higher education to large section of the population and to help disadvantaged sections of the society in making education available near their place of work or home, the Government of Orissa in Higher Education Department have decided to establish the Orissa State Open University, which will provide education in distance mode through its study centres. It will also impart skill education in the flexi mode to thousands of youth and provide the opportunity of training to the untrained teachers in distance mode.
A Preliminary Draft Bill is hosted in the Department Website: www.dheorissa.in for eliciting opinion of general public and eminent educationists of the State. They are requested to please go through the draft bill and to send their comments/opinion through e-mail: hedsec2010@gmail.com or in writing addressed to Sri S. K. Das, Joint Secretary, Higher Education Department on or before 26.08.2010.
S. K. Das
Joint Secretary to Govt.
Higher Education Department
August 16th, 2010
Following is a from a PTI report in ibnlive.com.
National Institute of Technology-Rourkela and Vedanta Aluminium today signed an Mou to develop an environment-friendly technology.Vedanta will finance NIT-R to develop a cost-effective method for neutralisation of red mud and removal of poisonous heavy metals like arsenic, zinc and cadmium and to upscale the technology to industrial scale. …
Disposal of red mud, the waste product of aluminium manufacture had been bothering aluminium industries and governments and causing environment hazard. The disposal methods being followed has been creating problem of contamination of ground and surface water.Kumar said red mud mostly contain 50 per cent of iron ore and the aluminium industries want to reduce the level to zero.
August 12th, 2010
Following is an item from the Biology Journal Club of NISER.
| Title : |
Chilika lake |
| Speaker : |
Dr. Ajit Pattanaik |
| Date/Time : |
2010-08-13 14:00 Hrs |
| Abstract : |
Faculties from School of Biology, NISER are interested to carry out certain research projects which can fit well with the Chilika-development projects. These include identifying new organisms, novel compounds and toxins from plants as well as from animals from Chilika lake and more. Dr. Ajit Pattanaik, Director, Chilika Development Authority has accepted our invitation and agreed to com to NISER with his team of experts and scientists. He will deliver a talk and after his presentation, scientists from NISER will discuss with Dr. Pattanaik and his team. All possible avenues of collaboration between NISER and CDA will be discussed which will have mutual interest and benefit to all. |
August 11th, 2010
The op-ed below advocates carving out a Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fishering University out of OUAT. It also mentions the following:
- A private organization is also planning a Veterinary University.
- OUAT management board has decided to establish the states second Veterinary and Animal husbandry college at Chipilima, near Sambalpur.
- It also has decided to establish a Diary Science College in Baripada.
Related postings from the past:
August 9th, 2010
Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=64351.
The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal for formation of societies for each of the six AIIMS-like institutions being set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). These societies will be functional till the AIIMS-like institutions are brought under an Act of Parliament.
Creating legal entities in the form of a society for these institutions will facilitate greater autonomy and faster execution of the projects and will expedite release of funds from the Government. Each of these institutions will be registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Each society will have a two-tier Organization and Management structure. The Governing Council under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare would have appropriate representation from concerned Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and other related organizations. This will be the apex body deciding all policy matters.
There will also be a Board of Governors with Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) as chairperson with appropriate representation of State Governments. Persons with special knowledge in the field of science and medicine will be nominated by the Governing Council.
Background:
The Union Cabinet approved the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in March, 2006 with the objective of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services and also to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country. Under Phase-I of PMSSY, six AIIMS-like institutions are being set up, one each in the States of Bihar (Patna), Chattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Orissa (Bhubaneshwar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh) at an estimated cost of Rs. 840 crore per institution including nursing colleges. The formation of societies will give these institutions a governance structure, which is not there at present.
Related links from the past:
August 9th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with two city-based institutes for analysing the origin and progression of stress and metabolic syndrome (SMS) and its links with diabetes.
The NISER signed an MoU with the Kanungo Institute of Diabetes Specialities (KIDS) to carry out a collaborative project on clinical, behavioural and epidemiological data on SMS and diabetes yesterday.
It also roped in the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) to use the KIDS’ expertise in genomic studies, laboratory facilities and library for research.
… Chairman and managing director of KIDS Dr Alok Kanungo said: “While India has the highest prevalent diabetes – about 20 per cent of the total diabetic population in the world, there are 40 lakh diabetics in the state. As per statistics released by the state health department, the number of patients has been increased upto 5 lakh in the past five years.”
… “Currently more than 20 per cent of the adult population are suffering from stress related diseases due to change in lifestyle. This also leads to the pre-diabetes stage. However, we are yet to get the Indian database either on SMS or pre-diabetes. This collaboration is expected to let us know the role of Indian genetics in diabetes,” he added.
“The KIDS has a state-of-the-art super speciality diabetes centre with latest infrastructure,” he said.
“Our focus area of research will be SMS leading to diabetes and other physiological abnormalities at molecular level. The clinical, behavioural, epidemiological and susceptibility aspects of the patients of the KIDS will be studied to understand the link in Indian genetic perspective. The research is based on the private public entrepreneurship model of the NISER,” said Palok Aich, the chairperson of School of Biological Sciences, NISER.
“The ILS, being a leading centre of studies in genetics, will help our students and researchers regarding infrastructure and library use,” he said.
This is really great. Once the AIIMS-like institution gets operational it will further increase such collaboration the Biology, Life science and Human Health areas.These kind of collaborations is one of the motivation behind having clusters of institutions nearby. Their impact gets multiplied and the overall impact becomes many times the sum of their individual impact. However, Odisha needs multiple such clusters. Hence my suggestions on several tiers of clusters. See http://www.orissa2020.org/home/area-wise-plan.
Some past relevant articles:
August 9th, 2010
Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=64336. The part relevant to Dhenkanal has been put in a different colour.
Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Smt. Ambika Soni has said that under the new initiatives taken to position IIMC as an apex institution for providing quality education in the field on Media and entertainment, the endeavour was to establish facilities, curriculum and courses at par with Global Standards. A roadmap to initiate the process had already begun wherein classes at the four Regional Centres at J&K, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram would commence from the next academic session at the facilities being provided by the State Governments. For this purpose, under the 12th Plan, funds would be provided to establish the full fledged facilities at the four Regional Centres. The Minister stated this while delivering her address at the 43rd Convocation of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication here today.
Elaborating on the details of the up-gradation being undertaken at Delhi and Dhenkenal, the Minister said that an up-gradation of the One-Year PG Diploma Course to Two-Year Advanced PG Diploma Course would be undertaken along-with seeking equivalence to Masters Degree for the Two-Year PG Diploma Courses from Ministry of Human Resources Development. As a new initiative, introduction of at least two new Two-Year PG Diploma Courses (one each in Development Journalism and Corporate Communication & Media Management) would be undertaken. For the infrastructural development, expansion of the existing buildings at Delhi and Dhenkanal and construction of new buildings for accommodating two batches of students at a time would be undertaken along-with procurement of latest technical equipment and filling up all vacancies in the teaching as well as non-teaching category. The Minister added that these initiatives would not only provide quality manpower to the industry, the training imparted would also ensure availability of skills, talent and professionalism with proper grooming at the inception level.
Smt. Soni further said that the growth of the media and entertainment industry had been one of the success stories of the Indian Economy. The growth of the media and entertainment industry was expected to grow provisionally at Rs.652billion in 2010, culminating to Rs.1091 billion in 2014. The CAGR was for the period was expected to be around 13%. This growth rate was due to the development in regional markets as well as different media formats. This growth, the Minister added could be sustained only if talented and skilled persons added value to the sector through their professional inputs. Hence ,capacity building was a major challenge for any Government. As a consequence, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had also undertaken specific measures to look into the needs of the Human Resources and skill upgradation in the film and animation sector.
The Minister further added that apart from IIMC, efforts were being made to reposition the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune as a world class Institute by upgrading and modernising its infrastructure and facilities. A Detailed Project Report was being finalised. An outlay of Rs.52 crore has been proposed for this scheme during the 11th Five Year Plan. Similarly, in order to look into the growing demand of trained professionals in the sphere of Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects, it has been decided that a specialized National Centre for Animation, Gaming and Visual effects will be set up to provide training and upgrading skills. For this scheme also, a DPR is under preparation. For the animation sector,Smt.Soni said, the ministry was open to the idea of developing a Public Private Partnership model with interested stakeholders.
A total number of 259 students were awarded diploma for courses in Hindi & English Journalism, Advertising & PR, Radio & Television and Oriya Journalism. 44 students of IIMC, Dhenkanal were given diplomas in English Journalism.
August 7th, 2010
Following are excerpts from a report in http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=4397.
… the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) passed the Centurion University of Technology & Management Bill 2010 on 5 August.
The new University, which will be a self financed private university, will come up at Parlakhemandi in tribal zone of the state, Gajapati district.
The Centurion University, which is being promoted by the Jagannath Institute of Technology & Management Trust (JITM Trust) which runs Jagannath Institute of Technology and Management will run the new University.
… Minister said the new University aims to provide high quality education and will open the School of Engineering & Technology, School of Natural Science, School of Humanities & Social Science, School of Management & Law, School of Vocational Education & Training and School of Tribal & Development Studies.
The University will have an endowment fund of Rs.3 crore, revealed the Minister Higher Education, shall be invested and kept invested until the dissolution of the University in long term securities issued or guaranteed by the State Government.
August 5th, 2010
Earlier we reported on the shortage of Math Ph.D’s in India. Slowly the Bhubaneswar area is emerging as a center for Mathematics starting from mentoring at the high school level (at IMA) to pursuing Ph.D at NISER, IIT, Utkal and Ravenshaw. There is also a good chance that one of the proposed 10 science magnet high schools will be established in this area. (The top Math center in India is Chennai which has IIT Madras, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Chennai Mathematical Institute.) Below we list Math faculty (mostly with Ph.Ds) in institutes and universities in the Bhubaneswar area.
| NISER Bhubaneswar |
|
IIT Bhubaneswar |
IMA Bhubaneswar |
Varadharajan Muruganandam, Associate Professor, Ph.D IIT Kanpur
|
1 |
Sabyasachi Pani, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur |
Swadhinananda Pattanayak, Ph.D, Director and Professor |
Binod Kumar Sahoo, Assistant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
2 |
Akshay Kumar Ojha, Assistant Professor, Ph.D Utkal
|
Mahendra Nath Mishra, Ph.D, Professor in Statistics |
Brundaban Sahu, Assistant Professor, Ph.D Harish-Chandra Research Institute
|
3 |
Abhijit Datta Banik, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur
|
Shishir Kumar Sahoo, Ph.D, Registrar and Reader |
Deepak K. Dalai, Assistant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
4 |
Tarakanth Nayak, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Guwahati
|
Seshadev Pradhan, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Kharagpur |
Kamal Lochan Patra, Assistant Professor, Ph.D IIT Kanpur
|
5 |
|
Sasmita Barik, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Guwahati |
Sanjay Parui, Asssitant Professor, Ph.D ISI
|
6 |
|
Jugal Mohapatra, Lecturer, Ph.D IIT Guwahati |
Narahari Parhi, Ph.D, Visiting Professor
|
7 |
|
G. Das, Ph.D, Guest Faculty, formerly from Utkal University |
P. C. Das, Ph.D, Visiting Professor, Formerly at IIT Kanpur
|
8 |
|
J. Sarangi, Ph.D, Guest Faculty |
| |
9 |
|
A. N. Mohapatra ??, Ph.D Sambalpur |
| |
10 |
|
Sraban Mohanty ??, Ph.D IIT Guwahati |
| Utkal University, Mathematics Dept. |
|
Utkal University, Statistics Dept. |
Ravenshaw University, Mathematics and Statistics Departments |
| Salila Dutta, Ph.D, Reader & HOD |
1 |
G. Mishra, Ph.D, Professor & HOD |
Swapan kumar Ghosh, Ph.D. Reader |
| S. Padhy, Ph.D, Professor |
2 |
L. N. Sahoo, Ph.D, Professor |
Nityananda Senapati, Ph.D. Reader |
| B. K. Nayak, Ph.D, Professor |
3 |
P. K. Tripathy, Ph.D, Reader |
Rajani Ballav Dash, Ph.D. Reader |
| J. Patel, Ph.D, Professor |
4 |
K. B. Panda, Ph.D, Reader |
Hadibandhu Pattanayak, Ph.D. Reader |
| Mrs. N. Das, Ph.D, Reader |
5 |
R. K. Sahoo, Ph.D, Lecturer |
Mrs. Minakshi Dash, M.Sc. Reader |
| |
6 |
|
Mrs. Minati Samal, M.Sc. Reader |
| |
7 |
|
Sarat Ch. Senapati, M.Phil. Sr. Lecturer, Statistics |
| |
8 |
|
Mrs. Swarnalata Mishra, M.Phil, Sr. Lecturer, Statistics |
| Others |
|
Others |
Others |
| Rupaj K Nayak, Ph.D Utkal, Senior Lecturer at IIIT, Bhubaneswar |
1 |
S. P. Mohanty, Ph.D. Utkal, HOD at CET Bhubaneswar. |
|
Related pointers from the past:
August 4th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.
Meet Kamalakshya Mahatab, the genius and product of the IMA has B.Sc(Hons) in Mathematics & Computing programme which is designed to orient students to pursue mathematics as a research career.
He completed the B.SC.(Hons) in 2010 at IMA and see the results of his.
Appeared in IIT JAM and stood first to qualify for Indian Statistical Institute.
Faced the All India Examination for Integrated Ph.D program at TIFR Centre Bangalore and stood first.
He qualified join the integrated Ph.D Program of Indian Institute of Science, Banglore.
Again he has qualified for the integrated Ph.D programme of Institute Mathematical Sciences Chennai.
He also qualified to join the integrated Ph.D programme TIFR, Mumbai.
Out of these six options he is opting join the TIFR, Mumbai.
From the first batch in the year 2009, eight students took admission in this batch.
02 qualified in the IIT JAM, 02 qualified for Central University Hyderabad, 03 joined Utkal University .
One of the boys who qualified in the IIT JAM joined as integrated Ph.D Programme.
… The Student who was second in 2003, RMTS, Himalaya N. Senapati, went on to represent India in Astronomy Olympiad at Semiz, Crimea, Ukraine and earned a silver medal.
Professor Pattanayak has mentored nearly 60 plus scholars of various background, who are doing Ph.Ds in various IITs, Math institutes of India at this time.
… Interestingly nearly 15 of Ph.D students are SC/ST students – who are supposed to be weak in Math.
… One of his mentored student, Abhilash Mishra of Sambalpur is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, who has come back to support the program both financially and physically, by teaching students.
The other of the 08 students of 2009 batch is Deepak Kumar Sahu, who is from Nuapada district, is actually in a job in Pune which pays him 9.5 lakhs per annum.
He has personally mentored many math Olympiad students since 1988 and Somani Pattnayak last year was selected directly by MIT, USA.
Interestingly she spents most of her winter vacation last year in Math Camps in IMA …
Related pointers from the past:
August 4th, 2010
The list is given below. As per a Times of India report NIT Goa has commenced operation.
Related Links:
August 1st, 2010
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