The web page of this college is at http://sicc.in/. Its founder is the person who established the well regarded Sai International School in Bhubaneswar. Based on that, I am hoping that this will be a good college and will fill the lacunae of a good commerce college in Odisha, especially in the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area. At one time the commerce program at Ravenshaw was ranked, but that was a long time back. I hope the commerce program in this college gets national ranking and other institutions in Odisha (especially the private ones like KIIT and SOA) get inspired by this to start their own quality commerce programs. While there is a plethora of colleges (several of them quite good) in the Bhubaneswar area for pursuing an MBA, there has not been any top-notch (i.e., nationally ranked) colleges for B.Com.
Following is an ad for this college and pages from its brochure.
… the State Government on Monday decided to set up a Construction Skills Training Institute (CSTI) in Bhubaneswar under the Odisha State Employment Mission scheme.
The L&T group has evinced interest for the mega training institute to be set up in the PPP mode in the infrastructure development sector and the negotiation is in an advanced state, said Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik, adding that the Government would provide the infrastructure support to the L&T.
He said that besides the main campus to be located in Bhubaneswar, the institute would have three sub-centers in the tribal areas, one each at the district headquarters of Koraput, Kandhamal and Mayurbhanj. The sub-centers would act as feeder units for the main CSTI, Bhubaneswar. The concerned district Collectors have already been directed to identify suitable sites for the sub-centers.
The Bhubaneswar institute will be located at the Industries Department premises in the Sailashri Vihar area. Training will be imparted in construction-related trades like masonry, bar bending and carpentry. Training will be meant for school dropouts and the training period will be three months. The training and lodging will be free of cost and L&T will extend stipend of `2,000 per month. According to sources, since the training programme is placement-linked, L&T will offer placement in its own construction sites both within the State and outside.
The Chief Secretary also said after a high-level meeting on the activities of the State Employment Mission held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that it was decided to provide skill development training to an estimated 10 lakh unemployed youth during the next three years under the Employment Mission.
He said a number of sectors like retails, housekeeping, food and beverage, customer relations, front office management, telecom sales, driving, computer and photo shops, nursing and debt recovery agents would be taken up for skill development.
Meanwhile, on the request of the State Government, the National Skill Development Corporation has agreed to undertake skill mapping in order to identify the demand-driven sectors with special emphasis on an in-depth study in tribal areas.
A committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar has circulated a report (see also here and here) with the above name. Following is an input that I hope to send to the committee.
My suggestion is that the IITs combine the idea of free seats and paid seats that is used in many state engineering colleges with (some aspects of) the idea of honors colleges used in many universities in the US.
This means, for any discipline or program, there would be some number of seats (say between 20-40) for a "Research-Honours" program. The students in this program will be required to be involved in research all through their 4 years. Starting from second year they would be part of the research lab of a faculty and each semester they would have to sign up for research credits (and do research) whose grade will be based on research done by the students. Each class from the 4th semester onwards would have research component where students would have to go beyond textbooks and read latest papers on that topic. The students would be required to publish in a good international conference or journal before they graduate. During the summers they will be required to spend time in research labs. In general these students would be motivated and prepared for research careers as is being done in the IISERs and NISER. For these students the fees will be minimal and they may be even given scholarships like the INSPIRE scholarship. To remain in the "honors-research" program the students would have to maintain a required grade point average.
The rest of the students would be in regular programs (as they exist now) and would be required to pay more substantial fees, similar in amount to what the Kakodkar committee recommends. (Based on their academic performance some of these students may be allowed to change over to the "honors-research" program after the end of first year or perhaps even later.)
The above idea may be implemented at NITs too, may be with lesser number of seats in the "honors-research" program.
This will address several issues mentioned in the Kakodkar committee report.
It will result in more IIT (and NIT) graduate pursuing research.
It will result in more funds for the institutes.
The students will have a clear expectations. The ones going to the "research-honors" program will know that research is expected of them and they are supposed to study hard.
The rationale behind the fees difference is fairly obvious. The "research-honors" students have a high chance of pursuing research in their chosen fields and that is the current need of the nation. On the other had the other students, as evident from the current trend, are less likely to pursue careers in their own disciplines (except the ones in electrical/cs/it/electronics areas) and many are likely to go for management and other careers. Since that is not the core goal of the IITs, these students need not be subsidized. Loans and other mechanisms need to be in place so that everyone who can get admitted to a program is able to find the money for the fees.
The above is a bare-bone idea and needs to be flushed out with more details. One may look at how honors programs are administered in many US universities to flush out some of the details. See for example Barrett Honors College (ASU).
(i) The academic part where the various school are connected through a common corridor curving around the auditorium complex and then jut out in some what of a radial manner. This allows faculty of different schools to run into each other and foster inter school collaboration while still giving unique identity to each school. The path from the hill top to the auditorium to the academic complex is very pretty,
(ii) The green between the hostels and residential places is also a very nice feature. I assume those hostel would be for doctoral and post-doctoral scholars, some with families. (The hostels closer to the academic complex will probably be for the undergraduates and masters students.) Those greens will create a very collegial campus and off-hour interaction between the faculty-staff families and families of doctoral/post-doctoral scholars.
On the other hand, the colors (yellow and light brick) and the paucity of big trees make part of the campus look very hot. The walk through of the residential area make it look like a typical government colony. While the academic buildings are made 6-7 stories tall, the residential buildings seem to be only 3 stories. Highrises would have saved more land for the future. I hope they use a more pleasing color combination and have more fast growing and colorful plants such as various palm trees and bougainvillea. If funding is a concern, with the help of the Odisha government, they should rope in some corporate houses to make the campus look even prettier.
After all this background study, and a lot of discussions, IIIT-Delhi finally decided to take the lead and shift to requiring only Maths as a necessary pre-requisite for applying for admission to BTech(IT). Of course, the Institute still will have an aptitude test for selection.
However, this seems to be only useful for students from Delhi. (Please double-check at the IIIT Delhi website.) I.e., Delhi Plus 2 arts students with Maths will be eligible to the BTech(IT) program of IIIT Delhi.
Although there are 15% seats for out-side Delhi students, these students have to take AIEEE.
The page at http://mohfw.nic.in/showlink.php?id=698 documents the progress of the various AIIMS-like institutes across the country and as one can find out the progress is the least with respect to AIIMS-like institute in Bhubaneswar. That is a shame.
A bigger shame is that many other states have managed to get approval for additional AIIMS level institutions while Odisha, despite our many emails to the CMO, has not tried that. Odisha should push hard to get both MKCG and VSS Medical colleges upgraded to the AIIMS level.
The civil construction works for the six new AIIMS-like institutions at Bhubaneswar, Patna, Jodhpur, Rishikesh, Raipur and Bhopal started in June last year and were progressing on fast track. The construction of medical colleges is expected to be completed by the end of 2011 and Hospitals by October 2012, sources said.
Ministry of Finance has accorded approval in February, 2011 for creation of 1145 posts (faculty and staff) for each institution to be filled up in the first phase of recruitment process. To manage the running of the new institutions, the Health Ministry has now appointed mentor institutes.
As per this, All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi will be the mentor institute for the two new institutions at Patna and Bhubaneswar. Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh will take care of the two institutions at Rishikesh and Jodhpur. Jawaharlal Institute of Post-graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry will run the affairs of the two new institutions at Bhopal and Raipur, sources said.
The Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated a Museum Gallery on North East Biodiversity in the Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) Bhubaneswar today. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment & Forests, MoEF Shri Jairam Ramesh, was also present on the occasion. This Museum Gallery depicts the natural heritage of North-Eastern India which includes two of the 34 Biodiversity hotspots in the World: Himalayas and Indo-Burma.
On the occasion, Shri Jairam Ramesh, said that his Ministry would establish two institutions, the National Centre on Wetlands and Marine Biodiversity in Bhubaneswar, and National Centre on Olive Ridley and Marine Biodiversity at Gahirmatha in Odisha.
On the sidelines of the programme the Minster also inaugurated the Fragrance Garden at the Regional office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He announced that this would be developed into a Biocultural park. He also announced that the Ministry would make efforts to get a digital copy of Jardin de Lorixa, considered to be the earliest scientific documentation of traditional/ indigenous knowledge about plants of Orissa, of which only one manuscript is available in Natural History Museum Paris (France).
During this occasion brochures on North East Biodiversity Gallery was released by Shri NaveenPatnaik, and on the Museum by Shri Jairam Ramesh. .
… This new gallery on North East Biodiversity is having exhibits depicting Different eco-regions of North East, the course of the mighty river Brahmaputra, Kaziranga –The habitat of one horned Indian rhinoceros, the endemic and endangered avifauna, rich diversity of non human primates, Orchids and rhododendron of North East, New species discoveries from Eastern Himalayas, the hills, waterfalls, sacred groves of Meghalaya and the Loktak lake – a unique habitat of Sangai etc.
Following are excerpts on the Jardin de Lorixa.
From http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12120: "Jardin de Lorixa ("Flora of Orissa") authored by a certain L’Empereur, an outstanding work consisting of 725 double-folio paintings of 722 plant species"
From http://www.conservationandsociety.org: "a long forgotten herbal known as Le Jardin de Lorixa ( The garden of Orissa ) and credited to a surgeon named Nicolas L’Empereur in the employ of the French Compagnie des Indes"
Earlier there was news from West Bengal (Feb 17, 2011) and Odisha (Feb 22, 2011). But this is before the 18th March 2011 meeting and the recent publication of the "Draft criteria for selection of proposals received from the State Government/Union Territories for setting up of new IIITs". Odisha government needs to immediately respond with a good proposal that addresses all aspects of the draft criteria. Odisha’s work is cut-out as proposing Berhampur as a location would need a very strong and well-articulated proposal. The readers from Berhampur, and those who want this to be in Berhampur, need to help the government in this.
One of the things that he should consider pursuing is a medical school as part of NIT Rourkela, perhaps in collaboration with SAIL and/or the state government. In general, Prof. Sarangi should aim for expanding NIT Rourkela with additional programs, while also improving the existing ones.
Earlier we mentioned the dynamism of the current Sambalpur University VC and some of the steps he has taken. This includes the establishment of SU-IIT (with B.Tech, M.Tech, MSc and MCA programs) and GOI funded Center for Food Science & Technology (offering an M.Tech). In addition to those, I got information regarding several additional new programs and centers. Those are:
Establishment of a School of Performing Arts with special thrust on Folk dance (Sambalpuri, Chhau, etc).
A program on Insurance and Risk Management
I also came across the following ad in today’s paper.
In general, Prof. Arun Pujari, the current VC of Sambalpur University (on-lien from University of Hyderabad, where he has been a Professor in Computer Science as well as a Dean), has made significant contributions to Sambalpur University in his short tenure; much more than any Odisha VC I know of in recent years. Unfortunately his 3-yr tenure is coming to an end in November and already this year none of the 3 VCs (Utkal U, Fakir Mohan U, and NOU) were reappointed.
I hope the Odisha Governor makes an exception and reappoints Prof. Pujari for another 3 year term so that he can stablize the various programs and centers that he initiated and established.
If that happens there is a high chance that the best two universities of Odisha will be in Sambalpur: VSSUT and Sambalpur University.
Jindal Steel and Power Limited( JSPL) would set up a medical college and power training college along with one vocational college in Odisha, said vice president and Managing Director of the JSPL Naveen Jindal.
Jindal who made a courtesy call on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik … At the same time, we want to be the partner in the development process and the progress of the State”, he said.
He informed that JSPL had plans to invest a whopping Rs.1.20 lakh crore in the State. Giving details of JSPLs investment proposals, he said that at the moment, a 6 MTPA steel plant was under construction and the plant would be upgraded to a mega steel cluster with the record steel production capacity of 20 MTPA , a first of its venture.in the world.
He said the construction of the proposed Angul integrated steel project with a captive power plant is progressing with a faster pace and would start production by August, 2011.
The captive power plant has already been commissioned, he said.
He reiterated that JSPL would set up its coal to liquid project at Angul, first of its kind in the country for which the Central Government has already given green signal with according coal block.
He said that his company proposed to put up a mega industrial park where, small industries would set up their units . The project would provide employment to around 25,000 people majority of whom would be locals, he said.
He has a pat for the local people of Angul and the State Government for extending cooperation in putting up the industrial projects.
He said as part of the corporate social responsibility, JSPL has taken steps to provide adequate compensation to the land losers and is taking steps to the capacity building of the local youth through training to increase their employability skills. To cater to the local needs, he said the company has decided to set up a vocational college and first power training college at Angul.
Besides, he said., JSPL has decided to put up a medical college and hospital at Angul along with a school to provide quality education. …
Earlier MCL had announced a medical college in Talcher. So now there will be two medical colleges in the Angul-Talcher area.
… In the last few years, nearly 125 private Plus-II science colleges have mushroomed in and around the city. Lured by their promise of helping students to crack the IIT entrance and other tough competitive exams, parents are ready to cough up whatever admission amount and fees they ask for.
… These completely residential colleges offer reasonably good infrastructure and a host of extra facilities like coaching for competitive exams, 24×7 teachers` guidance, Wi-Fi campus, air-conditioned classrooms, comfortable hostels and transportation services. The facilities, obviously, come at a price — these institutes charge at least 10 times more than government-run colleges.
"The reason for proliferation of self-financing colleges in the city is the lack of infrastructure, good teaching and extra facilities in government colleges. Students of state colleges have to depend on tuitions after college hours to complete their course; as a result, they don`t get much time for self-study. But in private residential colleges, they get enough time to study on their own," said Biranchi Panda, the president of Jupiter +2 Science College.
The principal of BJB Junior College, S N Mohanty, said, "New educational institutes are always welcome if their genuine purpose is to impart education. But most of these colleges are shops out to rake in profits. They are commercial establishments rather than educational institutes. Besides, there should be a law to regulate the fee structure and the profits of these colleges."
The fee for the two-year Plus-II course in self-financing, residential colleges ranges between Rs 75,000 a year to Rs 1.40 lakh a year, depending on the infrastructure and facilities. "It`s burning a hole in my pocket to pay the fees of my two daughters studying in two different residential colleges in the city. Before admission, these institutes make many promises but once the students join they realize they lack many things," said Prafulla Rout of Barbil.
Padmaja Naidu, the director of Naidu +2 Science College, said, "If you take the fee of a government college along with entrance exam coaching fees, it will be equal with the expense of studying in a private college. Parents want air-conditioned classrooms and refrigerators in hostels. And these facilities do not come for free."
However, many feel it is high time to run checks on self-financing colleges in the city. Many of these institutes are operating out of rented houses without quality teachers, laboratories, libraries and other infrastructure. Following allegations of manipulation of results at a well-known self-financing college, the government ordered a crime branch probe.
"The mushrooming of self-financing colleges is mainly due to the faulty policy of the state government. There must be checks in place at some point. The government is giving approval to colleges without properly verifying infrastructure and faculty positions. Due to this, many government colleges are suffering," said the principal of Newton +2 Science College, K C Mohanty.
R N Panda, the principal of Institute of Higher Secondary Education, said, "There are many genuine private colleges that are run by academicians although some of them are luring students with false promises. Private colleges have accountability and a healthy competition, which government institutes lack."
The page at 
