Samaja letter to the editor on two central universities for Orissa
November 15th, 2007
Admission to Ph.D program at the SOA University in Bhubaneswar: Ad in Samaja
128 comments November 11th, 2007
OUAT Profs would like to upgrade their Department of Forestry to a College of Forestry
Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on this.
There is an urgent need to upgrade the forestry department to a college like the College of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Science and the postgraduate and Ph.D curricula could support the academics, research and extension programmes of various new disciplines in forestry.
‘‘There is a competent faculty with over 20 years of experience here with the department and many alumni members are serving at national and international levels as faculty and subject experts and are willing to collaborate with their parent department at OUAT for high-end projects,’’ says HoD Prof RK Pattnaik.
‘‘The department was established in 1987 at this second oldest agriculture varsity of the country following the recommendations of National Commission on Agriculture, 1976, under the direct support of Indian Council of Agricultural Research and later Indian Council of Forest Research and Education to look after education, research and extension in forestry science,’’ he adds.
‘‘But with the upgradation to a college the students can have special fields to do PG and Ph.D programmes in silviculture and agro-forestry, bio-technology and tree improvement and forest ecology and environment. Also utilisation of forest products which directly cater to the needs of the State as well as many international research projects can also be taken up through such an institution,’’ says Prof Ashok Kumar Sahoo.
Assistant Prof. Nirakar Bhol is of the opinion that if the upgraded status is accorded, then this college under OUAT would be a unique institution in the entire Eastern India and strengthen the position of the State Capital as another educational hub in forest-related research. Fourth year BSc Forestry student Jagannath Sahu thinks the upgradation plan can enable graduating B.Sc forestry students to have wider career options in natural resources management.
November 8th, 2007
Orissa’s share of central universities in the 11th plan: Samaja op-ed by Sahadeva Sahu
November 2nd, 2007
Radhanatha Institute of Advanced Study in Education to become part of Ravenshaw University? : Samaja
Samaja writes about the plan to shift the Radhanatha Institute of Advanced Study in Education to Ravenshaw University campus. (Note: The site http://www.nuepa.org/libdoc/addresses/iase.pdf lists other institutes of advanced study in education in India. Its a old list though as it does not list the other IASEs in Orissa. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=238.)
October 25th, 2007
BHU submits Rs 3100 crore plan to become a world class university. Does any Orissa university have a similar plan?
Following are excerpts from a report in indiaedunews.com.
With plans to transform itself into a global educational centre in the coming years, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has submitted a Rs.3100 crore plan to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
The proposal for the 11th Five Year Plan includes Rs.2800 crore for the main campus and Rs.300 crore for the South Campus of the varsity located at Barkachha in Mirzapur.
The university has also gone ahead with developing an Ayurveda faculty along with a 125-bed hospital, said BHU Vice Chancellor Professor Panjab Singh.
The institute’s Rs.100 crore proposal to establish an Institute of Science is also under the consideration of the Central Government.
The process of setting up an Institute of Law, Management and Social Sciences was also in progress, the V-C added.
I think Ravenshaw University, if it hopes to become a central university, should send such a plan. (One may note that of the 30 new proposed central universities, 14 are supposed to be world class universities.)
October 12th, 2007
Orissa at the bottom of the major states in terms of higher education enrollment: Orissa must get two central universities
As per the NSSO study of 2004-2005 (released in October 2006), Table 3.14.1 (of Report 516) shows that in the 15-19 age group 29% people in Orissa are attending school/college and in the 20-24 age group this number for Orissa is 6.1%. (Both numbers are lowest among all but the small states/UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.) Our focus in this posting being higher education, one may note that higher education corresponds to the 20-24 age group.
Now the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31735 says that:
The 11th Plan objectives are aimed at increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio(GER) (access rate) in higher education from the present 10% to 15% by 2012, while ensuring improvement in quality and enhancement of equity.
Now if one looks at the data below it is a no brainer that one of the 14 world class central universities (30 total – 16 to states that do not have any) must be established in Orissa.
October 11th, 2007
Orissa Society of the Americas writes about central university and IIT to the CM and PM: Various reports
Update1: Dharitri’s short report is given below.
This has been reported in Tathya.in, Kalinga Times, and Odisha.in so far. Odisha. in has the two letters.
We appeal to the readers with interest in Orissa to contact their local organization (Outside Orissa, the local Orissa/Oriya/Kalinga organization) and through them send a similar letter to the PM and CM at the earliest. The planning commission has been asked by the PM on September 14th to make the location decisions in two months. So time is running out on this.
2 comments October 8th, 2007
On Central University matters Bihar is awake, Orissa is sleeping
(Request to readers associate with Orissa: Please send a request to cmo@ori.nic.in with cc to hedsec@ori.nic.in, "indsec@ori.nic.in" <indsec@ori.nic.in>)
The last paragraph of the New Indian Express report says the following:
Fatmi said that the Central Government proposed to set up a Central University in Bihar as part of its plans for 30 new Universities. Though the University Grants Commission (UGC) suggested the upgradition of Patna University, the Government wanted to set up Central University, besides upgrading Patna University.
However, although we have sent several communications to the Orissa government on making a similar effort for a second central university for Orissa — beyond the automatic one presumably in the KBK region, the Orissa government has been silent. Tathya.in reports on our efforts and the resulting frustration.
Following are mails that we have sent to the CMO.
Dear Esteemed Chief Minister:
On August 15th the PM announced that there will be 30 new central universities, with 16 of them in states that do not have any. (That means Orissa will get one and since Orissa has been asking for a central university in KBK, it should go to KBK.)
As per the PM’s address to the planning commission few weeks back, the remaining 14 central universities will be decided on the basis of competition. See https://www.orissalinks.com/?p
=634 and https://www.orissalinks.com/?p =652. Since India already has 23 central universities (none among them is in Orissa) and the new 30 ones will take the total to 53, Orissa deserves not just one but two central universities. (Note: Orissa is the 11th largest state of India in terms of population and 9th largest in terms of area.)
But as the PM clearly said, the 14 (30-16) central universities will be decided on a competitive basis. THUS, Orissa govt. must send a proposal on this to the HRD ministry and the PM. This needs to be done as soon as possible as the PM gave 2 months time to the planning commission for deciding on the locations and close to 3 weeks has already gone by.
I would like to propose that the Orissa govt., send a proposal immediately to upgrade Ravenshaw University as a central university.
This is because Ravenshaw matches the best with respect to all the conditions that the PM mentioned in his address to the planning commission. In particular:
Ravenshaw is a unitary university. i.e., Like world class universities such as most universities in the United States, and like most of the existing central universities in India (such as JNU, BHU etc.) Ravenshaw does not have any affiliated colleges.
Ravenshaw‘s location at the heart the millennium city of Cuttack and also in the middle of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack metropolitan area makes it easy to access and the presence of top-notch educational and research institutions near it makes Ravenshaw a good candidate for becoming a world-class knowledge hub; i.e., a world class central university. (The PM mentioned this criteria explicitly.)
Ravenshaw had made plans for its expansion in directions that are in unison with the goal of a world class university that the PM talked about.
- Among all universities in India that may be considered for an upgrade, Ravenshaw is in a unique position by virtue of its recent designation as a university. The existing faculty of Ravenshaw are Government of Orissa faculty and are not automatically entitled to be Ravenshaw faculty. So Ravenhsaw can be choosy in retaining only the ones that are qualified to be a faculty in a world class university. The others may revert back to the Government of Orissa to be posted to other colleges in Orissa.
- Finally, Ravenshaw is one of the oldest higher education institutions of India with a glorious past. Its alumni is almost who’s who of Orissa.
In closing, I would urge you to not miss this opportunity for making a case for a second central university in Orissa. Otherwise we will continue to remain behind, while other states will have 2, 3 or more central universities.
sincerely,
Chitta Baral
2 comments October 6th, 2007
Utkal University has 300 sanctioned faculty posts with 180 posts vacant now?
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer on this. If this is true, then it is a pathetic situation and the authorities must take steps to fill the positions.
Hundreds of students of Utkal University on Thursday called on Vice-Chancellor LN Mishra at his office and wanted to know from him whether the State Government planned to abolish 73 teaching posts of different departments and has written a letter in this regard. …
According to university sources, there are 300 sanctioned teaching posts for different departments of the university of which 180 posts are lying vacant.
3 comments September 28th, 2007
Orissa cabinet decides on land lease for Sri Sri Ravishankar University: 6 crores for 185.97 acres
Following is an excerpt from a news report in Economic Times.
Orissa Government on Saturday decided to allot nearly 200 acres of land at a concessional rate to Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidyamandir (SSRV) for setting up its proposed multi-disciplinary university in the state.
This was decided at the state cabinet’s meeting today, presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
According to the government’s decision, the Bangalore-based trust will pay Rs 6 crore for 185.970 acre of land near Naraj barrage over river Mahanadi in Cuttack district.
Officials said while the actual price of the land sanctioned in favour of the trust would be Rs 30 crore, the government, on the basis of its Industrial Resolution Policy, decided to offer the land at a cheaper price.
"The government is prompted to give land on concessional price as the trust would be setting up a university of international standard in the state," said Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy. …
Sources said that the government has demarcated land for the purpose in three villages in Cuttack sadar tehsil. "While 105.57 acres are demarcated in Vidyadharpur village, 48.21 acres in Arilo village and 32.19 acres in Govindpur village," he said.
The SSRV had signed MOU with the state government on December 12, 2006 for the university.
The decision came close on the heels of the government’s decision to allot nearly 6,200 acre of land to Vedanta group for setting up its university near Puri.
2 comments September 23rd, 2007