Regional balance as well as academic excellence in making new IITs and IIESTs

Need for more IITs stressed
Special Correspondent
C.N.R.Rao says research at a standstill

Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Government is preparing a major rejuvenation programme for the universities and research institutions in the country to improve their infrastructure and boost academic performance, chairman, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, C.N.R.Rao said here on Saturday. He was delivering the Indira Gandhi Memorial Lecture instituted by the University of Kerala.

Mr. Rao said research activities had virtually come to a standstill in Indian univerisities. "Today, our universities contribute less than five per cent of scientific research in the country," he observed. Noting that Indian investment in science was less than one per cent, he said countries such as China, South Korea and Taiwan were spending more in this sector.

"While India produces about 4,000 PhDs every year, China generates 16,000 and Brazil 10,000," he said. Mr. Rao stressed the need to set up new IITs and universities in the country. Criticising the over-emphasis on the BPO sector, he said it had resulted in a social dilemma. He lamented that professional excellence and career satisfaction had given way to the craze for wealth. "India today faces a serious shortage of engineers and well- trained scientists," he added.

Mr.Rao highlighted the need for the scientific community to reorient itself to face the new challenges posed by globalisation and market forces.

Vice-Chancellor, University of Kerala, M.K.Ramachandran Nair presided over the function.

Rajarhat campus to be ready in five years

Third IIT-K campus in the eastern region at Bhubaneswar likely

Express News Service

Kolkata, October 30: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur will soon announce the location for setting up its third campus in the eastern region. Though Sanjiv Goenka, chairman, board of governors, IIT Kharagpur declined to say anything on the location, the name of Bhubaneswar is doing the rounds. IIT Kharagpur on Monday announced the setting up of a new Kolkata campus at Rajarhat. The 10-acre campus, which would be built with an investment of Rs 250 crore, would be ready within the next four-five years, Goenka said. The student strength of the new campus would be around 2000, he added.

According to M Chakraborty, deputy director, the new campus would help IIT Kharagpur start inter-disciplinary courses, incubation programmes, short- term courses, etc.

“The focus would be on information technology, media & communications technologies, information assurance & security, urban and regional informatics, human resource management & business administration and bio-informatics,” Chakraborty said.

Chakraborty thinks the incubation centre for the start-ups will help in the development of R&D. “The new centre will have a major research focus, and the experience of research in Kharagpur will be replicated in the Kolkata campus.”

State to have IIM soon: Hooda
Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 27
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said Haryana would soon have an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for which he had already sought informal approval from Union Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh.
The Chief Minister was speaking at the inaugural function of the zonal youth festival at Lal Nath Hindu College here.

He said the state government was striving to provide quality education. The Rajiv Gandhi Education City would be set up soon. It would attract students from foreign countries also. Institutes of architecture, chartered accountancy, engineering, medicine, biotechnology and nanotechnology would be set up in the proposed city which would meet international standards.

Many institutes of international repute had shown interest in setting up their campuses in this city, he said, adding that the only one condition for these institutes was that they would have to reserve 25 per cent seats for students of Haryana. Out of these, five per cent would get full, 10 per cent would get 50 percent and the rest would get 25 percent concession in fee. He said with these concessions deserving students from poor families would be able to get a good education.

Mr Hooda said an institute of fashion designing in collaboration with NIFT would also be set up in Haryana. The state government was also setting up a university for women at Khanpur Kalan which would be the first of its kind in North India.

He said that a National Law University was also proposed at IMT, Manesar, and a regional centre would be opened at Jind. The government would develop Sir Chhotu Ram Engineering College, Murthal, as a technical university. The Chief Minister also reiterated that efforts were on to develop Maharshi Dayanand University at Rohtak as a central university.

Mr Hooda said quality education was necessary and for this he had increased the budget for education by 50 per cent. During the previous regime, there were no teachers in schools and the students were leaving government schools. Now the Congress government had advertised 12000 posts of teachers of which 33 per cent were reserved for women.

He announced a grant of Rs 21 lakh for construction of an auditorium in LN Hindu College.

Later, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of the Department of Engineering and Technology building to be constructed at a cost of Rs 10 crore at the MDU campus. He also laid the foundation stone of a girls’ hostel of this department. The hostel would be named after the astronaut Kalpana Chawla and would cost Rs 4 crore. It would have 130 rooms and would accommodate 240 girls.

He also told that efforts would be made to set up a light commercial vehicle manufacturing unit like that of Maruti in the proposed IMT here.


Comments:
If Haryana gets an IIM over Punjab where HRD minister promised once, then it would definitely bring more state-wise regional balance while making Institutes of National Importance.

Gandhinagar to have full-fledged IIT; Govt clears 300 acres land

Express News Service

Gandhinagar, October 29: IT is going to be IIT-G. The Gujarat campus of IIT-Powai will be a full-fledged IIT, and not an extension of Powai. A piece of 300 acres of land, as demanded by the IIT-Powai board, has been cleared by the State education and revenue departments in Shahpur village, some three km from Gandhinagar. The sprawling IIT campus would add one more feather in the cap of Gandhinagar that is fast developing as a hub of higher education.

‘‘We are just waiting for a nod from the Centre, and construction would be up and going in next six months. The project was conceived by the Chief Minister himself and the government has put it on fast track,’’ informed P Paneerval, Principal Secretary (Education).

Last week, the IIT-Powai board sent its proposal to the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development for the final nod to the new campus.

On a visit to meet the Chief Minister last month, IIT-Powai team had informed that the new campus would be a full-fledged IIT, and not an extension of Powai. The Gujarat campus would have 4,000-4,500 students, almost the same as Powai.

There will be emphasis on courses specific to the development of the State, like Marine and Ship Building, Textile Engineering, and Aeronautical Engineering.

Though the new campus would be ready only by 2008, IIT-G would start functioning from the Gandhinagar Engineering College campus on the Koba highway from April-June 2007. ‘‘Provisions are being made for faculty and holding of the Joint Entrance Exam here as well. We were earlier trying to take land in Ahmedabad, but later zeroed in on Gandhinagar for its excellent institutional development,’’ said a senior official of Education Department.

Satellite campus of IIT(Madras) in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 26 (PTI): Madras IIT has agreed to start one of their satellite campuses in Kerala, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told the Assembly today.

The proposed campus, to be set up on 250 acres of land, required an estimated amount of rs.800 crore, he said while replying to a submission on the necessity for setting up an IIT in the state.
Achuthanandan said place for the IIT campus has not been finalised.

The state government has informed Madras IIT to start the first batch during the 2007-08 academy year in the Engineering College here. It was planned to commission the full-fledged campus of IIT within five years after starting the work of the campus,he said.
To a calling attention motion on setting up a Hight Court bench at Kozhikode,Achuthanandan said proposal for setting up the High Court bench at Thiruvananthapuram was under the active consideration of both the Centre and state governments.

There was no proposal before the government to set up a High Court bench at Kozhikode, he said.

An absence of an High Court bench at Thiruvananthapuram was causing difficulty in dealing with government cases, he said adding the state's capital was the only one in the country which did not have a High Court bench.

On speeding up the work of International Airport at Kannur, Achuthanandan said a special officer would be appointed to carry out the land acquisition process.

The State has also informed the Centre that the proposed airport coming up at Moorgkenparambu would be on a public-private partnership, he added.

To another submission, Achuthanandan said strict instructions have been given to departments and PSU heads to report the vacancies to Public Service Commission.

Action would be taken against officials who failed to report the vacancies, he said adding government would not allow persons to be appointed on daily wages in institutions and organisations where appointments were made through PSC.

A committee,under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, has been constituted to monitor the vacancy report of various departments, he said.

A total of 14,614 vacancies have been reported to the PSC by various departments after the LDF government came to power, he pointed out.

Mangalore Oct 21: Though the Union Railway Minister announced Mangalore-Bangalore and Mangalore-Mysore train schedules seven months ago in the budget, the trains have not started the service. In fact, the railway lines are yet to be laid in some stretches, lamented Medical Education Minister Dr V S Acharya.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said a delegation comprising of MLAs and MPs of undivided Dakshina Kannada district under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will meet the Union Ministers and officials concerned from the railways and National Highway to discuss the problems of roads and railways in the first week of November, he said.

Stating that the National Highways maintained by the Centre have become unmotorable owing to lack of maintenance, he cited the examples of NH 17, NH 48, NH 63 and NH 13 which are in bad condition. In addition, as many as six bridges between Kundapur and Mangalore are in poor condition which is also affecting the movement of traffic, he added.

Membership

Dr Acharya said new members have been enrolled to the Party and the membership has crossed 72,000 in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. Party Committee in the 10 constituencies of Dakshina Kannada and nine constituencies of Udupi district will be formed by the end of October. Later, election will be held for the District Committee President and Vice-Presidents post.

The membership is renewed once in three years, he added.

NITK

Dr Acharya also urged the Centre to give the IIT status to the Regional Engineering College at Surathkal. The regional engineering colleges of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have got the IIT status while the NITK has been neglected, he flayed.

Gutka

Speaking on the occasion, State BJP President D V Sadananda Gowda said the addiction to gutka was not due to arecanut, but due to the presence of harmful ingredients in it.

The government should ban the harmful ingredients in it and not gutka. Areca Growers Co-operative Society will hold a meeting in Bangalore on October 27 to urge the Centre not to ban gutkha. He said all the peoples representatives of nine areca growing districts will participate in the meet.

Banning of gutka will force areac farmers to commit suicide in the State, Mr Gowda added.

Beedi

Mr Gowda said that the Centre is planning to issue a notification to suspend beedi rolling. The notification also urges the beedi manufacturing units to produce it in machines and to be sold in a box like cigarettes. The government has already issued a notice to beedi company owners in this regard.

The notification will have an impact on the lives of 10 lakh beedi workers. He urged the beedi workers not to be panic and assured to provide all the possible help to them. Beedi industry should be exempted from the VAT, he added. District-in-Charge Minister B Nagaraj Shetty, MLAs Yogish Bhat, Krishna J Palemar, Padmanabha Kottari, Prabhakar Ba-ngera, Lalalji Mendon, Raghupathi Bhat, State Finance Commission Chairman A G Kodgi were present.

DHNS

IIT Kharagpur to have full-fledged campus

Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar While addressing the 2nd convocation of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology at Rourkela on Thursday, Director of IIT Kharagpur SK Dube said, "we have an extension centre at Bhubaneswar, and if plans go right, very soon Bhubaneswar will have a full-fledged 5,000-student strong campus."

He expressed happiness that an MoU has been signed between IIT and BPUT for improving the Under Graduate and Post Graduate teaching, laboratory development as well as research.

Dube further said that Orissa is now poised for a quantum jump. There will be many issues dealing with waste management, waste utilisation and environment connected with industrialisation. These have to be dealt with strong scientific knowledge base. The cooperation with BPUT and Orissa could be utilised in identifying solutions to these problems.

Governor of Orissa and chancellor of universities Rameshwar Thakur, presiding over the convocation, said although Orissa is endowed with abundant natural resources, it is yet to achieve the desired development and progress. Still 48 per cent people live below the poverty line.

However, Bharat Ratna Visveswarya Thakur said poverty is a disease and is curable like any other disease. The real causes of poverty, ignorance, dependence, inefficiency and lack of spirit enterprise but with courage, confidence and conviction this can be overcome.

Thakur hoped that new graduates would make a difference in the society. Dedication, hard work and innovation would be the key assets in nation building, he said. Vice- Chancellor of BPUT, ON Mohanty presented the BPUT's achievement report and future vision plan. Students of different technological institutions who have excelled in their respective branches received gold medals and certificates from the Chancellor.

‘IIT-Kharagpur campus in pipeline’
Friday October 20 2006 11:46 IST

ROURKELA: Plans are on the anvil to set up a 5000-student campus of IIT-Kharagpur in Bhubaneswar, said Prof S K Dube, Director of IIT-Kharagpur at the second convocation of Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) here on Thursday.

He said India has earned creditable recognition in science and technology due to the contribution of Indian professionals working across the world.

BPUT Chancellor Rameshwar Thakur said Orissa is in a defining phase of industrialisation and BPUT could meet the need of large pool of skilled human resources, testing facilities and research and development activities.

The convocation began with the Chancellor making at least 16,193 under-graduate and PG students worthy of receiving degrees.

BPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof. Omkarnath Mohanty also spoke.

An occasion to think forward

Statesman News Service

ROURKELA, Oct. 19: ‘It is a happy occasion that so many graduates are going out to serve the industry and the society. These young people should remember that India has high expectations in them. They have to fulfill these by working towards eradication of poverty and fulfillment of basic human needs, said Professor SK Dube, the director of IIT Kharagpur, while addressing the 2nd convocation of Biju Patnaik University of Technology here today.

Prof. Dube said IIT Khargpur, has an extension centre in Bhubaneswar and if plans go right, very soon Bhubaneswar will have a full fledged 5,000 student strong campus. Prof. Dube expressed happiness over the quality of UG and PG teaching, laboratory development as well as research.

Prof. Dube said Orissa is now poised for a quantum jump. There will be many resultant issues dealing with waste management, waste utilisation and environment connected with industrialisation. These have to be dealt with using strong scientific knowledge base. “
The cooperation with BPUT,’ he said, and with Orissa could be utilised in identifying solutions to these problems. He said Orissa has underdeveloped areas in KBK districts and problems in these areas demand critical attention from scientists and technologists.

Governor of Orissa and chancellor of Universities, Mr Rameswar Thakur, presiding over the convocation said although Orissa is endowed with abundant natural resources, it is yet to achieve the desired development and progress. Forty-eight per cent people live below the poverty line. However, quoting Bharat Ratna Visveswaraya, Thakur said poverty is a disease and is curable like any disease, the real causes of poverty are ignorance, dependence, inefficiency, lack of spirit of enterprise, etc.” With courage, conviction and confidence, these hurdles can be overcome.”

State wants UCE in the elite club
Sunday October 15 2006 10:45 IST

BHUBANESWAR: With Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by his side, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday seized the opportunity by urging the Centre to accord University College of Engineering (UCE) Burla the status of Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).

Addressing the Golden Jubilee function of the college here, the Chief Minister said the Anandakrishnan Committee, constituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development, had shortlisted five institutes for upgrading them into IIEST.

But, an institute of UCE’s repute has not been included.

Naveen requested the Centre to send an expert committee to assess UCE for giving it the status of IIEST, he said.

Principal of UCE Prof K C Singh said HRD Ministry had set up Joshi Committee which shortlisted seven colleges to get the status of Institutes of National Importance (INIs). Subsequently, the Ministry appointed a three-member committee, headed by Dr M Anandakrishnan to prune the list.

The committee, Singh said, submitted its report earlier in February and it had narrowed down the colleges to five. The Engineering departments of Jadavpur University and Aligarh Muslim University were left out because of land problems, but were given bloc grants of Rs 50 crore each to be developed as centres of excellence.

In fact, some of the engineering colleges received massive financial support from HRD Ministry. The Andhra University College of Engineering got an allocation of Rs 408.15 crore while Benaras Hindu University received Rs 545.95 crore for 2007-12.

After 2012, the five shortlisted institutions will get annual funding of Rs 100 crore each, close to what an IIT gets. Subsequently, the institutions would be called IIEST, a new facility different from IITs and NITs, Singh said.

Currently, UCE is facing financial constraints despite possessing excellent teaching faculty and infrastructure. It gets annual grant of Rs 4.21 crore.

Proposal to convert engineering college into IIT opposed

R. Ravikanth Reddy

``Decision would rob Telangana of their best institution''
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Admission will be thrown open
Presidential Order keeping 85 per cent seats for local students would be violated
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HYDERABAD: The only Government Engineering College for Telangana and a premier technical institution in the country — Osmania University College of Engineering (OUCE) — will be a thing of the past if the Andhra Pradesh Government approves the Human Resource Development Ministry's proposal to take over the college for the newly planned Indian Institutes of Engineering, Science and Technology.
The OUCE, along with the Andhra University College of Engineering, Vishakapatnam, the University of Science & Technology, Kochi, the Institute of Technology, Benaras, and the Bengal Engineering College, Kolkata, were short-listed to be upgraded, based on the Anandakrishnan Committee report. If the upgrading fructifies, they would get Rs. 415 crore in the 11th Five Year Plan from 2007 to 2011.
Academics and students of the region are agitated at the proposal, as the OUCE is not just an educational institution, but also a symbol of technical education in the Telangana area. "The decision would rob Telangana students of their best institution," says Chukka Ramaiah, who has been advocating a full-fledged IIT in the State.
If the Centre's idea takes a shape, students cannot gain admission based on the State entrance test, as seats would be thrown open for all-India competition.

Student unions also represented their grievance during the Committee's visit. K. Chandra Mohan, vice-president, Students Federation of India, says that it is a ridiculous decision when the region's students are realising the importance of quality education. `
`Osmania University will be forced to cede nearly 800 acres if the proposal is approved, which we will not allow,'' says Nannuri Narsi Reddy, president, Telugu Nadu Students Front.
He says the Presidential Order that provides for 85 per cent seats exclusively for local students would also be violated, as admissions would be done on all-India basis. Some academics see the move as an attempt to nullify the State's demand for an IIT at the Saraswati temple town of Basara in Adilabad district. Mr. Ramaiah says that the S.K. Joshi Committee appointed by the previous Government finalised the venue and the Assembly passed a resolution in favour of it.
Teachers recall a similar attempt by the Central Government in 1953 that proved futile due to stiff opposition from all sections. Public representatives too are opposing the idea. Upgrading cannot be at the cost of students' interests, says Anjan Kumar Yadav, MP. ``I will raise the issue in Parliament if need be.''

Burla College alumni demand IIT status for alma mater
Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

Even as the oldest engineering college of the State, University Engineering College, Burla is celebrating its golden jubilee on Saturday (October 14) which will be inaugurated by Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, it continues to be plagued by plethora of problems.

In the last five decades the college has produced more than 13,000 technocrats but it reels under shortage of faculty as it has only 62 against a requirement of 160.

Granted the academy of autonomy status by UGC and due accreditation by AICTE the college reportedly gets an annual grant of just Rs five crore which goes mostly in salary and pension, against Rs 100-120 crore for IITs and Rs 40-50 crore for NITs.

According to the general secretary of the alumni association of the college Sridhar Behera, the body has mobilised funds to provide some badly needed infrastructure for the college but individual efforts would not cure all the problems unless there is adequate Govt attention, he felt.

Expressing gratitude to the Chief Minister for recommending UCE, Burla to HRD Ministry for IIT status, Behera said the college should at least get the IIEST status being considered by the Centre for five engineering colleges in the country. The association also demanded that the Chief Minister press HRD for Rs 40 crore as wasbeing given to Jadavpur Engineering College, Kolkata and give 300-acre land to the college which is presently illegally occupied by squatters.

Other demands placed by the association include NOC for society registration be given so that the college can be registered under the Society Registration Act which would clear the way for its claim to a deemed university status.

The alumni association has also demanded 2-acres in Bhubaneswar for an extension centre of the college and a plot for the 3,000 members.

BHUBANESWAR: As the University College of Engineering, Burla, gears up to celebrate its golden jubilee on October 14, the alumni association has reiterated its demand to convert it into a centre of excellence and sufficient funds for infrastructure development.

Association president Sarat Kumar Mohanty, a student of the first batch, demanded inclusion of the college in the list of probable institutes which the Centre proposes to convert into Indian Institute of Science Engineering and Technology・These centres will enjoy the status of IITs.

The college continues to be a victim of Government apathy despite the fact that its students have stamped their recognition the world over. As a result, other institutes which came up much later marched ahead eclipsing the college痴 illustrious records.

Funds crunch remains a major constraint for the college development. While centres like National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, get an annual grant of Rs 40 crore UCE manages to get Rs 5 crore.

溺ore than half the money goes into paying salaries and meeting other expenses. Hence the college should get a one-time grant of Rs 40 crore to meet its increasing requirements,・Mohanty stressed.

The Government should also hand over 300 acre of surplus land lying beside the college and two acres in the Capital for establishment of an extension centre of the college. The centre, among others, would house a placement cell where employers can pick up students directly without having to visit the campus at Burla.

The institute also has plans to add new programmes in the golden jubilee year.

Those are mineral resources and environmental science, biomedical engineering and power plant engineering. Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat would attend the function at exhibition ground here as chief guest.

http://www.thesamaja.com/dtlshw.asp?st=15&nt=REGIONAL

IIT campus: Sahu writes to Arjun for an early approval
Saturday October 7 2006 12:15 IST
BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Chandrasekhar Sahu has requested the Centre to positively consider the proposal of the IIT Kharagpur to upgrade its existing facility here to a full-fledged campus.

In a letter to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh, Sahu said as the State Government has agreed to provide 300 acres of land for the purpose, the proposal should be Okayed as early as possible.

IIT Kharagpur set up an extension campus in Bhubaneswar in 1996. Stating that the then chief minister J B Patnaik played a significant role in the opening of the extension campus, Sahu said it had generated hopes of a full-fledged campus in future. However, the hopes could not materialise for different reasons.

The Union Minister referred to the proposal of the Centre to set up a National Institute of Science for Education and Research in Bhubaneswar as contemplated by the University Grants Commission in 2003. Subsequently, the Centre decided to set up the institute in Kolkata through HRD Ministry.

The decision had generated a lot of resentment in Orissa, which led Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce establishment of such an institute in Bhubaneswar under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

Sahu, however, pointed out that there has always been a demand for establishment of an IIT in the State.

A full-fledged campus would meet a long-standing demand of the people of the State, he said and added, this would also provide an impetus to the developmental activities in the State and contribute to its all-round growth.

Leader of Opposition JB has also written similar letter to the HRD Minister requesting him to approve the proposal at an early date.

Establishment of a full-fledged campus would meet the growing demand for higher technical education in the State as well as entire Eastern Region, he reasoned