Tuesday, December 20, 2005
A first response to Hon'ble Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement
The Government of India has at no time approved setting up of Institutes, as proposed by the UGC. The Chairman, UGC thereafter informed the Government vide his letter dated November 26, 2003 that the UGC would like to facilitate setting up these institutions as fully autonomous institutions under the universities in which these institutions are to beestablished. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.
and berfore that he says:
As such, the UGC's proposal to establish four Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences under Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune could not materialize.
RESPONSE:
1. Perhaps the minister is technically right (I am not even sure of that either), if "The Government of India has approving setting up of Institutes" means that it was approved in the Parliament.
2. Shri Mukherjee's narrative ends on Nove 26' 2003. But following are subsequent events that he did not report and for which we the proof is linked.
2(a) 10th December 2003 PIB report on the then Union HRD and S&T Minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi while addressing the parliamentary Consultative Committee addressed to his Ministry, here last evening. http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rdec2003/10122003/r1012200313.html and http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2003-pib-nis.pdf It says "Four national-level institutes are also being established at Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Pune and Allahabad."
2(b) 28th December 2003 President's speech: http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html and http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/president-of-india-had-announced.html and http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/speech-of-president-on-28th-dec-2003.html mentions steps being taken towards the establishment of NISs (1 in Bhubaneswar)
2(c) January 2004: http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/jan_2004/12.htm A January 2004 UGC news talking about 2(b) and saying: "Dr. Joshi also informed the members about the steps initiated by the UGC for improving the relevance and quality of teaching and research, such as introduction of utility-oriented programmes along with the traditional degree; identifying the universities with potential for excellence; to establish four National Institutes of Sciences at Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Pune and Allahabad; monitoring the universities using parameters for academic performance, research performance and governance and providing incentives to universities and colleges scoring high on these parameters."
2(d) May 2004: 45 page detailed project report http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/dpr_nis.pdf and http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/ugc-45pg-document.pdf which talks about details on the proposed institutes (1 in Bhubaneswar)
3. The above shows how far the decision regarding NISs had been taken and its urgency is revealed when one reads 2(d). Perhaps because of the election laws kicking in they could not go further. But a reasonable person should easily make the conclusion regarding whether the decision was made or not.
Chitta
