Saturday, January 14, 2006
The NIS/IISER issue in booklet form ( 3.37 mega bytes)
I just got back from India. The day before I left Bhubaneswar (9th January) we had a press conference where we released the booklet on NIS/IISER. Its table of content is given below. We hope the booklet will make it easy for many to get hold of a large body of the documents
related to this issue in one place.
The event was attended by about 30 Orissa journalists from both Oriya print media (Sambada, Samaya, Pragtivadi, Dharitri, Dainik Asha, etc.), English print media (Hindustan Times, Telegarph, Hindu, Times of India, PTI, UNI, India First, Statesman, frelancers such as Ashutosh Mishra etc.), TV (OTV) and they were all given the booklet. Some who could not make it but were in touch included Samaja, ETV, Doordarshan, and Pioneer.
A slightly revised version of the booklet can be obtained at http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf
So far 100 copies of it were printed (it cost Rs20 per booklet in BBSR and Silicon Inst in BBSR sponsored it) and distributed to the journalists and several people. We plan to print more copies of it and
distribute it to MPs, MPLAs etc., as many in Orissa and India do not access the Internet often. If any group (say the people in Delhi) want to print copies and distribute, please feel free to do so. Feel free to modify the document and print it under your own group's name.
(If you need the word document, let me know.)
best regards
Chitta
CONTENTS
1. Subterfuge: Announced National Institute of Science in Bhubaneswar renamed and shifted
1.1 The beginning of the National Institute of Sciences proposal
1.2 The current government's version of events after that (a Lok Sabha speech)
1.3 Inconsistency and omissions: Events between 26-11-03 & 22-5-04
1.4 The Detailed Project Report (DPRs) for the announced NISs dated May 2004
1.5 Did the Hon'ble minister mislead or lie in the floor of the parliament?
1.6 Another misleading statement by the Hon'ble minister?
1.7 Are NISs and IISERs different?
1.8 Subterfuge adopted to shift an announced for NIS from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata?
2. Does Bhubaneswar deserve an NIS?
2.1 A case for Bhubaneswar -- Why an NIS or IISER should be
established in Bhubaneswar
3. HRD lopsidedness: Orissa ignored, neglected, and shortchanged by the HRD ministry over the years
3.1 State wise distribution of mega centrally funded HRD institutions
3.2 A rough quantitative analysis: comparing HRD funding between WB & Orissa
3.3 What the PM said versus what he did
3.4 The folly continues: unchecked increase in regional imbalance
3.4.1 Upgrading institutions to IITs and deemed IITs: Why NIT Rourkela was not considered?
3.4.2 No sense behind the selection of the new IIFT campus
4. Last word: Our humble request
Appendix
A.1 CM's letters to the PM
A.1.1 CM of Orissa Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 23rd Aug 2005
A.1.2 CM Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 29th Sept 2005
A.1.3 CM Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 11th Nov 2005
A.2 A sample letter sent by thousands of Oriyas: Open letter to the Prime minister of India -- Gross Injustice done to Orissa
A.3 A letter to the planning commission
A.4 Indian democracy in work: letters to PM and Planning commission are not answered and not even acknowledged
A.5 List of Institutes of national Importance
A.6 List of central universities
A.7 List of autonomous science and technology institutes
A.8 The people and entities whose job is to report or correct the imbalances
A. 9 The complete "Detailed Project Report" (DPR) document on the NISs.
-----------------------
INDEX OF BOXED ITEMS
Box 1: A reference to the origin of the statements about 9-4-03 & 23-7-03.
Box 2: Full text of the letter from the UGC Chairman to the Utkal VC in July 03.
Box 3: Hon'ble minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement in the Lok Sabha on Dec 20, 2003, available at http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsdeb/ls14/ses6/201205.html
Box 4: Page 2 of PIB article dated 10th December 2003 available at
http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rdec2003/10122003/r1012200313.html
Box 5A: Top half of UGC news dated January 2004 and available at
http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/jan_2004/12.htm
Box 5B: Bottom half of UGC news dated January 2004 and available at
http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/jan_2004/12.htm
Box 6: UGC web page about President's address
Box 7: A part of the President's address on December 28, 2003
Box 8 : The reference to the 45 page DPR dated May 2004
Box 9: A news item on an affidavit made by under-secy. Kumar in response to a PIL
Box 10: News item mentioning MP Basudeb Acharya's statement saying the proposed institutes in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar are different
Box 11: A Frontline article dated March 12-25 2005 that refers to the institutes in Pune and Kolkata as National Institute of Sciences.
Box 12: An article from Telegraph dated October 4, 2005, where the CM of West Bengal refers to the institute in Kolkata as National Institute of Sciences.
Box 13: An article in the Statesman dated 24th Oct 2005, in which the institute in Kolkata is referred to as NIS.
Box 14: An article in the Telegraph which describes how Kolkata got into the mix and rose to become a contender.
Box 15: An article in the Hindu which mentions SAC-PM Chair's statement on plan for 3 more IISERs in north south and central region and beyond Pune and Kolkata
Box 16 : State Wise Distribution of Central University (CU), IIT, IIM, IIIT, and IIITM across India
Box 17: Zone wise listing of states that are ignored and states that are blessed
Box 18: A page of the report of the steering committee on secondary, higher and technical education for the tenth 5 yr plan 2002-2007, Dec 2001 (Full report at
http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/strgrp/stgp_scndry.pdf)
Box 19: A page of the 2004-2005 UGC annual report mentioning total funding amounts for the central universities.
Box 20: A page from http://mospi.nic.in/rti_manual11_2005.pdf on ISI Kolkata
Box 21: An article in Rediff about the PM's statement on regional balance.
Box 2 2: A page from an article in Rediff that ranks engineering colleges in India.
Box 23 : A newindpress.com article that reports on Dr. Mungekar's statement on the new IITs.
Box 24 : An article in Hindu about a new IIFT campus in Kolkata.
