Tuesday, January 03, 2006

 

The UGC letter to Utkal University dated July 23, 2003

From: Arun Nigavekar
Chairman UGC

D.O.No.F.1-74/2003(Cm)

Sub: establishment of National Institute of Sciences: UGC's newinitiative in collaboration with other scientific agencies inthe Xth Plan

Dear Prof. Nayak,

You may be aware that growing concern has been expressed at various time on various forums about continual decline in standards of education at all levels, particularly at tertiary level, as also on the recent trend of bright boys and girls shying away from science. This trend, over the years, has affected the quality of human power output into our research and development system. The matter is of national concern and is reflected in the speech given by the Hon'ble Minister for Human Resource Development. Professor Murli Manohar Joshi on the occasion of initiation of a Golden Jubilee Year of theUGC. In his inaugural speech Hon'ble Minister observed as under:

"The undergraduate education in pure sciences is a matter of serious concern. We are going to face shortage of good researchers in a fewyears time particularly in our premier research institutes in the field of Atomic Energy, Space, Bio-technology, Energy, Oilexploration, Communication and so on. We will have to focus at 10+2 level and "catch them young" for integrated 5 years teaching programme with a possibility of exit after three years".

Hon'ble Prime minister also, while inaugurating the Golden Jubilee year of the UGC on 28th December, 2002, expressed serious concern onthis important issue and suggested creation of such facilities that will fulfil the need of quality human power input into research and development system.
the university Grants commission was aware of this scenario and addressed this issue in teh Xth Plan document. I am very happy to inform you that the Commission has now decided to establish four centers for studies in Integrative sciences and these centers would be established in the proximity of following four universities:

(i) East: At Bhubaneswar in the proximity of Utkal University.

(ii) West: At Pune in the proximity of University of Pune.

(iii) North: At Allahbad in the proximity of Allahbad University.

(iv) South: At Chennai in the proximity of Anna University.

These centers would be called as National Institute of Sciences(NISc) and would have a budget of Rs 50 crores each spread over five years. The provision of Rs 100 crores has been done for this activity in the Xth Plan and UGC has approached the Planning Commission for making provision of additional Rs 100 crores for the project in the period of Xth Plan. Hence, presently each of the NISc would be provided with Rs.25 crores each.
The commission has also appointed a High powered committee to bringthese NISc into operation. The members of the high power committeeare:

1. Prof. V. G. Bhide Covenor Former Vice-Chancellor University of Pune

2. Prof. S. K. Joshi Member Commission, UGC

3. Prof. Ashok Kumar Gupta Member Commission, UGC

4. Prof. N. Mukunda Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

5. Prof. D. Balasubramanian Former Director Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad

The task for the high power committee is to prepare Memorandum ofAssociation and Rules of NISc and I am enclosing with this letter a draft MOA as prepared by this committee for NISc for your perusal.
The NISc would be established as autonomous institutions under clause 12(ccc) of the University Grants Commission Act in close association and collaboration with various science agencies like CSIR, DST, DAE, ISRO and DBT. It is anticipated that Utkal University would recognize the NISc as an autonomous institution and would provide full academic, administrative and financial freedom for operational purpose. The students coming out from the NISc would get appropriate degree of your university. It is also anticipated that NISc being a national organization would have a close academic linkage with the neighbouring university, research and development laboratories as well as national laboratories and prestigious research institutions and also other universities in the country. It will also have link with the industries. NISc would also have academic links with universities and R & D institutions outside the country.

We hope that NISc at your university becomes a major teaching learning and research center in basic sciences in times to come. As such the university may have to provide a land of about 50 acres for establishment of NISc. As mentioned earlier University Grants Commission would be providing full financial support for the establishment of NISc and would also continue to support each of the NISc under plan funds even in the future.

You may agree that this is one of the very important initiaives that has been taken by the University Grants Commission in recent years with emphasis on catching the best of the minds for launching them in research and development field in science and technology. I am sending this letter to keep you informed about this new initiative and also with a request to initiate at appropriate level the decision making process for acceptance of NISc as an autonomous degree conferring institution and providing administrative as well as logistic support for the establishment of the NISc. I may also suggest that you could call a meeting of all heads of local educational and R & D institutions/laboratories and brief them about this development. Their participation in formation and running of institute is very crucial for the success of NIsc.

I look forward for a positive response at your end on this new initiative of UGC.

with kind rewards

yours sincerely

Arun Nigavkar

Enc: As above

Prof. Pandav Nayak

Vice Chancellor

Utkal University

Vani Vihar

Bhubaneswar -751004
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