Gross injustice to Orissa:Announced National Inst. of Sc. in Bhubaneswar renamed & shifted

Moving on to the next stage

2006-08-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

With the formal announcement of NISER (in Bhubaneswar) by the Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, our objective of correcting the above-mentioned injustice has been somewhat "achieved". Thus we will freeze this blog temporarily. (Hopefully NISER will be established as announced and progress in the way it was announced and we won't have to come back to this blog ever.)

At the time of freezing the contributors of this blog were:

Our next goal is to make sure that, as announced by the PM, NISER Bhubaneswar is indeed at par with IISERs. Thus we will keep a close watch on the progress of the IIISERs and NISER Bhubaneswar. We will do that in the new blog http://niser-bbsr.blogspot.com.

In closing I would like to thank all those individuals and groups who supported this cause and the PM for doing what he should have done a year back.

We did it: NISER announced by PM -- will be at par with IISERs

2006-08-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

PM ANNOUNCES SETTING UP OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH AT BHUBANESWAR
	18:37 IST

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, announced the setting up of National Institute of Science Education and Research at Bhubaneswar today.

Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s speech on the occasion:

“I am truly delighted to be here in Bhubaneshwar today at the Institute of Physics. I have great affection and regard for the people of Orissa whose contribution to the history, culture and economy of our nation are second to none. I am particularly delighted that my first visit to this State is associated with the announcement of the establishment of the National Institute of Science Education and Research. This is the fulfillment of a promise to the people of Orissa. Our Government is genuinely committed to the development of Orissa and to the educational empowerment of the people of Orissa. The National Institute of Science Education and Research will be a symbol of that commitment.

I share the concern being expressed by many of our scientists that our best minds are not turning to science, and those who do, do not remain in science. I am told that less than 3% of school children want to pursue a career in science. We must find ways of making these disciplines more attractive to children. We have to improve the quality of teaching of science and mathematics at the school level. Countries like China and South Korea are far ahead of us in investing in science and technology. We need to do much more in this vital area if we have to keep pace with the evolving global economy of the future.

We have to take urgent steps to prevent scientifically talented persons from moving away from careers in scientific research and development. This is happening at the 10+2 level and at the B.Tech. level. Most of our universities are performing sub-optimally. They lack good infrastructure and suffer from acute faculty shortage. There is not enough interaction between our academia and industry. Many technologies developed for our rural areas have not been delivered properly. We will need to address these on a war footing.

I am also concerned about the regional imbalance in science teaching and the development of science and technology in India. There was a time when the East was at the forefront. Today the East is lagging behind the South and the West. We need to redress this regional imbalance. It is to meet these challenges that we will be setting up the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar.

As India moves up the technology ladder and improves its relative competitive status in the global domain, the need for capable innovative scientists will increase. Our higher education programs should empower young science students to engage not only in advanced research but also in domains which facilitate translation of research results into development of new technologies and their commercial deployment. This requires acquisition of necessary experimental skills and familiarity with the realities of practical world.

There is a strong synergy between research and higher education. Co-existence of both leads to higher excellence in both. It provides opportunities for students to be exposed to excitements in scientific research and benefit from teachers who are themselves engaged in expanding the horizons of knowledge. Such participation in teaching also benefits researchers by way of greater clarity of thought and availability of students to broaden support to research activity.

The National Institute of Science Education and Research will facilitate this synergy between research and higher education. The major strength of Institute of Physics is a strong emphasis on the quality of the faculty and its present pre-doctoral and doctoral programs are among the best in the country. The faculty is composed of all world-renowned scientists who are also established teachers. Association with the Institute of Physics will enable the National Institute of Science Education and Research to draw upon this outstanding tradition and expand it further to cater to a much larger pool of science students. NISER will be at par with the IISER being established in other places but will operate under the umbrella of DAE. It will undertake integrated 5-year Masters courses in core and emerging branches of science to provide world-class education to students after the 10+2 stage. It can also include an integrated M.Sc.–Ph.D. after graduation level.

The emphasis of education at NISER will be to generate scientific trained manpower of a very high quality which could directly find placement across the country. Greater emphasis will be on branches of science relevant to the Department of Atomic Energy and also catering to the better exploitation and utilization of Orissa’s regional natural resources. Orissa’s mineral and marine resources will be taken into consideration in designing training programs of students here.

While working within the DAE family and awarding degrees under the Homi Bhabha National Institute [HBNI], which is already a Deemed University for post-graduate studies, NISER will be an institute at par with the best in the country in terms of facilities and faculty. It will have a research to teaching load as practiced in the best universities in the world. This will ensure world class education and also attract the best researchers. It will have world-class experimental facilities in all the current and emerging branches of science including physics, chemistry, modern biology and environmental sciences. We will provide enough resources to DAE to convert this into reality within a very short time frame.

In order to attract bright young students to this integrated course, it is proposed to make the course challenging on a world-class level, give reasonable stipend to the students and also allow them time for research activities even during their student days. There will be campus interviews and placements at both research centers and in industry in order to make the course more attractive to the students in the present competitive environment of market forces which drives them to IT-related jobs.

I am told that this project will be quickly completed in two phases. In Phase-I, additional courses will be started immediately in 3 or 4 selected subjects like physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology with existing faculty and new faculty. In Phase-II, 200 acres of land will be acquired around Bhubaneswar and activities expanded on a larger scale. When completed, I am confident that the National Institute of Science Education and Research will become a Mecca for science just as TIFR and IISc are today.

With our recent unprecedented economic growth, I am optimistic that India will become a ‘developed country’ in the not too distant future. In this process, Science & Technology will continue to play a major role. Since independence, there has been a great deal of progress in our S&T system. This is evident from the success of the mission-oriented S&T agencies, like the family of DAE institutions, that have made our nation proud.

However, I am aware that we must increase our expenditure on Science & Technology. India’s expenditure on S&T is about 1% of our GDP. This is half of what developed countries are devoting to S & T. The Government is committed to increasing R&D funding. For the last few years, we have been allocating larger budgets for R&D. For example, last year, we increased it by 20%. We shall strive to reach the target of 2% in the 11th Plan. But I also expect the private sector to do more in this area. We also need more public- private partnership in R&D in all areas of S&T.

One way of making careers in science and technology attractive would be to improve remuneration and ensure the integrity of selection processes. It is well known that the initial starting salary for scientists with a PhD in India is often lower than those of Engineers, Doctors and Management graduates. It is obvious that if talented young people are to be retained in science, scientists have to be treated differently than other Government employees in service and salary matters.

The Government will be happy to provide career support for students talented in science for a reasonable period, including into their initial employment years, to attract such students to scientific research. There is also a need to develop a more productive interface between the National Laboratories and the University system. Proximate national laboratories could supplement the faculty both for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in universities and colleges. Private sector enterprises should also be able to create centres for their product innovation and development in proximate national laboratories and universities.

I would like to reaffirm our my commitment to the growth and modernization of Indian science and technology institutions. The establishment of the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar is one more symbol of this commitment. I hope this institution will emerge as a center of creative teaching and research and contribute to our national development. Orissa has produced many great scientists of India such as Jogesh Chandra Pati. I hope this institution will produce many more in the years to come. I wish you all the best in all your endeavours.”

PM’s programme includes foundation stone laying for the NIS in Bhubaneswar : It Looks Like Finally NIS would be In Bhubaneswar

2006-08-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister (PM)Dr. Man Mohan Singh will visit Orissa On August 28 and 29. It is his maiden visit after he took over as PM. According to official sources Dr.Singh will arrive at Bhubaneswar On August 28 at 10.40 am. Then he will leave for Talcher to dedicate the Super Thermal Power Project of National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC). On the return he will lay foundation stone of the proposed National Institute of Science(NIS) at Bhubaneswar in the afternoon. Later Dr.Singh will receive various delegations at Raj Bhawan. On August 29 , Dr. Singh will leave for KBK districts. Detailed programme for KBK is being finalized, sources said.
http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=344
Interestingly, the PM’s programme includes foundation stone laying for the NIS in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar:23/August/2006The politics over the tribal KBK is hotting up! After whirlwind tour of Naveen Patnaik to the KBK region last week, the Congress has planned to put Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the Orissa Chief Minister. The Prime Minister is on his way for a two-day tour to Orissa on August 28. The PM would spend a full day in KBK region, obviously to upset Naveen’s apple cart. The PM’s Orissa tour was finalized after some hours after Naveen making anti-Centre statements at a party meeting here on August 23. Earlier on the day, Naveen had told his party men that the Centre’s anti-Orissa stand would be main plank in the ensuing three-tire panchayati raj elections in the state. Naveen mentioned the issues like shifting of National Institute of Science(NIS) from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata and KBK as the weapons against the UPA government and also the Congress. He urged the party men to take the messages to villages and apprise the people that the Congress led UPA Government are against the people of Orissa. Interestingly, the PM’s programme includes foundation stone laying for the NIS in Bhubaneswar. “In this way the UPA Government would prove that Naveen has been misleading the people on several issues,” said a senior Congress leaders adding that when the PM himself will lay the foundation stone, how the Centre can betray hopes of Orissa people. This apart, the PM during his tour to KBK will also prove that Naveen is also wrong so far as the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for the KBK region is concerned. Naveen has been taking a lot of political mileage by announcing the Biju KBK Plan for the tribal districts. The Orissa CM has also announced that the State Government had no alternative than announcing the Rs 600 crore new package for the KBK as the UPA Government has “Betrayed” the people of KBK region. During his tour, the PM is expected to announce some thing “Big” for the KBK region in order to ensure that Naveen fails to take political mileage from the issue, said a senior political observer. Besides, the Congress leaders also hope that to counter Naveen’s much-hyped Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana for 11 coastal districts, the PM may announce lucrative package for the flood affected people in this region, expects Congress leaders. The PM’s tour is expected to generate much heat in coming days, so far politics is concerned.

Mashelkar for more IISERs

2006-08-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

To tackle China on science, Mashelkar for more IISERs
Rituparna Bhuyan
Posted online: Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email

PUNE, AUGUST 16:Nearly a decade ago, the number of papers published by Indian scientists in international journals used to be close to 11,000, while Chinese scientists could manage only 10,000. But last year, while Indian scientists published over 19,000 papers their Chinese counterparts managed a whopping 50,000 papers.

‘‘Leave aside Europe and the US, look at the huge investments made by countries like China, Korea, Taiwan and even Singapore in the field of education. Our investment figures cannot be compared with them. To address this issue, I made a presentation — Some Statistics and Some Concerns — on July 8 to the deputy chairman and senior members of the Planning Commission,’’ director general of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) R A Mashelkar said.

Pointing to China, he said the Chinese government was pumping in $125 million in each of their 10 universities. ‘‘Moreover, $225 million each will also be invested in Beijing and Tsinghua universities. Similar investments are also planned for 20 other universities,’’ he said.

He said the Chinese objective was to have 100 top class universities that will figure in the best 500 universities of the world.

Hence, Mashelkar has suggested a two-pronged strategy to meet the challenge of maintaining competitiveness in the Indian research and development scenario — supply and demand driven strategy.

‘‘Supply driven strategy means creating high quality manpower through institutes like Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER). In demand driven strategy, policies have to be formulated in such a way that it fosters the spirit of competition among the institutes,’’ he said.

Mashelkar said the country will soon have to address lack of top grade human capital for maintaining its competitiveness. ‘‘In fact, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, have prepared a concept paper on ways and means to promote scientific human capital. This paper will be presented to the President, the Prime Minister as well as the Human Resources and Science and Technology ministers within the next 10 days,’’ he said.

Mashelkar said issues like creating new institutes like IISER as well as supporting existing universities have been included in the paper.

rituparna.bhuyan@expressindia.com

3 new iims: financial express

2006-08-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

Three new IIMs need of the day: Moily sub-group

JYOTSNA BHATNAGAR

Posted online: Friday, August 04, 2006 at 0011 hours IST

AHMEDABAD, AUG 3: The final report of a group of management institutions, to be submitted to the Moily Committee in the next few days, has suggested setting up three new IIMs, besides the one already proposed for Shillong. This will ensure “more balanced access to management education across the country”.

The group has said, the three new IIMs should be located in cities that not only can attract good faculty but also gain from the industry-business interface. Chairman of the group Samuel Paul told FE the new IIMs should “not be set up in backward areas but in places which are emerging industrial hubs”.

While the group left the choice of location to the government, Paul indicated IIMs could be set up in emerging economic hubs like Pune. “ Maharashtra does not have an IIM and can do with one,” he said. Other possible locations are Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

When asked about the investment required to set up a new IIM, Paul said, “It could initially be in a range of Rs 200-300 crore. Each new institute will be sufficient for a student intake of 300 to begin with.”

Besides catering for the long-term management education needs, the new IIMs will also ease the burden of the quota regime implementation on existing IIMs. “Though it will take at least 5 years for a new IIM to come up, it will still be a exercise worth the while. Existing IIMs cannot be realistically expected to shoulder the entire responsibility of quota implementation,” Paul said.

The group had highlighted infrastructure and faculty constraints existing IIMs would face if they were forced to implement the OBC quota from the next academic session.

The next 2 iisers in Kerala and central India -- what will be in BBSR?

2006-07-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

BANGALORE: Here’s some good news for engineering aspirants in Karnataka. The Prime Minister’s scientific advisor C N R Rao is batting for an IIT in the state.

The Scientific Advisory Council to the PM (SACPM), which has over 30 eminent scientists from all over the country, has recommended setting up of three IITs including one in Karnataka. The state’s pending demand for an IIT is finally being pushed forward by the eminent scientist from Karnataka.

“Though there are a number of engineering and technical institutes, there is just one IIT in South India. We need more premier institutes here,’’ said Rao, who also heads the standing council of IITs.

The SAC-PM’s recommendations come at a time when anti-quota activists were silenced with the Centre promising them more IITs and IIMs.

The Karnataka government has already submitted a proposal to the HRD ministry expressing its interest to house an IIT. If accepted, the existing National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Suratkal would be upgraded to an IIT.

“We’ve been pushing for an IIT for years. Since Bangalore has an Indian Institute of Management, the Centre is hesitant to sanction another institute of national importance,’’ said D H Shankaramurthy, higher education minister.

With the scientific adviser himself recommending it, the minister hoped the Centre would respond positively. Shankaramurthy will meet Rao to extend all possible support from the state for establishing an IIT.

Two high-powered committees under M Anandakrishnan and S K Joshi have recommended granting IIT status to seven institutes in the country, including two in the South. The institutes are AMU’s Engineering College and Jadavpur Engineering College, Cochin Engineering College, Bengal Engineering College in Shivpur, Osmania Engineering College, University College of Engineering , Hyderabad, and Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University.

To promote science education, two more Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) would be set up, apart from the ones at Kolkata, Pune and Mohali.

“The fourth institute will be set up in Kerala as the state doesn’t have a central university. Another would be in central India,’’ said Rao.

IISER classes start on August 16th

2006-07-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

IISER: INSTITUTE TO OPERATE FROM NCL’S INNOVATION PARK, PERMANENT CAMPUS IN 15 MONTHS

From August 16, IIT of science to begin classes

Express News Service

Pune, July 21: A DAY after the Independence Day, when nearly 70 students walk into the National Chemical Laboratory campus on August 16, it will be a new dawn for science education in the country. For, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) — touted as the IIT of science education — will start its academic session.

To begin with, it will be based at the NCL’s Innovation Park and classes and labs will be held here till the institute shifts to a permanent campus. IISER in Pune and Kolkata was formed on the recommendations of the C N R Rao-led Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister. On October 4, 2005, Pune Newsline had reported about the scope and functioning of the institute.

‘‘The institute is at an embryonic stage and NCL will provide support in the form of administration, finance, engineering services as well as infrastructure,’’ IISER project director and NCL chief S Sivaram said.

The 100-acre permanent campus that will come up in the NCL premises itself, will be ready in 15 months. ‘‘The academic building of IISER, with more than 30,000 sq ft of built-up area will be ready in the next 15 months. A 100-room hostel, with twin accommodation will also be built on the campus,’’ eminent scientist and the first director of IISER, Pune, K N Ganesh said.

The first batch of students is being drawn from the extended IIT-Joint Entrance Examination list. ‘‘There was a counselling session at the IIT-Kharagpur extension centre in Kolkata, which was attended by 180 students,’’ Ganesh said.

Call letters have been sent out to 83 students, while 10 seats (five each) have been reserved for Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna scholarship holders and winners of Olympiads in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry. The IISER students will receive Rs 3,000 as fellowship per month.

‘‘We have sent out more call letters than our capacity because many selected students might not turn up as they have taken admission in other institutes,’’ Ganesh explained. IISER, Kolkata has sent out call letters to 79 students.

In the first year of its existence, a team of seven in-house faculty members, who have a background in research and teaching will guide the students at IISER. Besides, a list of eight adjunct faculty members, comprising prominent scientists, have also been finalised.

At full capacity, IISER, Pune will have close to 3,000 students, who will be guided by 200 faculty members.

The IISERs

IISERs are a new experiment in the science education field as they will have an inter-disciplinary approach. The institute will offer an integrated five-year Master of Science degree as well as PhD programmes. The financial outlay for each of the IISERs is Rs 500 crore for a period of five years. For the first two-and-a-half years, the students will be taught various topics related to mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. Stress will be on research and hands-on experience in various areas of science. Student to faculty ratio will be 10:1. After building a firm base in the subjects, the students (with counselling) will be able to choose from a wide array of subjects for specialisation. More information is available on http://www.iiserpune.ac.in

Sambada: Dept of Atomic energy is preparing the details of the proposed "National Institute of Technology & Science"

2006-07-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Such an institute will be acceptable if its budget is of the order similar to an IIT, IISER or IISc or more, and if it takes students through IIT-JEE. It would have been better to call it "Indian Institute of Technology and Science" rather than "National Institute of Technology and Science".

Chitta

Samaja: PM gives assurance to JB on a high quality science and tech institution in Bhubaneswar

2006-07-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Its not clear what the reported "high quality science and technology institution" will resemble. Will it be a cross between IISc and IIT,
similar to the IIST short proposal that we sent in? Or is it a typo
by the news paper.

Whatever it is we would be happy if it is in the scale of an IISER or IIT or IISc.

NewIndPress: Sahu on PM's assurance for NIS

2006-07-15T04:26:00.000-07:00

Upgradation of four ITIs okayed: Sahu
Saturday July 15 2006 13:25 IST

BHUBANESWAR: Centre has approved the proposal for upgrading four ITIs in the State into centres of excellence with World Bank assistance this fiscal. The ITIs are located at Berhampur, Balasore, Hirakud and Talcher.

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Chandrasekhar Sahu on Friday announced this at a news conference here. A National Institute of Science (NIS) would also be set up in Bhubaneswar.

Sahu said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave this assurance to a delegation of State Congress, which called on him in New Delhi recently.

The NIS issue had sparked off a controversy after the UPA Government dropped a proposal floated by the preceding NDA government for setting up such an institute in the City. The State Government had identified 75 acres of land for this on the request of the University Grants Commission.

Besides, the ESI hospital at Rourkela would be converted into a model hospital with central assistance.

The Labour and Employment Ministry has decided to open a sub-regional office of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation at Keonjhar, Sahu revealed. This was a long-standing demand of the employees of the area.

Pioneer: IISc to be set up in State, says Union Minister

2006-07-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

IISc to be set up in State, says Union Minister

Pioneer News Service \| Bhubaneswar
The Union Minister of State for Labour, Chandra Sekhar Sahoo on Friday claimed that the Indian Institute of Science would be set up in the Orissa.

Addressing a Press conference here on Friday, Sahoo said that he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in this connection. According to him, the PM categorically assured him that the institute would be set up in the State.

Taking the Prime Minister's assurance, no one should be worried about the IIIS any more, he said. He further said the UPA Government has given due priority to the setting up of such an institute in the State.

He further said the Centre this year has accorded status of Centre of Excellency to the four ITIs of the State. These ITIs are Berhampur, Balasore, Talcher and Hirakud.

The Berhampur ITI will be treated as a centre of Excellency for Instrumentation, Balasore as Eelctrtcial, Talcher as Production and Manufacturing and Berhampur as Automobile. The Centre would provide Rs 3 crore to each of these institutes.

He further said the Centre is actively considering giving more assistance to the ITIs of Bhawnipatna and Puri for infrastructure development. He further informed the Centre has no plan to take off the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) from the KBK area.

He also announced the sub-regional office of Provident Fund would be opened in Keonjhar.Pradesh Congress President Jayedev Jena, who was present in the conference, said steps have been taken to prepare the Congress for the upcoming Panchayat elections with 30 observers appointed for the purpose.

Prime Minister is reported to have sounded positive consideration on NIS request by Naveen -- New India Press

2006-07-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

ORISSA

Jul 14, 2006

CM places RLTAP extension, NIS plan revival on PM table
Friday July 14 2006 09:34 IST

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday reiterated the demand for extending the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) being implemented in KBK districts to the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Naveen raised the issue during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

He said while the RLTAP had a positive impact on the living condition of the people of the area, continuance of the programme is imperative for improving the human development indicators in the KBK region, which is one of the poorest region in the country.

The Chief Minister expressed concern over reports that the Centre is considering to discontinue the programme after the 10th Five Year Plan on the ground that the development needs of the area would be addressed by the newly-formulated Backward Region Grant Fund Scheme (BRGFS).

He maintained that the RLTAP has enabled major interventions at the regional-level for food security, health services, rural connectivity and literacy drive. This would not be possible under the new scheme, he said.

The Vijayawada-Ranchi Security Corridor proposal, which has already been approved by the Planning Commission and ministries of Home Affairs and Road Transport, was also raised by the Chief Minister.

Requesting the Prime Minister to clear the proposal, Naveen said the proposed highway, which would pass through the extremist-affected states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand, would enable better policing and improve the economic lot of the people.

Besides, Naveen iterated the demand for establishment of a National Institute of Science (NIS) in Bhubaneswar for which 75 acres of land have been identified by the State Government.

The proposal was dropped on the ground that the University Grants Commission is not competent to set up such institutes.

The Chief Minister demanded that the proposal should be revived and a NIS set up a la centres in Pune and Kolkata through the Human Resources Development Ministry. The Prime Minister is reported to have sounded positive consideration.

Pioneer: Naveen wants KBK programme extended, urges PM (mentions NIS)

2006-07-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Naveen wants KBK programme extended, urges PM

Pioneer News Service \| Bhubaneswar
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and reiterated Orissa Government's demand for extension of the KBK programme into the 11th Five-Year Plan. It may be noted that Government of India is considering to discontinue the programme after the 10th Five-Year Plan.

Patnaik informed the PM that the on-going Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for KBK region, has had a positive impact on the living conditions of the people.

"The continuance of the programme is imperative to improve human development initiatives in the KBK region," he said.

Patnaik said the present programme has enabled major interventions at the regional level such as food security, health services, rural connectivity, literacy driver, which would not be possible under the new Backward Region Grant Fund Scheme.

Patnaik also requested the PM to clear the Vijayawada-Ranchi security corridor proposal, which has already been approved in principle by the Planning Commission and by the administrative ministries like Home and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The road would enhance the economic potential of the tribals. Chief Minister also took up the issue for establishment of a National Institute of Science in Bhubaneswar. He requested the Government to revive the proposal.

Manmohan for reconstruction of university system

2006-07-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

=====================================
Manmohan for reconstruction of university system

Special Correspondent

Underlines need to recognise private sector contribution in its expansion

Lays foundation for the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research

Universities have not grown commensurate with need

For evolving cooperative partnership to harness all possible resources

Kolkata: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for the "reconstruction" of the university system in the country and stressed the need to recognise the contribution of the private sector in its expansion.

"We must evolve a cooperative partnership for harnessing all possible resources," he said here on Tuesday, after laying the foundation for the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.

"The deteriorating health of our universities in the past two decades has hobbled our scientific research base" which has not grown fast enough, commensurate with need. The reconstruction of the university system "must be a top priority and the issue has to be addressed comprehensively, not in a piecemeal fashion, he said.

Dr. Singh said: "We will promote public-private partnerships to increase funding for frontier areas of scientific and technological research, de-bureaucratise science and technology institutions and ensure their academic autonomy.

"We cannot have pretensions about being a leading `knowledge power' if we do not substantially upgrade our scientific and technological expertise — both in quality and quantity.

"We will commit adequate resources for a massive expansion in our higher education system so that every section of society has adequate opportunities for fulfilling their educational needs." Referring to the findings of Rand Corporation which ranks India as a scientifically proficient nation, Dr. Singh said: "We must ask ourselves how we move from the `scientifically proficient' category to the rank of scientifically advanced nations."

Increasing disconnect

Regretting that the weakness of the Indian scientific system has been the increasing disconnect between teaching and research, he said "universities teach, national laboratories do research, this dichotomy must end."

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the new institute would come up on 220 acres of land being provided by his Government at Kalyani. It is necessary to lay stress on higher studies and research in the basic sciences to accelerate the pace of economic development.Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, and Union Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Mohd. Ali Ashraf Fatmi, were among those present.

A similar institute would be set up in Pune and another near Chandigarh next year, C.N.R. Rao, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said adding two more were expected during the next Plan period.

PM laid foundation stone of an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Kolkata

2006-07-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Kolkata to get unique science institute
[ 11 Jul, 2006 1024hrs ISTIANS ]

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KOLKATA: Laying the foundation stone of an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Kolkata by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday marks the beginning of a new initiative in science education in India.

Though the human resource development (HRD) ministry had announced October 30, 2005, as the date for laying the foundation stone, the function got delayed due to political reasons.

According to official sources here, the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister had recommended the creation of two new autonomous institutions under the HRD ministry devoted to science education and research to be named Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) and located in Kolkata and Pune.

IISER-Kolkata, like its Pune counterpart, is a unique initiative in science education in India since it will be a research university of the highest caliber in which teaching and education will be totally integrated with state-of-the-art research, nurturing both curiosity and creativity.

Though the foundation stone is being laid at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics at Salt Lake in Kolkata, the institute will be located in Kalyani on the outskirts of the city in Nadia district, about 40 km from here.

The West Bengal government has already given land for the institute - the main objective of which would be to improve the standards of science education in the same way as that of IITs (Indian Institute of Technology).

IISER will be devoted to teaching of five-year integrated Masters and post-bachelors and post-Masters PhD programmes in integrative sciences in an intellectually vibrant atmosphere.

One of the objectives of IISER is to make education and career in basic sciences more attractive by providing opportunities in integrated learning of sciences and break the barriers of traditional disciplines. Therefore, IISER will promote a flexible and borderless curriculum in all disciplines of basic sciences.

Consequently, all students of the integrated Master's programme will be required to take courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology for the first two years of the curriculum.

Apart from classroom instructions, IISER will promote the skills of students in areas such as scientific inquiry, problem solving, communication skills, computational sciences, electronics and instrumentation, workshops and glass blowing practices.

IISER proposes to create advance teaching and research laboratories where students will have an opportunity to pursue laboratory experiment as well as advanced research under the mentorship of world-class faculties.

The academic programme will be divided into semesters and students can choose courses for specialisation in one or more disciplines of basic sciences based on a flexible credit system.

PM to inaugurate IISER Kolkata on Tuesday: Indian Express

2006-07-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

PM to inaugurate IISER

Express News Service

Kolkata, July 10: The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics at Bidhannagar will have a visitor in Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who would be in the city on Tuesday. After his engagement with the institute is over he will visit Raj Bhavan. The area around the institute has been cordoned off for security reasons.

“The Prime Minister will inaugurate the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research tomorrow,” said Supriyo Gangopadhay, security officer at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. Gangopadhay said: “The stone-laying ceremony of IISER will be held within the premises of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. It has been possible to organise the event due to the active involvement of SINPÕs director, Bikash Sinha, in this project.”

“Around 250 acres of land in Kalyani have been purchased for constructing the campus of the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research. The institute is temporarily housed at Rajarhat,” Gangopadhay told Newsline.

Prior to this visit the Prime Minister had visited Kolkata in November 2005 for the same purpose. However, he had to return to Delhi immediately after the capital was hit by serial bomb blasts.

The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics was founded in 1949. It grew out of the Palit Research Laboratory of the University of Calcutta and was accorded autonomy in 1951.

Research in areas of physical electronics and biophysical science is carried out at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. At present the institute boasts of about 125 faculty members, 20 post-doctoral fellows and 80 graduate students.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=192258

PM may visit Orissa on July 10th

2006-07-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Today's Sambada reports that the PM may visit Orissa on July 10th. Lets hope that this visit does happen and he clearly declares the establishment of an IISER in Orissa.

Chitta

Various news regarding PM giving assurance to Union State Minister of Labor Mr. Sahu on NIS

2006-07-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200607010311.htm

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=306127&sid=REG

Samaja (in Oriya); front page of Samaja showing the placement

Pioneer, June 30 2006

Govt to consider IIT status for Burla College: PM

2006-07-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

My comment: Whats so great about "considering". They can
consider any collge for an IIT. Just considering or seriously considering
does not mean much. If they decide to make it an IIT then
its a real news.

Chitta

=======================================

Govt to consider IIT status for Burla College: PM

Pioneer News Service \| Bhubaneswar
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Chandrashekhar Sahu that the Government will consider his request on a priority basis for providing Indian Institute of Technology status to Burla Engineering College and setting up a Central University in the tribal-dominated KBK region.

According to an official release here on Friday, Sahu had argued that in the KBK region 89 per cent of the population are tribals and 46 per cent are Harijans.

Therefore, there is a requirement of a Central University there for achieving the ultimate objective of poverty alleviation of tribals.

Similarly, the University College of Engineering at Burla is the State's first technical university set up in 1956, two years after IIT was established at Kharagpur.

The alumini of the college have played pivotal role in the development of the country, Sahu pointed out.

Indian Express and NewIndPress: Bias against Bhubaneswar

2006-06-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

Indian Express published a toned down version of my submission to them on July 1st 2006 in their editorial page of that day. I like what the editors of Indian Express did in toning down my article.

The article also appeared in NewIndiaExpress.

Following are some links that I mentioned in my submission that they
did not list:

http://www.equitableindia.org
http://iiser.blogspot.com
http://newiits.blogspot.com

Chitta

NIS/IISER and NALCO privatization

2006-06-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Following is a revised version of an article that I wrote that was sent to various UPA ministers, BJP leaders, and Indian media. It was sent on June 27th night PST. Indian Express published a toned down version of the article on July 1st 2006 in their editorial page of that day.

Chitta

Why I support privatization but oppose NALCO divestment by the UPA government?

Chitta Baral

I had very high hopes from a government run by Dr. Singh and Mr. Chidambaram. However, so far they both have proved that degrees from Oxford and Harvard do not necessarily make them trustworthy, fair or statesmen. The reason I and many of us who support privatization in general but oppose NALCO divestment is that we do not trust Dr. Singh and Mr. Chidambaram will use the money raised in a way fair to Orissa or other non-UPA allied states.

They have so far behaved like fiefs and partisans with respect to the Indian budget, especially the 06-07 HRD budget. Let me elaborate on it. The budget spreadsheet and the speech are available in the web and the readers can verify the points. In item 96 of the budget speech the finance minister highlights 100 crores each for University of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai; the first two in UPA allied states and the third is the FM's home state. In item 97 he mentions 100 crores for Punjab Agricultural University, in the state where the PM spent his youth. In item 98 he mentions a Biotech Institute in Kerala, another state ruled by an UPA ally. These items are the only ones under the heading of ``Institutions of Excellence,'' as if non-UPA implies non-deserving of such institutes. In other parts of the speech there is mention of developing Paddy Processing Research Centre at Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu) into a national-level institute and renaming the existing National Institute of Port Management, Chennai as National Maritime Academy, upgrading it into a Central University with regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam, all in UPA-allied states.

This is not all. In the budget spreadsheets there are more goodies for the UPA-allied states and yes, a punishment for a non-UPA ruled state. The expenditure budget volume 2, item 73 lists two IISERs (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) at 50 crores in Pune and Kolkata, again states allied with the UPA and earlier this year a third one has been announced for Punjab. These will be new institutions. The punishment part comes from removals. During the NDA government the precursors of IISERs then called NISs (National Institute of Sciences) were proposed in Pune, Allahbad, Chennai and Bhubaneswar. Among these Pune was retained and the rest were removed. While Allahbad and Chennai have centrally funded IIIT and IIT and the later was given other goodies, Bhubaneswar, Orissa has neither. Moreover, Orissa does not have any centrally funded higher education institutions such as an IIT, IIM, IISc, central university, ISI, etc., beyond one of the 19 NITs. With Bihar and Rajasthan, Orissa is at the bottom of the list with respect to higher education funding. (See details at http://equitableindia.org.) The SAC-PM chair is reported to have said that Orissa is among the two states that sends the most number of students to science research institutes. But all that does not matter. It seems what matters is that Orissa did not vote for the UPA. So it deserves to be punished by this government, and even an institute (NIS/IISER) which was announced by a former HRD minister and the current president himself (please see the links at http://iiser.blogspot.com/) and whose 45 page DPR dated May 2004 (when UPA govt was voted in) is still in the UGC website can be ignored ahead of other locations with UPA muscle.

Thus many of us in Orissa are now saying: God save the country and God save Orissa from such exploiters who put on a mask of simplicity to get good press but are rude when no press is looking; as the PM was to the Orissa MPs when he said "Money does not grow in trees". But Dr. Singh, it grows in trees when it is for Punjab or West Bengal! Dr. Singh talks about equality and equity and serving all people, but when the time comes, together with the FM and UPA allies shamelessly takes away bulk of the new HRD initiatives and punishes states like Orissa. Lest someone wants to mention the proposed new AIIMS in backward states, the expenditure budget of 2006-2007 (item 26 of sbe 46) shows that the original budget for the AIIMS in 2005-06 was 250 crores, which was revised downwards to 6 crores and the budget for 2006-07 is 75 crores.

It is shocking that the PM and FM have to be told that the Indian budget is the money for all of India, not their fief. It should be spent across India and in case of higher education it should be not only spread across India but aimed at correcting existing regional imbalances instead of making it worse, as the 2006-07 budget does.

Under these circumstances, the divestment of NALCO can only be seen as taking money from Orissa (as a big part of NALCO's profit is due to the low rate it pays to Orissa with respect to the minerals it consumes and the pollution it makes) to the center and perhaps earmarking it to UPA allied states for next year.

Now if the Prime minister and the cabinet were to shed their arrogance and correct their mistakes starting with announcing that the earlier announced NIS/IISER will indeed be immediately established in Orissa, correcting regional imbalances by creating new IITs or IIT cousins in states without them (Note: Even the so called fair process used by the new IIT committee ignored the NITs. So now 4 of the 5 institutes selected are ranked worse than many NITs, including NIT Rourkela in Orissa. See http://newiits.blogspot.com/), opening central universities in backward district clusters across India and promising that the money generated by divesting 10% of NALCO will be spent in building Orissa's long neglected infrastructure then I would be fully supportive of the proposed divestment. But as it stands, I have no faith in the PM or FM, as their actions so far tells me that they are going to again exploit Orissa.

==================================================

Following is the original article that I sent on June 27th 2006.

==================================================

Why I support privatisation but oppose NALCO divestment by the UPA government

I had very high hopes from a government run by Dr. Manmohan Singh
and Mr. Chidambaram. However, so far they both have proved that
degrees from Oxford and Harvard does not necessarily make a person
good, fair or a statesman.

Its shocking, and outrageous that this year the bulk of the new
budget of the HRD ministry has been allocated to states such as
Punjab (where the prime minister spent his youth; through an IISER
and 100 crores to Punjab Agricultural University ), Tamil Nadu
(where the Finance minister comes from; 50 crores to Univ of Madras
and more), West Bengal (the state whose MPs have the UPA government
on choke hold but yet profess their love for equality; IISER in
Kolkata; 50 crores for University of Calcutta), etc. Please see the
details in http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1

God save the country and God save Orissa from such exploiters who
put on a mask of simplicity to get good press (but are rude when no
press is looking; as the PM was to the Orissa MPs when he said
"Money does not grow in trees"; but it grows in trees when it is for
Punjab or West Bengal) who talk equality and equity and serving all
people, but when the time comes shamelessly hijack bulk of the
budget to their own state or to their allies and punish the other
states. Have not the PM and FM, and now the health minister who
wants one of the health institute in his own state, heard of MPLAD.
If Punjab or Tamil Nadu needs something special, why don't they use
their MPLAD? The Indian budget is the money for all of India, not
the fief of the FM, PM or the CPI-M. (The only fair person in the
cabinet seems to be Mr.Lalu Yadav, who although put a bit more
Railway money on Bihar; spread the rest nicely and fairly all around
the country.)

Under these circumstances, the divestment of NALCO can be seen only
as taking money from Orissa (as a big part of NALCO's profit is due
to the low rate it pays to Orissa with respect to the minerals it
consumes and the pollution it makes) to the center and perhaps
earmarking it to Punjab/TamilNadu/WestBengal /etc. for next year.

Now if the Prime minister and the cabinet were to correct their
mistakes and announce that the earlier announced NIS/IISER will
indeed be established in Orissa; make other amendments such as
upgrading NIT Rourkela to one of the IIT-cousins (as 4 of the five
that are selected for upgradation are ranked below NIT Rourkela; see
http://newiits.blogspot.com/), opening central universities in KBK,
etc. and promise that the money generated by divesting 10%
of NALCO will be spent in building Orissa's long neglected
infrastructure then I would be fuly supportive of the divestment.
But as it stands, I have no faith in the PM, FM or the Indian
Cabinet, as their actions so far tells me that they are going to
again exploit Orissa by taking this money and investing it in the
states they come from or have ties to.

Thus I am supportive of Orissa resisting this divestment until a
central govt that is fair to Orissa is in power or until the current
govt proves its fairness towards Orissa through its actions (not
just words). I am proud that this time, all parties in Orissa
(Congress, BJP, BJD, etc.) have seen through the evil eyes of the
center and are collectively resisting it.

So Mr. PM, FM and the central cabinet, first prove that you are fair
to Orissa, and only then we will believe you that you are going to
use the disvestment money fairly and not just hijack it to your own
constituency.

sincerely

Chitta Baral (ps -- Anyone who would like to argue that
the UPA govt has done this and that, please look at
http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1 and tell me what you think
how the HRD higher education allocation were made and how fair it
is. Or do you think Orissans don't need higher education; they are
fine as coolies, and the central govt has been generous to give them
work for 100 days a year under NREGS.)

Good news or just some announcements to pacify Oriyas temporarily?

2006-06-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this is for real!! But once bitten twice shy. It would have been more reassuring if the announcement came from the PM himself and from Delhi; not from Bhubaneswar.

Anyway the article says "official release". Which official does it refer to. Govt of India? Govt of Orissa? Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu's official release?

I hope it is not nitpicking, but since I have lost all faith in PM Dr. Singh, what does it mean he has assuered. When will the NIS/IISER be established? If classes will start in Kolkata and Pune IISER in July 2006, and the PM has already made an announcement for an IISER in Punjab, why does not he come out and announce the establishment of an IISER/NIS in Bhubaneswar? Why just an assurance? What is the value of an assurance, when the PM does not say that he gave the assurance, but Mr. Sahu says that he got an assurance.

Chitta
===============================================
NIS to be set up in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, July 1. (PTI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured that a National Institute of Science (NIS) would be set up here, an official release said on Friday.

Singh gave the assurance to Union Minister of State for Labour Chandrasekhar Sahu at a recent meeting, it said.

Sahu, who met the Prime Minister in New Delhi over some pending major issues related to Orissa, had apprised him that the UGC had announced in 2003 to set up four regional centres of integrated science at Bhubaneswar, Pune, Allahabad and Chennai.

For this purpose, Sahu said, 75 acres had been identified at Gothapatna in Bhubaneswar. However, the Centre had shelved the proposal on the ground that the UGC was not competent to set up such institutes under the Act.

The Centre had decided to establish two National Institutes of Science for research at Kolkata and Pune under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, he said and urged Singh to either revive the UGC proposal to set up the NIS at Bhubaneswar or implement the same under the HRD Ministry, it said.

The Prime Minister, the release said, had responded positively to the suggestion.

... anti-Centre mood in Orissa

2006-06-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Nalco offload move adds to anti-Centre mood in Orissa

DILIP BISOI

Posted online: Monday, June 26, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

BHUBANESWAR: Centre-bashing has become a pastime for politicians in
Orissa. And, the Centre, too, seems to be handing it to them on a
platter, what with its continued neglect of the state.

Last week, the political atmosphere in Orissa heated up even more
when Union coal minister Shibu Soren hinted that royalty revision
was not coming forth immediately, even though it had been delayed by
almost a year.

To add to this, tempers flew high when the Union mines ministry approved the proposal for 10% disinvestment in Nalco. As such, the people of Orissa have been feeling betrayed because of the shifting of the National Institute of Science (NIS) to another state, and the proposed All India Institute of Medical Science not taking shape. They are also not happy with the Centre for the delay in setting up the much-hyped Paradip Oil Refinery.

Interestingly, Orissa witnessed a series of protests and demonstrations on the issue of the Centre’s neglect. State chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, took Mr Soren head-on over the issue of coal royalty revision. “We have raised the issue with the Centre several times”, he said. In fact, coal royalty on selected grades have increased 132 times between 1971 and 2002 but in case of power grade coal (E&F), mostly available in Orissa, the hike was 38 times during this period. That is the reason why Orissa has been losing about Rs 100 crore every year. According to one estimate, the highest royalty rate was just 11.76% over the lowest royalty rate in 1971. At present, it is over 300%.

Even before the wordy-duel between Mr Soren and Mr Patnaik could die
down, the din over Nalco disinvestment started. The state was quick
to disapprove the Centre’s move.

“Nalco is making a huge profit and if the Union mines ministry is so
keen on its expansion, this can be funded from out of its profit,”
Mr Patnaik argued. The state government has found an ally in
Communist Party of India general secretary, AB Bardhan.

BJP activists, too, demonstrated in front of Nalco’s corporate
office here, burning effigies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and
Prime minister Manmohan Singh. The tone for this was set by BJP
national leader, Sushma Swaraj’s recent visit to the state, when she
raked up the issue of AIIMS.

Union labour minister Chandra Skekhar Sahu, too, had to face a
hostile media as he failed to convince them on the issue of the
Paradip Oil Refinery project and the NIS.

PM Manmohan Singh visiting Orissa soon?

2006-06-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

This article says that PM Singh is visiting Vidarbha at the end of this month
and Bihar and Orissa are next in his list. Lets hope minister
Chandrasekhar Sahu has the correct information and PM Singh will
announce an IISER in Orissa during this upcoming visit.

Chitta

===============================================================================

Friday, June 16, 2006

Manmohan touring villages to assess whether growing rural poverty is linked to liberalisation

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The Indian Planning Commission's alarm bells over increasing poverty and growing urban-rural divide has made "Dr Liberalization" in Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sit up to examine if it was linked to the liberalization he set rolling in the early Nineties as the then finance minister.

Though Left parties have been finding a link between liberalization and poverty, but the prime minister had been always dismissive of their criticism. But, the rude shock for Dr Singh was when his own liberalization commander-in-arms Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, suggested an urgent reorientation of the liberalization policy to protect the rural poor.

Dr Ahluwalia's recommendation has come in the Planning Commission's draft approach paper on the upcoming 11th Five-Year Plan that stresses that "there is a point beyond which the urban sector cannot grow without being complimented by the rural sector" and hence the urgency to launch an aggressive economic campaign targeting the rural poor.

The paper's pointer is that a plethora of rural programmes launched by the government are not doing the magic of transforming life of the poor as it is rather becoming worse and worse. And so Dr Manmohan Singh has decided to himself travel to villages from this month-end to personally assess what ails the government's policies.

He descends on Nagpur on June 30 and will be extensively travelling to rural areas in Nagpur and other surrounding districts of the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra for three days to study why the rural employment guarantee scheme, Bharat Nirman, rural healthcare mission and other programmes are not yielding the expected results.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said he chose Vidarbha to be his first destination since it has recorded the highest number of 540 farmer suicides in the last one year. He will be interacting with farmers to understand their problems to enable him to prescribe short-term and long-term remedies for the root cause of the suicides.

The prime minister's next destinations are Bihar and Orissa, other two poverty-stricken states. Both the states are ruled by opposition parties, but that did not deter him from inclusion in his travel plans for on -the-spot assessment and review of all rural programmes.

Notwithstanding the Congress convening a conference of its District Congress Commitee (DCC) presidents here last month to actively involve partymen in the government programmes, orders have gone out to ensure minimum political personalities are included in his trips to villages as he wants to devote his maximum time in interacting with the officials actually implementing various programmes as then only can he know why they are not reducing poverty.

The sources said Dr Manmohan Singh also wants to make his Vidarbha trip a learning mission as he wants to pick up something to implement from Mahatma Gandhi's Sevagram and Vinoba Bhave's Paunar Ashram. He shall be staying overnight in one of the two places to have better interaction with residents.

The 11th Plan's draft approach paper envisages the growth rate of 8.5 to 9.5 percent and recommends drastic changes in the priorities fixed in the previous plans, with a promise that the new regime would ensure the average Indian's "real income" doubling in 10 years. It envisages maximum benefit to the deprived people.

The 10th Plan's targeted growth rate was eight percent, but the Planning Commission officials now admit that it may be around seven percent overall in five years.

Indian Express on the IISER in Punjab

2006-06-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

What happened to the announcement that PM was supposed to make
regarding Bhubaneswar??

Chitta

===============================================
After Kolkata & Pune, PM pushes for 3rd science institute in Punjab

Shubhajit Roy Posted online: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 0000 hr

NEW DELHI, JUNE 12:In a significant step forward towards building
education infrastructure—in the wake of the quota controversy—the
Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry has got a green signal to
set up a new Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research
(IISER) in Punjab.

Sources told The Indian Express that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
is key to this move—two IISERs are already in the making in Kolkata
and Pune.

“The PM has been very keen to have this institute ready by the next
academic session so the approvals are coming faster than usual,’’ a
source in the HRD ministry confirmed.

The approval from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR), asked to examine the feasibility of the project, came about
a fortnight ago, sources said. CSIR’s head of Research and
Development (R&D) and Planning, Naresh Kumar has informed the HRD
ministry that it was ‘‘feasible to set up an IISER in Punjab at the
cost of Rs 500 crores.’’ The state government has been asked to
identify 100 acres. It will have about 2,000 students and 200
faculty. Like the other two IISERs, it will also offer Bachelor’s,
Master’s and PhD programmes in science research, the students
selected via the IIT entrance. The proposal will go to the Oversight
Committee which is working out a roadmap for upgrade in the higher
education sector, in order to offset the impact of 27 pc OBC quotas.

shubhajit.roy@expressindia.com

Indian Express also says that TIFR gets the best applications (on science) from Bengal and Orissa.

2006-06-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

See the red highlighted sentence below. If it is true that the best
applications at TIFR come from Bengal and Orissa, that is one more reason why an IISER should be established in Orissa; and if even if one is established in W. Bengal.

Chitta

================================================
Why Arjun needs to drop by TIFR before he imposes quotas

At frontier
research institute, seat hike no solution: ‘bigger crisis’ is
finding outstanding students and retaining the high talent

MUMBAI, JUNE 7:If HRD Minister Arjun Singh pays his first visit to
the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)—a deemed
university and a national centre for frontier research in nuclear
science and mathematics—he will learn why the proposed quotas with a
mandatory seat hike may not work on this Mumbai campus that
struggles to find quality students despite scouting via a nationwide
entrance test at the BSc-level.

In this autonomous institute funded by the Department of Atomic
Energy, the nation’s future top scientists gain entry based on their
knowledge of basic sciences—not college grades, reservations, or an
arbitrary seat strength.

‘‘We don’t know how quotas will be implemented,’’ says G
Krishnamoorthy, Dean of Graduate Studies. ‘‘So far, our research
does not depend on grades or quotas or a notional number of seats.
Why people are not coming to science is a much bigger crisis for
scientific institutions than reservations, and it needs to be
addressed. Students from the deep south have almost vanished from
science, they go to IITs.’’

The concern here—also faced by top science institutes nationwide—is
not the number of seats, but finding, as TIFR advertises,
‘‘exceptionally talented, strongly motivated’’ students despite a
competitive, merit-based selection system extended up to Siliguri,
West Bengal, last year. Candidates are encouraged to walk-in for the
test without prior notice.

‘‘Every year, we find it more and more difficult to get a fairly
acceptable number of good quality students. We’re worried, it’s
hurting our experimental programmes,’’ says Krishnamoorthy, who’s
coordinating selections for 2006.

This year, about 60 PhD-level candidates were selected from 6,105
applicants, but the Institute ‘‘hopes’’ at least 30-35 accept and
join. On an average, only ‘‘50-60 per cent of students selected’’
turn up to join the programmes, with others preferring the IITs or
more lucrative options.

For admissions here, the number of seats is almost a non-issue.

Last year, for example, 13 PhD candidates students were selected for
mathematics but 10 joined. This year, four were selected for
mathematics. In biology, 10 joined last year, up from two in 2002.
During one year, five were selected for chemistry but none joined.

Director S Bhattacharya told The Indian Express that the institute
has not received any information from the government about the
proposed legislation. ‘‘We’ll be happy to be part of any
decision-making process,’’ says Bhattacharya. ‘‘My hope is that the
legislators in their wisdom devise a plan that won’t affect us
negatively and will ensure our activities remain of high quality.’’

About 400-600 of the test applicants are called for hour-long
interviews during February to May. Last year was a ‘‘better’’ year
with 49 joining, from 85 who were selected.

‘‘It’s a high-pressure environment. Regularly, students in
specialisations like mathematics are asked to leave mid-way if they
cannot cope,’’ says a senior faculty member.

Soon, they’ll start preparing for 2007 selections.

‘‘We can’t think of a substantial increase in numbers,’’ says a
senior faculty. ‘‘Faculty is getting old. The absence of young minds
can be detrimental to science. Even in computer science, quality
students are not joining.’’

Best applications are coming from a ‘‘catchment area’’ of
science—Bengal and Orissa. ‘‘We test knowledge of basic sciences and
understanding of scientific principles,’’ says Krishnamoorthy. ‘‘We
need people with a clear aptitude to seek further knowledge. Some
years ago we stopped selecting based on grades because they vary as
per regions.’’

India’s top scientists work at TIFR’s School of Mathematics, School
of Natural Sciences, School of Technology and Computer Science. C N
R Rao, the Prime Minister’s chief scientific advisor, is on TIFR’s
council of management, along with scientists like Atomic Energy
Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.

Rao recently told this paper: “A difficult situation has been
precipitated without a proper discussion with people who know about
education’’. Some TIFR’s PhD students had joined anti-quota protests
in Mumbai, but the faculty says it’s going to ‘‘wait and watch.’’

TIFR’s 2006 PhD candidates

• 6,105 attempt written test
• 30 selected in physics
• 6 selected in chemistry
• 5 selected in computer science
• 4 selected in mathematics
• 13 selected in biology

reshma.patil@expressindia.com

State wise HRD spending analysis and NIS issue reported in KHOLA BICHARA of DHARTRI

2006-05-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.dharitri.com/300506/story29.asp

[1];
[2];
[3];
[4];
[5];
[6];
[7];
[8]

IIT in all states??

2006-05-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

We need more engineers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2006 12:22:46 AM]

It’s time India built more, many more, IITs. Seven IITs for an economy that intends to sustain its current annual growth rate of 8%, and even improve on it, is dismally meagre.

The government should immediately draw up a comprehensive national project to build at least one IIT in each of India’s 28 states and six union territories. It could, for one, give the indomitable E Sreedharan of the Konkan Railways and now Delhi Metro fame, overall charge of the project. That would put it in mission mode.

There’s, of course, the little matter of financial resources. Setting up an IIT would require upwards of Rs 2,000 crore. The government should evolve ingenious programmes of public-private partnership, and the required political consensus, to accomplish such an ambitious project. India produces 200 technology specialists for every one million of its population each year as opposed to the US, which produces 750. India has already cornered a large slice of the services pie outsourced by the developed world. It must repeat that feat in manufacturing. More IITs and quality engineering colleges would help the nation accomplish that.

Speed cannot be a euphemism for haste, though. The HRD ministry has reportedly been trying to push through the first batch of students for the two premier Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Kolkata and Pune by July 2006. The two IISERs will, for the time being, be run out of makeshift campuses, and on borrowed faculty. Such alacrity is counterproductive.

Rapid expansion of higher and technical education must be accompanied with pedagogic and curricular reform. IITs, today, are factories churning out engineering graduates. Their distinguished masters and research programmes are in a shambles.

That is unfortunate. Engineers deliver more efficient and humane solutions when they can account for an ensemble of technical, economic and social concerns. Post-graduate, and doctoral programmes in basic and human sciences were instituted in IITs to foster precisely such an interdisciplinary approach. Consolidation of that paradigm must be integral to setting up new IITs.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1592978.cms

2 science institutes, one IIM: Wrapped in red tape, plan kept in deep freeze

2006-05-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

2 science institutes, one IIM: Wrapped in red tape, plan kept in deep freeze
Shubhajit RoyPosted online: Monday, May 29, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print EmailHRD Delay: Kolkata and Pune premier institutes plan to start from temporary premises, with borrowed faculty

NEW DELHI, MAY 28:While HRD Minister Arjun Singh works on his Cabinet note on how to increase seats and upgrade infrastructure in premier educational institutions as per the Government’s OBC quota formula, chances are the note may skip his Ministry’s dismal record on this task.

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Two premier institutes of science education, announced in March last year, are at least three years away. And eight months after it was decided that there will be a new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Shillong, the project is yet to be cleared by the Finance Ministry.

This assumes significance given that seat increase is being used as a sweetener to the bitter quota pill despite a chorus of criticism on the “crude” manner in which the decision has been taken. C N R Rao, the PM’s chief scientific advisor, told The Indian Express this week how he had not even been consulted before the “stupendous” decision was taken.

Ironically, it was Rao who headed the panel that in March 2005 decided to set up two Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), in Kolkata and Pune, at the cost of Rs 500 crore each.

The goal is ambitious: two high-quality research institutions exclusively offering Bachelor’s and Master’s programme in sciences to attract the best of 10+2 talent. And direct PhD programmes in frontier areas of science research. Student strength: 2,000 over the next five years, with 200-strong faculty.

But consider the progress:

• Neither institute has a permanent campus nor permanent faculty.

• Despite this, the HRD Ministry is trying to push through the first batch from this July in “makeshift and temporary locations”.

• In Kolkata, for example, classes for the first batch of 70-odd students, selected via the IIT entrance exam, will be held in the Kolkata campus of IIT Kharagpur.

• With no hostel ready, students will stay in nearby campus of National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR) at Salt Lake.

• “We have just started the process of acquiring land (200 acres) in Kalyani (a Kolkata suburb), and hope to complete the modalities soon,” said IIT (Kharagpur) director Shishir K Dube, who is the project-director for setting up IISER (Kolkata).

• Its counterpart in Pune, too, is in a hurry to start the first batch in August at the “temporary location” in National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune. “About 100 acres, adjacent to the NCL, have been acquired recently. But no work on the construction of the campus has started yet,” sources said.

• Classes for the first Pune batch will initially start in a two-storied building at NCL’s Innovation Park. “Construction of new buildings will take nearly three years to complete,” sources said. NCL (Pune) director Dr S Sivaram, who is the project director for IISER (Pune), was unavailable for comment.

• No permanent faculty have been hired yet. Said Dube: “We will get faculty members from various institutes in Kolkata, like the Jadavpur University, IIT (Kharagpur) and S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences to teach the students.” Pune, too, will draw faculty from NCL and local colleges.

So how long will it take? “Only after we acquire land in Kalyani, will we invite tenders and architects and then we will know whether it will take two or three years to construct the campus,” Dube said.

That’s not the only hurdle. The two institutes are to be formed by establishing a registered society which has to be followed by an Act of Parliament declaring them as “Institutes of National Importance.” Progress on drafting that law? No one in the Ministry is willing to hazard a guess.

For the IIM in Shillong, the news is worse. On June 15, 2004, Arjun Singh had called a meeting of North-Eastern states where it was decided to set up the seventh IIM in the region. A three-member panel, formed that November, comprised Secretary (Higher Education), Secretary (Development of North-Eastern Region) and Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) Director. It chose Shillong.

The Rs 100-crore project has not yet been cleared by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) of the Union Ministry and land is yet to be acquired although the Meghalaya government had identified the 100 acres. with Rituparna Bhuyan, Pune

BJD responds to Minister Sahu's comments (From Pioneer)

2006-05-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

Sahu invites BJD ire on Paradip

Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has denounced Union Minister of State for Labour Chandra Sekhar Sahu for trying to take the credit for setting up of an oil refinery at Paradip. During his recent visit here, Sahu had told reporters that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) would set up a petrochemical complex at Paradip at a cost of Rs 47, 000 crore and that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would inaugurate it soon.

Coming down heavily on the statement made by Sahu, the BJD, in a statement, said the oil refinery project was the joint effort of the BJD and the BJP. When the NDA Government was in power at the Centre, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had come and laid the project's foundation stone at Paradip. The Government also tried to complete the project by 2010. In the later stage, it was decided by IOC to add a petrochemical complex to the project.

A delegation, led by Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra along with BJD-BJP MPs, met Union Minister of Petroleum Murli Deora during the last Budget session. They had demanded an increase in the capacity of the project and expeditious construction of the project work. BJD general secretary Narendra Swain said when the BJD and BJP MPs made the demand, Sahu was nowhere in the scene. Even though the BJD-BJP delegation had invited the Congress MPs of Orissa to accompany them, they stayed away from it, he said. The Petroleum Minister had told the delegation that a decision would be taken in the IOC board meeting in April. After the board meeting, IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria had announced what the minister had promised.

The 330-km Paradip-Haldia oil pipeline will be completed very soon, but it will not benefit the State, about which Sahu is also not aware, said Swain. During the previous NDA regime, the decision for setting up a National Institute of Science was taken, for which land was identified. But the present UPA Government shifted it to Kolkota due to the pressure applied by the Leftists. The BJD and BJP MPs sat on a dharna before Parliament in protest and met the Prime Minister. At that time too, the Congress MPs did not react and stayed away. Now, Sahu is claiming that he had discussions with the Prime Minister on the issue, but would he tell the people of the State what the Prime Minister has promised, Swain asked.

While the BJD-BJP combine has been demanding for NIS, IIT, IIM and a Central University in Orissa, the Central Government has been denying the State its legitimate claims, which is a great humiliation for the State.

The demand for Special Category Status for the State has also been repeatedly turned down by the Centre. Besides, Coal Minister Shibu Shoren rejected the State's demand for increasing its coal royalty. The proposal for setting up an AIIMS taken up during the NDA Government tenure has become a dream now, Swain pointed out.

He said Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Panchayatiraj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer have praised the State Government for its performances, which has put the State Congress on a sticky wicket. But strangely, Sahu has stated that the BJD-BJP Government is unable to spend the Central funds. Sahu made the statement to spare the State Congress further embarrassment, remarked Swain.

However, Sahu has admitted that one lakh job cards were distributed in the Food-for-Work programme in the State. Sahu came to know the State Government's performance in this regard after touring nine districts.

This was in contrast to the PCC president Jayadev Jena's earlier allegation that not a singe job card was distributed. Surprisingly, there is no similarity in statements given by the two leaders of the same party, Swain pointed out.

He said the State has always been neglected during the Congress rule, about which the Congress leaders of the State have never opened their mouth.

Sahu has crticised the State Government for his own political benefit, Swain said, adding that the Union Minister should not indulge in cheap gimmicks and stay away from making such politically motivated statements.

New Indian Express on HRD ministry increasing inequity

2006-05-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

What did minister Chandrasekhar Sahu say and how reliable are his statements?

2006-05-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ref:
(1) http://pragativadi.com/260506/local1.htm

local copy at http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006-may27-pragativadi-nis.pdf

(2) http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060526/asp/jamshedpur/story_6271164.asp

========================================================
The Pragativadi report is as follows. But can we trust what Mr. Sahu says.
Is there any truth behind it or is it fiction to appease incensed Oriyas who are still fuming at the way UPA government has acted so far on the NIS/IISER issue? See the Telegraph article at the end to get an idea on why we do not take Mr. Sahu's words at face value.
As the saying goes, ``once bitten twice shy.''

So, if a positive decision on an IISER in Bhubaneswar has been made, we will wait until the PM says it. Based on the past history, we are not going to take Minister Sahu's words as reported.

Chitta
=================================================

Orissa to have an IIS soon: Sahu

Bhubaneswar:

Union minister of state for labour and employment
Chandrasekhar Sahu on Thursday announced that an Indian Institute of Science (IIS) would be
set up in Orissa in place of National Institute of Science (NIS).
Briefing newsmen at the Congress Bhawan here on the occasion of completion
of two-year of the UPA government at the Centre, he said that prime minister
Manmohan Singh would shortly make an announcement to this effect much to the
delight of the people of Orissa.

Sahu also said that the prime minister would also lay a foundation stone for
the proposed petroleum complex at Paradip soon.

The project envisages a massive investment of Rs 47,000 crore, he added.
Justifying the cancellation of the proposed NIS in the state, Sahu said that
the then NDA government had made mere announcements without backing it up
with firm proposals.

The NIS was proposed by the UGC and since it was not the competent
authority, the idea was rejected, he pointed out.

He also said that the regional centre of AIIMS, for which the then prime
minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee had laid a foundation stone amidst much
fanfare, was virtually non-existent in terms of Cabinet approval and
budgetary allocations.

Though a section of have been raking up sentiments over these issues by
giving impression that the UPA government had scrapped these projects, the
UPA government on the contrary, has formalised the regional centre, he
asserted.

=================================================
The following Telegraph article suggests that Mr. Sahu's words should not be taken at face value.

==================================================

Oil project to get new stone

Bhubaneswar, May 25: Minister of state for labour Chandrasekhar Sahu today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would re-lay the foundation stone for Indian Oil’s (IOC) Rs 47,000-crore mega project at Paradip, but not all were willing to fall for the announcement.

A senior IOC official from Delhi expressed doubt about the quantum of investment claimed by the minister as well as the re-laying part. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for the refinery-cum-petrochemicals project in July 2000.

“We had earlier planned to instal a 9-million-tonne fuel refinery. Later, considering the demand for fuels and petrochemical products, the capacity was jacked up (to 15,000 million tonnes). The oil board cleared the Rs 25,000-crore project just two months ago. I don’t see the project cost doubling so soon,” said the IOC official.

He also seemed unaware of the “decision” to re-lay the foundation stone. “No one is aware of such things,” the official held.

Addressing reporters here today, Sahu said he met Singh and petroleum minister Murli Deora recently to discuss the project. “I requested the Prime Minister to re-lay the stone. He agreed to my request and would decide on a date soon,” the minister claimed.

After the stone-laying in 2000, the project ran into rough weather as the Orissa government rejected IOC’s request for tax benefits. Later in 2004, however, the state changes its mind.

Besides the refinery, the project would also feature facilities for production of front-end petrochemicals and a pipeline to Ranchi.

Positive tone on NIS from Minister Sahu

2006-05-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Statesman on Minister Sahu's statement about NIS

2006-05-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

NDA slammed on NIS

BHUBANESWAR, May 25: Sentiments more than reason and facts run high when the issue of setting up a National Institute of Sciences or regional center of AIIMS in the state crops up.

And today, it was the turn of Union minister Mr Chandra Sekhar Sahu to be barraged with questions on these issues. The questions continued even after Mr Sahu had put the record straight ~ the NDA had made mere announcements without backing it up with firm proposals. The NIS was proposed by the UGC and since it was not the competent authority, the idea was rejected. The regional centre of AIIMS, for which the then Prime Minister Mr AB Vajpayee had laid a foundation stone amidst much fanfare, was virtually non-existent in terms of Cabinet approval and budgetary allocations. Yet a section of people have been trying to rake up sentiments over these issues and send a message as though the UPA government had scrapped these projects.

On the contrary, the UPA government has formalised the regional centre, stated Mr Sahu. He pointed out that MPs cutting across party lines had appealed to the PM for the NIS in Orissa. Mr Sahu also noted that Mr Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone for a oil refinery at Paradip which was pushed to the back burner during the NDA regime. The UPA has not only taken it up but has decided to expand it to a petroleum complex envisaging a massive investment of Rs 47,000 crore he added. nSNS

===============================================

Chitta's comments: Mr. Sahu should read the document
http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf

If what is reported above is correct, then he does not understand the
history of how NIS was hijacked. If so, shame on him.

C. N. R. Rao mentioing that best science students used to come from Orissa and West Bengal

2006-05-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

'India's contribution to science dropping'

Search for More News

Karaikudi (TN), May 19: India's contribution to the world in the field of science is dropping rapidly and it is now just 0.5 per cent compared to 1.5 per cent in 2003, Prof C N R Rao, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory council to the Prime Minister, said here today.

India was far behind the US which contributed 50 per cent and China which accounted for 8.7 per cent, Rao said, delivering the First "Faraday Lecture" on "Science for our future: Personal reflections on five decades of Research", organised by the Central Electro chemical Research Institute.

India's contribution to high-quality research was one per cent two years ago, compared to 65 per cent from USA, and 25 per cent from Europe. Now it was just .5 per cent along with Brazil, said Rao, also President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.

Even China's contribution to high quality research was just .5 per cent two years ago. But they had caught up and they contribute two per cent. China's contribution to Physics had doubled, now it was almost equal to Japan, he said.

Even in the field of Nano Technology, in which India made some pioneering theoretical research when some people ridiculed the term "Nano", China's contribution was 50 per cent compared to one to five per cent from India.

Last year China contributed 500 research papers of which 140 were published by the Physical Science society, but India contributed only 90 papers though 60 were published, he said.

Rao regretted that the number of people taking science research was dwindling, as the field was not lucrative nor was there moral and spiritual support for the science community.

Bright people from the South, who were once interested in science, were going after Information Technology and helped foreign companies earn money. "People work for minimum degree to earn maximum money, this is not a healthy trend."

He was concerned that the 'IT industry virus', which destroyed the basic interest in science and diverted the student's interest towards materialistic things, was spreading to states like West Bengal and Orissa from where best science students were coming up.

Warning India would not have a future if she did not contribute more to science, he said several world science bodies were closely monitoring the neglect of science by India.

"Our candidates are not even nominated for best research papers awards by international bio-science forum. If our contribution is so low, how do we get into world science bodies?," Rao asked.

Rao said China had understood that only by doing more research in Pure science, they could make more inventions.

China is investing USD 500 million compared to India, which invested only Rs 30 crore. "We need to invest more. Even the best IIT in India is not comparable to the worst institute in Israel," he said.

"No investment in science means no new technology from India, and if the other companies like General Electrical are doing research in India, only America would be benefited. Saying no to science means saying no to the future of India," he said. (Agencies)

Central Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu's answer on IISER in Bhubaneswar

2006-05-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Bhubaneswar, May 25 (UNI) A Petrochemical Complex with an estimated investment of Rs 47,000 crore will be set up at Paradip in Orissa, Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Chandra Sekhar Sahu said here today.

Mr Sahu told mediapersons here that the Centre in principle has agreed to set up the project involving the Indian Oil Corporation and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would lay the foundation stone.

Asked about the Paradip Oil Refinery project whose foundation was laid by the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee at Paradip, the Union Labour and Employment Minister said the UPA government would come out with a revised project in a big way at Paradip.

Mr Sahu said he had requested the Prime Minister to come to Orissa and lay the foundation stone of the project which would fulfill the aspiration of the people of the state.

To a question, the Union Minister said the controversy over the setting up of Indian Institute of Science(IIS) in Bhubaneswar would be put to rest as the Prime Minister and the HRD Minister had given positive indication to his representation.

An op-ed piece in Sambada (in Oriya) by Sudarshan Das: Rs 4.07 for Odiyas

2006-05-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

The above appeared on May 18th 2006 in Sambada.

Centre to create more IIT-like institutes - Deccan Herald

2006-05-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

We sincerely hope that the central government takes this opportunity to spread the new IITs in states that do not have IIT/IISER/IISc. etc. rather than using it as a means to reward UPA ruled states and punish non-UPA ruled states, as it did with respect to the IISER/NISs.

Chitta

=============================================================================

Deccan Herald » National » Detailed Story

Centre to create more IIT-like institutes

DH News Service New Delhi:

This was indicated by Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday at a function here to celebrate Technology Day, which commemorates the 1998 Pokhran tests.

To meet the burgeoning demands for human resources in the global market, the Centre plans to create more world-class institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology, in the 11th plan that will begin in 2007.

This was indicated by Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday at a function here to celebrate Technology Day, which commemorates the 1998 Pokhran tests.

“Many more IITs should be created to expand our capacity for creating skilled people. We are paying a lot of attention to have new IITs, in the 11th plan,” Dr Ahluwalia said, adding that the Centre would prefer to create new institutes rather than rename or upgrade the existing institutes.

He said that as many as 98 per cent of the country’s children enroll in primary schools, but typically, half of them drop out before completing the primary school programme. The same cycle of enrollments and dropouts continues in the school and at the higher secondary level.

As a result, only eight per cent out of the original 98 per cent emerges for higher education, Dr Ahluwalia said, adding that the Centre was striving to get at least 20 per cent of the country’s school-going children to pursue higher education.

Chairman of the Prime Minister’s National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda said the commission too supports the idea of increasing the numbers of schools and colleges in the country. He added that the involvement of the private sector in education should also be increased, but this should be done without compromising on quality, as in the Chhattisgarh experience, where private educational institutes had mushroomed without caring much for quality.

Mr Pitroda expressed concern over the quality of education in most schools and colleges. Highlighting the knowledge industry’s complaint that a large number of graduates are unemployable, he said that out of 90,000 MBAs who graduate every year, only 5,000 to 10,000 are immediately employable. Investment

“The chairman of Larsen and Toubro has complained that he could not get quality electricians,” Mr Pitroda said, emphasising that more investment was required in the field of education, research and manufacturing, as in the case of China.

The Planning Commission has set up an expert group under commission member Nitin Desai, to find out if venture capital funds could be encouraged for investments in research.

The Technology Development Board, which currently gives loans to technological companies, could also play the role of a venture capitalist to carry out risk financing, Dr Ahluwalia added.

The Technology Day award was given to the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, as well as to Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) for developing a recombinant human growth factor. Two small-scale units in Hyderabad and Chennai also received awards.

Four new technologies, including a herbal drug on allergic rhinitis, developed by the Bangalore-based Natural Remedies, were released by Union Science Minister Kapil Sibal.

Finally the planning commission is on the right track

2006-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

At last the planning commission is on the right track. But it must make sure that the new IITs and IISERs are distributed across the country and not just gifted to the states aligned with the government of the day. For the last two years the planning commission has disgraced itself by rubber stamping locations for new IISERs based on political considerations. Its high time for it to redeem itself.

Chitta

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownewsdata.asp?newsno=31841

(Thanks to Rabi Mohapatra for pointing to this.)

NEW DELHI: With a view to maintain the flow of skilled workforce, Planning Commission today recommended setting up of more IITs and increasing investment in technology and research.

Given the global scenario of changing economics and technological upgrades, "we have to sustain the supply of skilled manpower. Government should focus on creating many more IITs. Maybe we need at least three times more than what we have now. Simply upgrading the existing ones won't do," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

Ahluwalia said the country has to rapidly expand capacity to train skilled workforce and build upon the capability for technological development.

Pointing at the high drop out rates in primary schools, he said nearly 50 percent children drop out and only eight percent move on for higher and technical education.

"For India to be a global leader the percentage has to go up from eight percent to 20 percent," he said.

Knowledge Commission's suggestion for more top notch institutions (IITs) and private IITs is a good solution

2006-05-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

The suggestion of the national knowledge commission to have 70 IITs is in the right direction. If a little bit of attention is paid so that these IITs are distributed across the country, then that would address the injustice that is focus of this blog, and will also take India to the next stage. China is trying to have 50 world class universities. There is no reason India should be stuck with 7 IITs and one IISc, and all of them well behind the top universities in the world.

Chitta

From: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1695723,001302220000.htm

The Knowledge Commission on Thursday said it will study the entire issue of reservation in education institutions holistically to decide whether the present system of providing access to education through quotas should continue or there was a need for a better system of affirmative action.

"Knowledge society must be inclusive. In the past we had quotas to implement it but in the 21st century we need to look at different ways to implement it. We will analyse what has been the outcome of reservation in the past and where we are as a result of it," Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda said.

The majority of the commission members, at their meeting in Bangalore, had opposed increase in reservation in central education institutions as proposed by Human Resource Ministry.

They had said that it was an historic opportunity to craft more effective policies to make education institutions more inclusive.

On Wednesday, the commission members met Prime Minister and conveyed to him their views on reservation.

Pitroda said key to the issue of providing access to higher education would be expansion of universities and colleges.

"At present, just seven to eight per cent of our population under the age of 25 get to go to college. We need to increase it manifold to make India a knowledge society. Why cannot we have 70 IITs instead of just seven. The alumni of IITs can build 10 IITs. It is possible," he said.

Are PM Dr. Manmohan Singh and FM P. Chidambaram also part of the budget grabbing going on in the HRD ministry? You be the judge.

2006-04-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Are Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Finance minister P. Chidambaram also part of the budget grabbing going on in the HRD ministry? You be the judge!

Favouritisms in the 2006-2007 Indian budget

Goodies for allied states or states where the finance minister or the prime minister comes from, while states not allied with the central government are neglected and punished.

Lowlights of favouritism in the 2006-07 budget:

IISERs in Pune, Kolkata and Punjab (states ruled by the UPA allies)
Paddy processing research center in Tamil Nadu (The Finance minister's home state)
Central university designation to renamed Port management of Chennai. (In the Finance minister's home state)
50 crore + 50 crore later each to University of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. (Mumbai and Kolkata are in states ruled by the UPA allies; Chennai is in the finance minister's home state.)
100 crores to Punjab Agricultural University. (A UPA ruled state. The PM grew up in Punjab.)
Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar, Assam. (This is part of a deal made in 2003 with the Bodo Tribal Council. However, the Prime minister is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam. Couldn't he also establish similar institutes in other troubled spots in India, such as in KBK.)

In our analysis of the 2005-2006 budget we showed that while the central government of India spent (in 2005-06) Rs 4.07 on higher education institutions (HRD-NH or HRD National highways) per person in Orissa, it spent Rs 177.12 in Delhi, Rs 28.10 in West Bengal, Rs 25.12 in Karnataka, Rs 17.79 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 17.09 in Maharastra, Rs 17.08 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 13.38 in Punjab, Rs 8.52 in Haryana, Rs 7.9 in Kerala, Rs 7.2 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

Comparing in another way, the Government of India's spending per person with respect to HRD-NHs, in comparison to Orissa, is 43.52 times in Delhi, 6.9 times in West Bengal, 6.17 times in Karnataka, 4.37 times in Tamil Nadu, 4.2 times in UP, 4.2 times in Maharashtra, 3.94 times in AP, 3.29 times in Punjab, 2.09 times in Haryana, 1.94
times in Kerala, 1.77 times in MP, and 1.2 times in Gujarat.

We wrote to various people including the prime minister, Smt. Sonia Gandhi and the planning commission about it. But the 2006-07 budget with respect to the HRD-NH instead of addressing the inequity has made the inequity worse. Moreover, it shows the current government has made new allocations to states whose government is allied with them, states where the finance minister is from (Tamil Nadu) or the PM is elected from (Assam). This could be a coincidence; but it really puts a question mark on what kind of democracy India is. It begs questions such as: Do India's prime minister and finance minister see themselves as serving the country (all parts of it) or as fiefs who can allocate resources to the states they come from or their allies come from? We will enumerate the places new HRD investments have been allocated in the 2006 budget or have been announced and you be the judge.

1. Three new Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) are proposed in Pune, Kolkata, and near Chandigarh in Punjab. These are all in states that are ruled by parties allied to the central government. IISER Pune and Kolkata have a budget of 50 crores now and IISER Punjab will have a similar budget. (IISERs are basically renamed National institute of Sciences that the earlier government proposed to have in Bhubaneswar, Pune, Allahbad and Chennai. Bhubaneswar is in Orissa, which does not have any premier higher education institution, and is currently ruled by the opposition NDA. Allahbad has an IIIT, and Chennai has an IIT.)

2. Paddy Processing Research Centre at Thanjavur will be developed into a national-level institute. (Thanjavur is in Tamil Nadu, the Finance minister's home state.)

3. The existing National Institute of Port Management, Chennai, has been renamed as the National Maritime Academy, and it is proposed to upgrade it into a Central University under an Act of Parliament. The University will have regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata and
Visakhapatnam. (Chennai is in the finance minister's home state. Mumbai, Kolkata and Vijag are all in states ruled by parties allied to the central government.)

4. 50 crores each now and 50 crores at the end of the year to University of Calcutta, the University of Mumbai and the University of Madras. (The first two are in states allied to the central government and the third is the state from where the finance minister hails.)

5. Rs.100 crore for an institution of excellence to a distinguished institution, the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. (Punjab government is allied to the central government. The Prime minister grew up in Punjab.)

6. Accord the status of an autonomous National Institute to the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala. (Kerala has a Congress government, and is up for election.)

7. Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar, Assam. (Has a
congress government, up for election, and the prime minister's Rajya Sabha constituency. (However, this is part of a deal made in 2003 with the Bodo Tribal Council. Couldn't the government also establish similar institutes in other troubled spots in India, such as in KBK.)

Besides the above, two other proposals are made which do not have the above mentioned ties.

A. A Central Institute of Horticulture will be established in
Nagaland. (It is ruled by an NDA allied party.)

B. During 2006-07, Ministry of Tourism will establish 4 new
institutes of hotel management in the States of Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal. (These are technical institutes rather than higher educational institutes, and have a much smaller budget.)

Based on the above and other details buried in the 2006-2007 budget: while the central government is scheduled to spend Rs 4.07 on HRD-NH (HRD ministry funded higher education institutions plus instituitions of national importance) per person in Orissa, it will spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal (up from Rs 28.1), Rs 33.4 in Karnataka (up from 25.125), Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu (up from Rs 17.79), Rs 28.38 in Maharastra (up from 17.1), Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

In other words the Government of India's spending (in 2006-07) per person with respect to HRD-NHs, in comparison to Orissa, is 44.95 times in Delhi, 10.11 times in West Bengal (up from 6.9), 8.20 times in Karnataka (up from 6.17), 6.63 times in Tamil Nadu (up from 4.37), 4.35 times in UP, 6.97 times in Maharashtra (up from 4.2), 3.94 times in AP, 17.93 times in Punjab (up from 3.27), 2.11 times in Haryana, 1.94 times in Kerala, 2.21 times in MP, and 1.2 times in Gujurat.

We are really shocked by this allocation which worsens the inequity and illustrates favoritism as the principle behind the budget.

We understand that the states allied to the central government and the home states of the PM and Finance minister are also part of India. So the central government is right to invest in them and we are happy for those states. What we would like to point out is that the central government did not invest anything in the states that are in the bottom of the HRD list, such as Orissa, Rajasthan and Bihar. This is despite the fact that thousands of Orissans wrote to the Prime minister and Smt. Gandhi about this. The worst part is that the earlier government after having noticed this inequity had announced (though the HRD minister, the president, the UGC chair) the establishment of a National Institute of Sciences in Bhubaneswar and this government for inexplicable reasons (or perhaps to punish Orissa for not voting for it and rewarding the others states) has decided to rename it (to IISER) and establish in three other states, which already were in the top among the Indian states with respect to HRD funding.

We also understand that as parliamentarians the Oxford educated PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the Harvard educated finance minister Mr. P. Chadambaram have every right to look after their constituencies and develop them. They must do that. For that they should use their MPLAD funds. The Indian budget is the budget of all of India not the fief of PM, the FM or the subset of states that are allied to the government.

We would sincerely request the reader to bring this to the notice of media outlets of India. Perhaps their exposure of this shameless behavior of our most learned ministers will change the way budgets are done in our country and perhaps we will move towards a more equitable country with all parts shining together.

Chitta Baral 3/24/06

(ps: Recently, the central government finally decided to honor the earlier government's commitment to establish 6 new AIIMS-like institutions in the backward states of Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttaracnchal. However the allocated budget for these institutions in the 2006-07 budget is miniscule. It remains to be seen if the announcement was a lip service or the budget is going to be increased to really start these institutions.)

My response to Kiran Karnik

2006-04-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Re: Kiran Karnik ,President, Nasscom, India's Reaction to our
Campaign For NIS/IISER

From: Chitta Baral Mailed-By: gmail.com To:
kkarnik@nasscom.in, sachisatpathy@yahoo.com,
nis_iiser@yahoogroups.com Cc: cnrrao@jncasr.ac.in,
rc@magnum.barc.ernet.in, chairman@tifac.org.in,
roddam@caos.iisc.ernet.in, bikash@meghdoot.saha.ernet.in,
bikash@veccal.ernet.in, ashok@tenet.res.in, sgd@iitk.ac.in,
director@iitk.ac.in, gm@orgchem.iisc.ernet.in, pb@mbu.iisc.ernet.in,
diroff@admin.iisc.ernet.in, vc@uohyd.ernet.in,
mmsharma@bom3.vsnl.net.in, skkaura@samtelgroup.com,
sapiramal@nicholaspiramal.co.in, dmg@igcar.ernet.in,
dir@igcar.ernet.in, vijay@ncbs.res.in, tvrama@bhu.ac.in,
tvrama@physics.iisc.ernet.in, vsumantran@gmail.com,
pallerama_rao@yahoo.co.in, kkarnik@nasscom.org,
easiddiq@rediffmail.com, dgcsir@csir.res.in, chmn@dae.gov.in,
mkbhan@dbt.nic.in, dodsec@dod.delhi.nic.in,
gangulynk@icmr.delhi.nic.in, mrai@icar.delhi.nic.in,
chairman@isro.org, natarajan_drdo@hotmail.com, dstsec@nic.in,
rchandra@nic.in, Milind@nic.in, gangulynk@icmr.org.in,
director@cdfd.org.in, dch@yojana.nic.in, mvraja@yojana.nic.in,
kirit.parikh@yojana.nic.in, abhijit.sen@yojana.nic.in,
vl.chopra@yojana.nic.in, b.mungekar@yojana.nic.in,
s.hameed@yojana.nic.in, yugandhar.bn@nic.in,
anwarul.hoda@yojana.nic.in, akb@businessstandard.com,
jishnu@hotmail.com, mkvenu@timesgroup.com,
rahul.joshi@timesgroup.com, mythilib@gmail.com,
mrinalpande@hindustantimes.com, pjoshi@hindustantimes.com,
pvohra@hindustantimes.com, vsanghvi@hindustantimes.com,
kpk.kutty@eians.com, prabhu@intoday.com, rajc@intoday.com,
shekhar@expressindia.com, karanthapar@itvindia.net,
ankur@jaintv.com, omthanvi@expressindia.com,
maya@mitraprakashan.com, nsuri@milap.com,
hardeepbisht@rediffmail.com, punit.jain@timesgroup.com,
npnawani@indiatimes.com, heraldindia@eth.net,
vmehta@outlookindia.com, alokmehta7@hotmail.com,
tarunvijay@vsnl.com, abcxy123@hotmail.com, prabhat@saharatv.net,
deepak-puri@timeinc.com, arindam.sengupta@timesgroup.com,
saeednaqvi@hotmail.com Bcc: minuittyipe@rediffmail.com,
anitapratap@hotmail.com, krishnudu@andhrajyothy.com,
ranapraveen2001@yahoo.com, navika@hotmail.com,
paresh_nath@rediffmail.com, seemamustafa@hotmail.com,
djnsingh@hotmail.com, saikat.datta@gmail.com,
akhileshsuman@hotmail.com, alex_perry@timeinc.com,
cchauhan@hindustantimes.com, arkalgud@vsnl.com,
ppatra@hindustantimes.com Date: Apr 11, 2006 10:31 PM Subject: Re:
Kiran Karnik ,President, Nasscom, India's Reaction to our Campaign
For NIS/IISER Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to
Contacts list | Delete this message | Show original | Message text
garbled? Dear Mr. Karnick:

Following is my response to your mail to Sachi. I am copying it to
various Delhi based editors, other members of SAC-PM and members of
the planning commission.

I would like this letter to be treated as an open letter to all of
India and refer people to the sites

http://www.equitableindia.org
http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1
http://www.baral.us/hrd-nh.pdf http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf
http://www.iiser.blogspot.com

for the background of how the Indian budget is drastically
increasing inequity in higher education, how Orissa (and Bihar and
Rajasthan) have been at the losing end, how blatant hijacking of an
announced for institution has taken place, and how thousands of
letters, and several news articles have not had any visible positive
impact on our neo-Kings the esteemed prime minister, the esteemed
finance minister and the esteemed HRD minister and his court. Rather
the 2006 budget http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1 not only
shows their blatant disregard but their budget grabbing attitude
wherby almost all new higher education money is allocated to UPA
ruled states, the finance minister's home state and the PM's Rajya
Sabha constituency.

1. You wrote: I quite understand the dismay with what is seen as a
"shifting" of the IISER from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata; however, isn't
primary education of greater concern, especially in a state like
Orissa? If so, isn't this an area in which the State govt has
greater responsibility than the centre?

My Response: Primary education is indeed of greater concern. Many of
us are making efforts in this direction. Please see
http://www.f2foundation.org/index.shtml

2. You wrote: Orissa is a state blessed with ample resources. If
others are exploiting its natural resources, the answer does not lie
in "Central neglect" nor in economic blockades (as some doubtless
well-meaning folks have suggested; such movements do nothing for the
poor, except bring more hardship).

My Response: I agree with the last sentence. I and many others have
made the point about protesting in way that is not economically
harmful. Please see my writing on this at
http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/being-creative-non-harmful-and-even.html

3. You wrote: Every state can find some statistic to "prove" that
the Centre is "neglecting" it. ... Certainly, pressure on the
Centre is part of the political process. However, the focus on an
IISER is really playing to the gallery. I wonder if an IIT in
Guwahati has helped to suddenly transform Assam, or whether the
celebrated IIT at Kanpur has given a boost to the development of UP?
In the heyday of the PSU, huge Central investments were made in
"backward" States (HEC in Ranchi and the steel plants in Rourkela
and Bhilai are examples). Have they brought prosperity (even
employment) to the local people? I do think we have to look at other
solutions than Central largesse.

My Response: I disagree with most of the above. Yes, there are
bogus statistics. But does that mean you completely disregard
statistics. Please have a look at the spreadsheets

http://www.baral.us/hrd06.pdf http://www.baral.us/hrd05.pdf and the
analysis at

http://www.baral.us/hrd-nh.htm

and let us know what exactly you find wrong in them.

I am sure that you agree that human resource (HR) is the most
important resource of a state or a country. Now we both agree that
primary education is important.

But do you think higher education and easy access to it is not
important?

Yes, in the past many of the top institutions may not have had big
impact in the local area. But things are changing. IIT KGP is going
to have a medical school soon. A biotech park is coming up near KGP.
In the US Stanford and MIT have had huge impact in the immediate
area they are located in and same is going to happen in India. In
Bangalore, IISc, and the electronics public sectors (ITI, BEL etc.)
gave it the initial impetus to become the electronics and now the
software city that it has become. In Orissa, many graduates of Inst
of Physics are faculty in various colleges across Orissa.
Elaborating on that, I will give you one specific example, that
relates to NASSCOM, regarding immediate impact an IISER will have in
Bhubaneswar and Orissa. The Bhuabneswar-Cuttack-Puri area now has 21
engineering colleges with most having IT and Computer science
programs. If there was an IISER/NIS/IIT in Bhubaneswar, the faculty
of these 21 colleges would be able to pursue higher degree at the
IISER/NIS/IIT while being employed (and without leaving town), thus
improving the quality of these 21 colleges, and thus improving the
quality of graduates of these colleges, thus improving the input to
the various software companies that NASSCOM represents. (Elsewhere
http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/10/case-for-bhubaneswar-why-nis-or-iiser.html
we have argued how Orissa has showed that it can nurture top
institutions. Among all NITs, NIT Rourkela is among the top 6. XIM
Bhubaneswar is among the top business schools. Inst of Physics and
in BBSR does quite a bit of research. etc.)

The other point is Orissa is part of India. The Indian budget is not
central government largesse (as you say) but is for all of India,
not just for the UPA ruled states or the Finance minister and Prime
minister's home states.

How do we Indians tolerate the current government (as also most of
the past Indian governments) treating the HRD budget as their fief
and allocating most of it to the states ruled by their allies (in
this case UPA) and/or the states/cities where the FM and PM are
from?

How come all of India (including the SAC-PM, the planning commission
etc.) is tolerating and condoning such injustice to parts of it?

How do you and others in the SAC-PM in clear conscience be part of a
body (SAC-PM) that is invoked by the HRD minister with respect to
the decision making that involves enriching states (IISER in Kolkata
and now there is a news piece about an IISER in Kanpur) that already
have top notch institutions (IIT, ISI, Central U in West Bengal;
IIT, IIIT, many central Univs in UP) and take away a proposed
NIS/IISER from a state (Orissa) that has nothing? (Please see
details on this at http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf. )

How come all of India is tolerating and condoning (including the
SAC-PM, the planning commission etc.) such fief like behavior by its
PM, FM and HRD minister?
No wonder now they want to push 49% reservation down the
throat of IITs and IIMs.

How come Indians are thinking themselves as subjects instead as
citizens?

The Indian budget is not a gift or largesse as you put it, but a
budget in which all of India should have a share.

I would urge you to have a look at http://www.equitableindia.org and
the links in its left bar and reflect on it.

Do you think such inequity is fair?

As a leading citizen of India, and member of the Scientific advisory
committee to the Prime Minister should not you help us in taking the
Indian govt (our government) to task for this unfairness; for
increasing the existing inequity; for the hypocrisy of saying (as in
case of the PM's speeches) that India should be more equitable and
then doing exactly the opposite.

As long as we Indians treat our government as kings, think ourselves
as subjects, think the government budget allocation as a gift or
largesse rather than our own budget, India will only improve in its
spots and its core will remain impoverished and backward.

We sincerely hope that you and others in the SAC-PM, in the
planning commission and in the media will have the courage to stand
up for all of India, and not just the shiny parts of it.

sincerely and with best regards

Chitta Ranjan Baral Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Affiliate Professor, Biomedical Informatics Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Kiran Karnik (NASSCOM)" <> Date: Sat, 8
Apr 2006 17:02:51 +0530 Subject: RE: (Boycott Congress-Save Orissa)
HRD Discrepancy and Orissa's Backwardness are linked finds Prof
Chitta Baral To: Sachi Satapathy Dear
Sachi,
As a believer in the power of technology to be used for good, I
am impressed by the campaign that you have triggered via e mail.
However, as a sympathizer of the aspirations of the disadvantaged, I
must say I have concerns. I quite understand the dismay with what is
seen as a "shifting" of the IISER from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata;
however, isn't primary education of greater concern, especially in a
state like Orissa? If so, isn't this an area in which the State govt
has greater responsibility than the centre? Every state can find
some statistic to "prove" that the Centre is "neglecting" it. The
fact is that the key factor for development is the quality of
governance, especially at the local level. Orissa is a state
blessed with ample resources. If others are exploiting its natural
resources, the answer does not lie in "Central neglect" nor in
economic blockades (as some doubtless well-meaning folks have
suggested; such movements do nothing for the poor, except bring more
hardship).
Certainly, pressure on the Centre is part of the political
process. However, the focus on an IISER is really playing to the
gallery. I wonder if an IIT in Guwahati has helped to suddenly
transform Assam, or whether the celebrated IIT at Kanpur has given a
boost to the development of UP? In the heyday of the PSU, huge
Central investments were made in "backward" States (HEC in Ranchi
and the steel plants in Rourkela and Bhilai are examples). Have they
brought prosperity (even employment) to the local people? I do think
we have to look at other solutions than Central largesse.
One can go on. For every argument, for every statistic, there
will be one that counters it. Constructive solutions are required: a
movement to educate not a movement to disrupt. It is better to light
a candle than to curse the darkness, I feel.
As a well-wisher of Orissa, I do hope that this campaign, which
seems to have galvanized many, will come up with positive ideas and
use the energy and passion which it reflects for the rapid
development of the disadvantaged.
My mail box has been flooded with mails on this topic. I would,
therefore, request you to kindly take my name off the mailing list.
I will find other ways of keeping in touch with this issue. With
regards, Kiran Karnik

SAC-PM

2006-04-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

I just came across the page
http://www.csirwebistad.org/pdf/SACPM%20EMAILMARCH%202006.pdf
It has the list of all SAC-PM members as well as their email addresses.

The list also appeared in
http://www.hindu.com/2005/01/26/stories/2005012604521200.htm

We must write them about the NIS/IISER issue.

Chitta

Purna Mishra's response to Mr. Karnick

2006-04-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

From: "Purna Mishra" Date: Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:27

Subject: RE: My reply to Mr. Karnik and MohantyDear Mr. Karnik,

I appreciate your good feeling for Orissa and your commitment to
Orissa and her marginalized population.

I was little surprised when I read your suggestion that Orissa must
focus on primary education. I do not believe any one will disagree
with you that the quality of basic education in India is suffering
from lack of focus and adequate investment and is needed to build a
quality workforce.

I left India in 1982 to pursue graduate studies in Computer Science
in US. Over the years, I have been to India several times a year and
over the last year and half working closely with a few software
development companies (all members of Nasscom) in India to
collaborate on the product development for building the next
generation real-time enterprise performance management systems.

I do not believe your email to Sachi truly reflect your position as
the president of Nasscom or the Nasscom as the organization. Here
is why I believe your letter and your public positions are sending
contrasting messages.

For example, while speaking at the national seminar on IT workforce
development organized by Netaji Subhas Open University you had asked
the West Bengal government to build in human resource and make
students at the university level employable by teaching them skills
required for the industry. Of course the industry you were talking
about is IT, ITeS, BPO, and KPO. I could not agree more when you
said at the same venue that education should be regarded as the
means to production of employable human capital and stressed on the
need for higher education so that knowledge can be used as a tool to
development of wealth. I absolutely agree a good quality higher
education in science and technology is essential to development of
human capital.

In fact, I am glad that Nasscom and India Inc have jointly
recommended to the Finance Minister to boost the spending on higher
education as the prescription for sustained growth and on January
9th, you asked the Central Government to accord the same status and
importance to higher education as is being given to primary
education. As any professional truly interested in growth and
prosperity of India and ordinary Indians I am elated with your stand
and position. Your leadership to suggest the development on higher
education at par with primary education by creating a national
mission on higher education as the National Literacy Mission must be
adopted and put in to practice. It is exciting that Nasscom is
exploring to sign a memorandum of understanding with the University
Grants Commission to help incorporate industry-relevant skill-sets
as part of specific curriculum. Your partnership with Dr. Arun
Nigavekar (UGC Chairman) to help incorporate industry-relevant
skill-sets as part of specific curriculum is exciting and brings a
new line of thinking for India. According to the recent
NASSCOM-Mckinsey report, the IT/ITeS sector is running up an
employability crisis which could dent India’s pre-eminence as the
preferred global offshoring destination. To tide over this quality
shortfall, NASSCOM is suggesting setting up focused higher education
zones, deregulating the higher education regime in stages and going
in for a demand-based funding system for colleges and universities,
industry-owned, government-facilitated integrated skill development
programs and massive awareness creation about career prospects in
the IT/BPO industries, especially in upcountry cities/towns (Tier-II
cities in India). Colonel M. Vijay Kumar Director STPI Hyderabad
speaking on the IT scenario in Hyderabad vis-à-vis Bangalore has
stated publicly that “In Bangalore, IT and the software industry,
dates back to a decade-and-a-half. The presence of institutes such
as IIS, RDO Labs and ISRO have added to the scientific temperament
and ambience of Bangalore. Major Public Sectors in electronic sector
like HAL, BEL, IT have thrived in Bangalore, giving rise to lot of
private entrepreneurship. This has acted as a catalyst for the
software industry development in Bangalore.”

In earnest I must ask you what is good for India, Bengal, Andhra,
and Bangalore should be emulated and put into practice by Orissa.
How can Orissa attract these higher paying jobs to Orissa without
access to quality educational infrastructure, other public
investments, and a policy for setting up quality higher education
institutions in science and technology?

While Orissa lacks political strength and acumen, we all the
supporters of Orissa and her citizens need to review what we can do
to influence the government and other private institutions to set up
quality higher education institutions in science and technology in
Orissa. We are counting on your leadership and support.

Regards,

Purna C. Mishra President, Logile, Inc.

>This is my response to Mr. Karnik and Mr. Mohanty's email on focusing our
>strength

>I will like to submit my response by reviewing the excellent study
>commissioned by Nasscom and KPMG in 2004 on “Choosing a location for
>offshore operations in India”.

>This is what Mr. Karnik said in that excellent study “IT / ITES - BPO
>exports from India are expected to rise by 26 per cent to reach USD 12 – 13
>billion in 2003 – 2004 and the industry could well sustain the 30 – 40 per
>cent growth envisaged over the next few years. Hidden amidst the growth
>story is the fact that operating costs for ITES - BPO are steadily rising –
>salary levels have been rising by 10 – 15 per cent per annum over the last
>two years and ITES - BPO is fuelling a property boom in at least five of
>the top eight cities in India. Rising attrition levels in the key cities
>for ITES - BPO in India suggest future issues around inducting skilled
>resources from the major cities in India into the ITES - BPO profession.
>Real profitable growth for ITES - BPO will thus require the percolation of
>ITES - BPO into Tier-II cities.”

>Orissa was not included in the study.

>My question to Mr. Karnik and Mohanty would be why these companies would
>come to a Tier-II city in Orissa? Is it because the city has a lot of
>people educated up to primary education? Did Nasscom study include the
>quality of primary education as a basis of percolation of ITES? The study
>focused on availability of quality professionals as a key basis of
>percolation which is not available in Orissa.

>Most of the centrally funded universities are under state control for
>faculty recruitment and admission. If you look at the Viswa Bharati most
>of the students come from West Bengal and they get an excellent education
>courtesy of the Central Government. In Orissa, other than NIT Rourkela,
>the technical institutes are funded by the state government which does not
>have adequate means to provide a quality education. For example, UCE Burla
>gets close to Rs. 4 Crore in assistance from the state where as if it would
>have been a centrally funded institute, it would been getting close to 10
>times.

>It is quite surprising that Mr. Karnik is saying that “Certainly, pressure
>on the Centre is part of the political process. However, the focus on an
>IISER is really playing to the gallery.” One should not apply a political
>pressure to get these advanced institutions. They should be based on the
>report published by “India Science Report” which has asked for a non
>political basis to build the core science infrastructure in India.

>I agree with Mr. Karnik that IIT Guwahati or Kanpur has not helped
>transforming UP or Assam. These institutes were decided primarily on
>political basis and that is why it made no difference. We need to look at
>IISC Bangalore, IIT Chennai, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur
>and see how they have benefited the respective states. I will like to urge
>the readers to review the industrial policy of West Bengal and according to
>the report the state has used extensive references to IIM Calcutta, IIT
>Kharagpur and other centrally funded universities as core to the
>availability of skill professionals in West Bengal.

>As India migrates from low end IT and BPO to a higher end knowledge
>provider in packaged software, logistics, Biotech, and Information
>management, a society based on good primary education will be at a
>disadvantage. One need to look a little east and see why the south east
>Asian countries with better primary education is at a disadvantages to
>India in competing to attract the higher paying knowledge based jobs.

>Orissa needs good primary education. Here Orissa is not at a disadvantage
>to West Bengal or Andhra. Please check the report “Poverty, Disparities,
>or the Development of Underdevelopment in Orissa” by ARJAN DE HAAN and
>AMARESH DUBEY for a better perspective.

>This forum will achieve its objective if it can at least make the central
>government realize that institutes for providing quality higher education
>must be regionally balanced so that a poor Oriya or Bihari or Rajasthani
>kid can dream as much as his/her counterpart from West Bengal or Maharastra
>or Andhra dreams about his/her future.

>What the government has done and it is unfortunate that Mr. Karnik supports
>is to develop two different India. One which requires service of primary
>educated youths as laborers or daily wage workers, and the other which
>provides these low skill people.

>I do not want my state to be a colony of India.

>Regards,

>-- Purna

Kiran Karnik's reaction to our efforts

2006-04-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

From: "Kiran Karnik (NASSCOM)" <kkarnik@nasscom.in>
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 17:02:51 +0530
Subject: RE: (Boycott Congress-Save Orissa) HRD Discrepancy and Orissa's Backwardness are linked finds Prof Chitta Baral
To: Sachi Satapathy <sachisatpathy@gmail.com>

Dear Sachi,

As a believer in the power of technology to be used for good, I
am impressed by the campaign that you have triggered via e mail. However, as a sympathizer of the aspirations of the disadvantaged, I must say I have concerns. I quite understand the dismay with what is seen as a "shifting" of the IISER from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata; however, isn't primary education of greater concern, especially in a state like Orissa? If so, isn't this an area in which the State govt has greater responsibility than the centre? Every state can find some statistic to "prove" that the Centre is
"neglecting" it. The fact is that the key factor for development is the
quality of governance, especially at the local level. Orissa is a state
blessed with ample resources. If others are exploiting its natural
resources, the answer does not lie in "Central neglect" nor in economic
blockades (as some doubtless well-meaning folks have suggested; such
movements do nothing for the poor, except bring more hardship).

Certainly, pressure on the Centre is part of the political
process. However, the focus on an IISER is really playing to the gallery. I
wonder if an IIT in Guwahati has helped to suddenly transform Assam, or
whether the celebrated IIT at Kanpur has given a boost to the development of UP? In the heyday of the PSU, huge Central investments were made in
"backward" States (HEC in Ranchi and the steel plants in Rourkela and Bhilai are examples). Have they brought prosperity (even employment) to the local people? I do think we have to look at other solutions than Central largesse.

One can go on. For every argument, for every statistic, there
will be one that counters it. Constructive solutions are required: a
movement to educate not a movement to disrupt. It is better to light a
candle than to curse the darkness, I feel.

As a well-wisher of Orissa, I do hope that this campaign, which
seems to have galvanized many, will come up with positive ideas and use the energy and passion which it reflects for the rapid development of the
disadvantaged.

My mail box has been flooded with mails on this topic. I would,
therefore, request you to kindly take my name off the mailing list. I will
find other ways of keeping in touch with this issue.

With regards,

Kiran Karnik

...UPA government is soft peddling on the NIS issue... From Statesman

2006-04-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=112023

Naveen takes swipe at UPA govt

Statesman News Service
BHUBANESWAR, April 6: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik added an NDA flavour to a purely BJP platform during the Bharat Surakshya Yatra here today by addressing the public on the achievements of his government and the good governance during the NDA regime.
He took many, including his own partymen, by surprise by sharing the platform with BJP leaders. Perhaps conscious of the moment, Mr Patnaik spoke about the initiatives taken during the NDA rule under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The contrast was sharp, Mr Patnaik dwelt on his government’s achievements ~ Mission Shakti, Pani Panchayat and other rural development schemes, which had very little to do with the Hindutva theme of most of the other speakers.

“We have been focusing on rural development and progress of the state over the last six years,” he said. The NDA government had registered an eight per cent growth rate, besides developing highway infrastructure and rural roads through PMGSY, he said.
Orissa had benefited in terms of cyclone assistance, enhanced funding for KBK districts and plans to establish NIS, Mr Patnaik said. But the UPA government is soft peddling on the NIS issue, he alleged.

While Mr Patnaik spoke in Oriya (written in Roman script), his Jharkhand counterpart Arjun Munda delivered the speech in Oriya extempore, drawing much applause from the crowd.
Even Rajnath Singh spoke a few words in Oriya, while BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu apologised for not being able to speak in Oriya.

Mr Singh described Mr Patnaik as a popular chief minister, while Mr Naidu describes him as the darling of the people.

Mr Munda and Mr Raman Singh, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, castigated the UPA government in their speeches.

They blamed the Centre for the increased terrorist and Naxalite activities in the country.
Mr Venkaiah Naidu said yatras were part of the Indian tradition and a way to reach out to the people.

He criticised the UPA government by saying —People are weeping, while the government is sleeping.

In his inimitable style, Mr Naidu said NDA had one leader and stood for the National Democratic Alliance whereas the UPA is an Ulta Pulta alliance. While the NDA regime had a Prime Minister, there is a PM, SPM (super prime minister), a UPM (ultra pm in the form of Lalu Yadav) and the CPI-M.”They have the Right which proposes, the Left which opposes and the mind which disposes without any direction,” he quipped.

Referring to the resignation of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, he said it was a drama enacted to preempt her disqualification.

Mr Naidu appealed to the Muslims to look back and see themselves how much they had benefited during the several decades of rule by Congress in this country.

HRD inequity with respect to higher education across India

2006-04-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Please see http://www.equitableindia.com
for a more generalized analysis of how inequity in HRD
has been created and is being created. The sad fact is that
the 2006-07 HRD budget shows how our learned Oxford educated
Ph.D Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and our Harvard educated
finance minister Mr. P. Chdambaram seem to be part of this resource grab for their states, treating India's HRD budget as their fief. See http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1 for this aspect of the inequity.

Its really really sad.

Chitta

Denying basic human rights to citizens of Orissa and Bihar

2006-03-30T06:03:00.000-08:00

Mr. Purna Mishra has updated his article.
See http://www.baral.us/nis-iit2.pdf

Fourth IISER in Kanpur?

2006-03-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

GOOD NEWS for Kanpur! The centre has incorporated the city in the list of metros that will soon have the Indian Institute of Science and Education Research (IISER).

Earlier, the Centre had given clearance to open the IISER in Pune, Chandigarh and Bangalore. But after a representation by the Minister of State for Home affairs Shri Prakash Jaiswal, the government agreed to set up a fourth centre in Kanpur as well.

Also an MP from Kanpur, Jaiswal had met the Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, who considering the geographical conditions and its topography has given his consent. “This is a landmark and the centre will be a boon as far as city’s progress is concerned,” Jaiswal said.

For him, the Indian Insitute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the proposed institute would move ahead like the MIT and the Harvard in USA.

In his representation, Jaiswal specifically highlighted the vast size of the State and lack of quality institutions. He aid the State was the fourth largest in the country in terms of area and home to 17 crore people, with a literacy of 57 per cent But, he said, only IIT Kanpur was the only institution in the State that had been maintaining the academic status by catering quality education to students.

“Given these facts, the State must have more world class institutions,” Jaiswal said.

Meeting with the Speaker

2006-03-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

This is further to acknowledge that Mr. Priyadarshi Mishra, an
active member of Agami Odisha and a leader in the BJD, facilitated
the meeting with the speaker. Our heartfelt thanks go to him.

Supriti Mishra

Agamee Odisha

------------------------------------------------
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 supriti mishra wrote :

Dear All:

A team of Agame Odisha met the Speaker of Orissa Legislative
Assembly, Mr. Maheswar Mohanty, over the issue of NIS. The team
comprised of Prof. Trilochan Pradha, Mr. D.K. Roy, Prof. Santosh K.
Tripathy, Mr. Lalit Mohan Pattnaik, Mr. Ajaya Pattnaik, Mr. Sudarsan
Das and Ms. Supriti Mishra.

The team apprised the Speaker of the developments in the issue of
NIS and initiatives taken by Agamee Odisha so far on the issue. It
requested him to expedite efforts by the State Government in this
regard. The team members submitted him a memorandum which spelt out
the following three demands - 1. Immediate constitution of an
all-party House Committe of the legislative members who should meet
the Prime Minister on the issue and strongly place the demand for
setting up the institute in Orissa ; 2. The Chief Minister should
act proactively on the issue and put forth the case before the
Centre; 3. There should be a thorough dicussion in the House on the
issue of inequity in HRD allocation to the state. Mr. Mohanty
assured that he would raise the issue of NIS for discusiion in the
House and facilitate a meeting with the Prime Minister in his
forthcoming visit to Orissa in April. He also assured to extend his
support to Agamee Odisha in its future endeavours on the issue.

Supriti Mishra

on behalf of Agamee Odisha

Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) are already in the works in Pune and Calcutta: Chemical & Engineering News

2006-03-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Additionally, the government has announced plans to create a handful of new interdisciplinary science-focused research universities. Campuses of the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) are already in the works in Pune and Calcutta, and three more are in the planning stages elsewhere in the country. The government plans to plunge an estimated $120 million into each of the new institutes over the next five years.

Dattagupta, who is spearheading the creation of the IISERs, says that the new research universities will offer both integrated B.Sc./M.Sc. degrees and Ph.D. degrees. The five-year integrated B.Sc./M.Sc. program will include a year of independent research, and students will be taught by active researchers. "Research and teaching will go hand in hand," he says.

Denying Basic Human Rights to Citizens of Orissa and Bihar -- Purna Mishra

2006-03-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

Denying Basic Human Rights to Citizens of Orissa and Bihar

Compiled by Purna C. Mishra from various published reports

1. Access to Quality Higher Education in Science and Technology is basic human right

India is a signatory to the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (Resolution 217-A III) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10 1948. The Universal Declaration guarantees all citizens of India the right to a quality higher education. The Universal Declaration unequivocally states "Everyone has the right to education … and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit ". The specific focus on higher education (based on the debate and agreement) was to make available quality higher education. Justice Dr. K. Punnayya in his report on " UGC Funding of Institutions of Higher Education" in 1993 reiterated this same sentiment when he stated "… higher education determines its (India's) economic and technological progress…. Government funding must continue to be an essential and mandatory requirement for support to higher education. The Government/State must continue to accept the major responsibility for funding". The Common Minimum Program adopted by the UPA constituents prior to the last parliament election promised to deliver the access to quality higher education to all.

...

See http://www.baral.us/nis-iit.pdf for the complete article

The 2006-2007 budget increases disparity in HRD spending

2006-03-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

From: http://www.baral.us/hrd-nh.pdf
(See also http://www.baral.us/hrd05.pdf for a spreadsheet of the calculation)
According to 2005-2006 budget while the central government spends Rs 4.07 on HRD-NH (HRD ministry funded higher education institutions plus instituition of national importance) per person in Orissa, it spends Rs 177.12 in Delhi, Rs 105.42 in Uttaranchal, Rs 105 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 77.7 in Assam, Rs 33.78 in Himachal Pradesh, Rs 28.10 in West Bengal, Rs 25.12 in Karnataka, Rs 17.79 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 17.09 in Maharastra, Rs 17.08 in UP, Rs 16.2 in Jharkhand, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 14.5 in J & K, Rs 13.38 in Punjab, Rs 8.52 in Haryana, Rs 7.9 in Kerala, Rs 7.39 in Chhattisgarh, Rs 7.2 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

In the 2006-2007 budget the above inequity is made worse.

(See http://www.baral.us/hrd06.pdf for a spreadsheet of the calculation)

According to 2006-2007 budget while the central government spends Rs 4.07 on HRD-NH (HRD ministry funded higher education institutions plus instituition of national importance) per person in Orissa, it will spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 115.14 in Uttaranchal, Rs 126.97 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 82 in Assam, Rs 34.10 in Himachal Pradesh, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 18.61 in Jharkhand, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 14.50 in J & K, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 7.39 in Chhattisgarh, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

What is alarming is the soft-corruption involved in the new budget.
the new institutes that are proposed are almost all in states whose government is either allied with the central government or the states where the Finance minister comes from. The following list of new initiatives makes this clear.

1. IISER are proposed in Pune, Kolkata, Punjab. These are all in states ruled by partiesal lied to the central government. IISER Pune and Kolkata have a budget of 50 crores now and IISER Punjab will have a similar budget.

2. A Central Institute of Horticulture will be established inNagaland. (Exception: not ruled by congress.)

3. Paddy Processing Research Centre at Thanjavur will be developed into a national-level institute. (In Tamil Nadu -- Finance minister's home state.)

4. During 2006-07, Ministry of Tourism will establish 4 newinstitutes of hotel management in the States of Chhattisgarh,Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal. (These are technical institutes rtaher than higher educational institutes.)

5. The existing National Institute of Port Management, Chennai, has been renamed as the National Maritime Academy, and it is proposed toupgrade it into a Central University under an Act of Parliament. The University will have regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata andVisakhapatnam.
central university. (Chennai is in finance minister's home state.
Mumbai, Kolkata and Vijag are all in states ruled by parties allied to the central government.)

6. 50 crores each now and 50 crores at the end of the year to University of Calcutta, the University of Mumbai and the University of Madras. (The first two are in states allied to the centralgovernment and the third is the state from where the finance minister hails.)

7. Rs.100 crore for an institution of excellence to a distinguished institution, the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. (Punjab government is allied to the central government)

8. Accord the status of an autonomous National Institute to the RajivGandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala. (Kerala has a Congress government, is up for election.)

9. Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar, Assam. (Has a congress government, up for election.)

--------

The above connections between states that are given large allocationfor specific higher education/research institutions and the relationbetween those state's (West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,Punjab) government and the central govt or the ties between the PMor FM and those states (Punjab and Tamilnadu resp.) may be acoincidence. But such coincidences happening over and over for 60years has significantly contributed to the backwardness of stateslike Orissa.

Patna Daily on the 2006 budget and its discrimination

2006-03-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

Budget 2006 - New Initiatives of Advance Learning Institutes
by Indra
March 1, 2006

Since last year the Finance Minister is trying to patronize some institutes of higher learning in his budget. He also started announcing setting up and upgradations of some institutes of advance learning too. In last budget, he announced a grant of Rs 100 crore for Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to help develop it into a world-class institution. It is other matter how much has actually been done with that money during the last 12 months. Some of the initiatives this year in his words are as follows:

1. A Central Institute of Horticulture will be established in Nagaland.

2. Government will also set up the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management.

3. The Paddy Processing Research Centre at Thanjavur will be developed into a national-level institute.

4. During 2006-07, Ministry of Tourism will establish 4 new institutes of hotel management in the States of Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal.

5. The existing National Institute of Port Management, Chennai, has been renamed as the National Maritime Academy, and it is proposed to upgrade it into a Central University under an Act of Parliament. The University will have regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam.

While I am heartened to hear about these institutes, I can’t understand why all these new institutes are coming up only in the states that are already very much developed. Why can’t the hotel management institutes be established in UP, Bihar and Assam or any NE states? Why can’t the Maritime Academy locate regional campus in Orissa? Why can’t Paddy Processing be located in Bihar?FM has also provided a separate heading for ‘Institutions of Excellence’ in his budget that says:

* Last year, I made a beginning with an unprecedented grant of Rs.100 crore to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore to help develop it into a world-class institution. This year, I must recognize another historical event. Three great Universities have entered their 150th year. These are the University of Calcutta, the University of Mumbai and the University of Madras.

* I propose to mark the beginning of the 150th year celebrations with a grant of Rs.50 crore to each University for a specified research department or a research programme in that University. On the conclusion of the year, I intend to make another grant of Rs.50 crore to each of them.
I propose to make the special grant of Rs.100 crore for an institution of excellence to a distinguished institution, the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in acknowledgement of its pioneering contribution to the green revolution.

* If agriculture is an ancient Indian skill, biotechnology is the new frontier that India will conquer. In order to foster research and development in biotechnology, the Ministry of Science and Technology has decided to accord the status of an autonomous National Institute to the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

All these institutes of excellence are located in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala. Is it because the politicians of the states or the bureaucrats are in decision-making bodies? Can FM or some one in the government provide a rational justification for this discrimination? Let me tell you that I felt bad also when Lalu as railway minister decided to locate a wheel-making factory in his constituency that does not provide any technical advantage or when I find many new trains starting or ending at some odd stations of Bihar.

I was not surprised when I read a news item that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar feels that his state has been ignored in respect of major projects and funds in the Union Budget for 2006-07. I suggest Nitish Kumar requests to get located the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management in Bihar.

With all the liberal views, one can’t but feel about this discriminatory behaviour. I feel the intelligentsia of the states such as UP, Bihar, Orissa, and Assam must protest.I wish, politics wouldn’t have been behind these announcements.

Movement to continue till NIS comes to Orissa: Pioneer

2006-03-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

AGAMI ODISHA, the only independent organisation which raised its voice against the decision of the Centre to shift the proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) from Orissa, said it would continue to agitate till NIS is set up in Orissa.

In a Press briefing, Santosh Tripathy, Lalit Mohan Patanaik, Sudarsan Das, Supriti Mishra, Gadadhar Pradhan and Nirakar Beura, all members of Agami Odisha, appreciated the efforts of Orissa MPs to meet the Prime Minister over this issue.

They also welcomed the assurance of the PM to consider the case as it has genuineness.

Protest will continue till NIS is made in Orissa: The Sambad

2006-03-07T00:52:00.000-08:00

Fighting against shifting of NIS will continue: The SAMAJA

2006-03-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

PM admits NIS necessity in Orissa (From Pragativadi: Lists the MPs who met the PM)

2006-03-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

*PM admits NIS necessity in Orissa*

While the decision of the UPA government at the Centre to shift the proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata has brewed stiff resentment in Orissa, prime minister Manmohan Singh, on the other hand has admitted the necessity of the Central institute in the state. Protesting against the exclusion of NIS issue in the budget speech by Union finance minister P Chidambaram in the Parliament, the BJD and BJP MPs onFriday met the prime minister and submitted a memorandum to this effect. Stating that the decision to set up NIS in Bhubaneswar was finalized during the NDA government tenure, the Orissa MPs said that the decision taken by the present government at the Centre to shift the proposed institute to Kolkata has reflected the step-motherly attitude of the Centre towards the state.

After listening to the complaints of the Orissa MPs, Singh said that their demand is totally justified. He promised them to personally take up the matter. The delegation, led by BJD MP Braja Kishore Tripathy, had other members including Baijayant Panda, Brahmananda Panda, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Sugrib Singh, Prasanna Acharya, Prasanna Patsani, Mohan Jena, Pramila Bohidar, Tathagat Satpathy, Surendra Lath, Dharmendra Pradhan, Rudra Narayan Pani, Ananta Nayak, Kharvela Swain and Bhartruhari Mahatab. Briefing newsmen after the meeting, BJP MP Kharavela Swain described the acceptance of the demand of the Opposition by the prime minister as a healthy sign for Indian democracy. It may be mentioned here that there was a statewide students' agitation in Orissa against the shifting of NIS to Kolkata.

PM positive about setting up NIS in Orissa: Pioneer

2006-03-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

See http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006-march3-pioneer-nis1.pdf
and
http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006-march3-pioneer-nis2.pdf

Pioneer News Service/ Bhubaneswar
Hopes of the proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) not being shifted from Bhub-aneswar were strengthened on Friday, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh telling a high-power delegation of 16 BJD and BJP MPs from Orissa in Delhi that the State very much needed such an institute of scientific excellence.
The Prime Minister had an audience in State's ruling coalition MPs, led by BJD member in Lok Sabha Brajakishore Tripathy and BJD member in Rajya Sabha Baijayant Panda.
During the interaction, the delegation strongly criticised the callous move of the Union Government to overlook the interests of an underdeveloped State like Orissa.
Dr Singh, however, assured that he would sort out all the modalities to ensure that such an institute comes up in the State.
An elated Brajakishore Tripathy, after emerging from the half-an-hour-long meeting told mediapersons that the Prime Minister has admitted this to be a justified demand for the State. BJP MP Kharabela Swain said the UPA Government was now trying to respect the Opposition's feelings and he is confident that the dream of Orissa having the NIS will be a reality soon.
BJD MPs Bhartruhari Mahtab and Baijayant Panda also congratulated the Prime Minister on Thursday's successful agreement with the United States on the Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Pact.

Centre gives nod to IISER in Chandigarh: Times of India

2006-03-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

CHANDIGARH: The country's third Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) would be set up in the city's periphery. The Union Government is learnt to have given the go-ahead for the prestigious institution, according to sources in the ministry of science and technology.

However, chief minister Amarinder Singh had earlier hinted in the Vidhan Sabha that the prestigious institute would come up in Jalandhar.

Two other IISERs are being set up in Pune and Kolkata. Together, they shall come up at an approximate cost of Rs 500-550 crore. The ministry of human resource development would soon constitute an implementation committee for the latest IISER.

IISER, Kolkata, was likely to start functioning this years but is said to have been delayed due to political reasons. This tangle worked in favour of Chandigarh, sources said.

Once set up, the three institutes would establish a network with professional institutes like IITs and NIITs, universities and colleges across the nation. The IISER in the city's periphery would bring together all undergraduate, postgraduate, doctorate and post doctorate scholars under one roof.

It would collaborate with all major scientific institutes in the region --PAU, Ludhiana, IMTECH, YS Parmar Horticulture University, Solan, and various engineering colleges. The IISER would use some infrastructure and faculty from these institutions to give a boost to science education.

Each of the IISERs would have about 190 faculty members each across disciplines and would be headed by a director. It would offer programmes of study in biological sciences, physical sciences, chemical sciences, computer sciences, life sciences, environment and earth system sciences.

The institute could be expected to have about 2,050 students in its masters' programme, doctoral programme and post-doctoral programme at the time of its full-fledged functioning. However, to begin with, the total strength in its integrated MSc programme would be 1,000 and 1,050 in the doctoral and post doctoral programme.

Entrance to these programmes would be through an all India competitive examination. These institutions have been recommended by the scientific advisory council to the Prime Minister headed by Professor CNR Rao, who had recommended these to revive waning interest in basic science as a career.

A site to file grievances

2006-03-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Dear all:

I came across the site http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/
from a posting in the Orissa Today group.

Let us all use it to lodge our grievences with respect to the
NIS and HRD-NH issues.

They are supposed to respond.

The link http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/goi-pgos.htm has email
addresses of the people who are supposed to answer the grievences.

cheers
Chitta

NIS Movement--Protest wide spread

2006-02-26T09:56:00.000-08:00

NIS Movement--Protest wide spread on 22nd February

As Reported By Sudaarshan Das
Dear Friends The response to "All Orissa Protest Call" on 22nd February given by Agami Odisha on NIS has been very good looking at number of places it was observed and type of persons got involved. Perhaps for the first time the movement on NIS has been so wide spread, which was never so before. In earlier occasions the movement was confined to only Bhubaneswar (of course at Delhi). But this time we could give it a state wide character. On a same day the protest against Centre's negligence and step motherly attitude pertaining to NIS establishment in Orissa was registered in major places of the state. Bhubaneswar- In Bhubanesar the students of Utkal University, BJB College, Rajdhani College, Ekamra College joined in the protest. While the students of UU organised a Dharana near the entrance gate of Vani Vihar, the students of BJB college went out to the street and blocked the Bhubaneswar-Puri Road symbolically. The students of Rajdhani also staged their protest in front of the main gate. Baripada-- The students of North Orissa University, MPC College, MPC Junior College, Srima College, Simanta College, Baiganbadia college joined in the protest and submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the local govt office. Kenjhar-- The students of DD college Keonjhar, Keonjhar Women's College along with some public and activists joined the protest and submitted the memorandum to the PM through the Collector. Balasore- The intellectuals/ activists along with some students of FM College went on a procession to the Collector and submitted the memorandum. Rourkela-Around 200 people of Rourkela, including the students of Rourkela Govt College, Muncipal College, Padmanav Engineering college staged a dharana infront of the local ADM. Jagatsingpur-- In Jagatsingpur the students of SVM College statged protest dharana in front of the college and submitted the memorandum. The president of the student union led the protest. In places like Bhadrak, Koraput, Berhampur etc similar programmes were undertaken by the people/ student themselves. Sudarsan Das

Sambada on "Protest meeting in Balasore on NIS" (in Oriya)

2006-02-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Sambada on Agami Orissa peaceful protest plan for Feb 22nd (In Oriya)

2006-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006-feb17-sambada-nis.pdf

also see

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006-feb17-sambada-nis2.pdf

for MP Braja Tripathy's reaction on President's speech.

Hindustan Times on HRD discrepancy

2006-02-13T23:19:00.000-08:00

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=14_02_2006_009_009&typ=1&pub=47

IF HIGHER education is languishing in Bihar, here is one reason why. The Human Resource Development ministry spends just Re 1.87 per person for higher education in the state. That is just 1 per cent of the Rs 177.22 that the ministry spends per person in Delhi.

The report by a group of Oriyas based in Japan and the United States, analyzing the ministry's funding to various states in the last budget, concludes that the ministry has not been spending enough on higher education in poorer states like Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa.

While Rajasthan gets Rs 2.59 per person, Orissa is given just Rs 4.07, Gujarat takes Rs 4.87 and Chhattis garh Rs 7.39.

Other states with higher allocation is Uttranchal Rs 105.42, Arunachal Pradesh Rs 105 and Assam with Rs 77.7.

And the reason for the wide differences, according to officials, is that the money is not allocated on the basis of population but on what institutes the ministry supports in individual states.

The study was triggered by the ministry's decision to award the Indian Institute of Sciences to West Bengal and not Orissa. HRD minister Arjun Singh had overruled the Univer sity Grants Commission's decision to grant the institute to Bhubaneswar saying it was not under its jurisdiction. Instead, it was given to neighbouring West Bengal.

Digambar Patra, who coordinated the study in Japan and US and is a fellow in Waseda University of Tokyo, says such imbalances could be detrimental to countries given the significance of human resource development.
But the study would not bring down changes in the disparities dramatically in the coming budget. The Planning Commission has already informed the ministry that it is not increasing the allocation for higher education. "The increase can be examined only for the 11th five year plan starting in 2006-07,"a Planning Commission official said.

Where are they headed? 1.87 rupee is what HRD ministry spends per person for higher education in Bihar

Sambada has a nice recap on the NIS status (in Oriya)

2006-02-13T06:40:00.000-08:00

International Herald Tribune picks up the Asian age article

2006-02-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

BJP demanded Central funds for establishment of a regional centre of the AIIMS and NIS in Orissa: Statesman

2006-02-12T21:22:00.000-08:00

BJP raps UPA govt for rise in extremism

Statesman News Service

KORAPUT, Feb. 12. — The state unit of the BJP played the tribal card to the hilt today. Sensing that the Naxalite menace was a major problem in tribal areas of the state, it blamed the Congress for the growth of extremism in the country. Mr Vinay Katiyar, the general secretary of the party, who had come to Jeypor to attend the state executive committee meeting, alleged that involvement of Indian minorities in terrorist activities, had risen since the UPA came to power. He blamed the UPA government for creating artificial scarcity of wheat in the country to suit its own interest by importing 5 lakh tons of wheat from Australia. He demanded immediate withdrawal of the orders as it would effect the wheat farmers of the country to a great extent. By the time the wheat reaches India the wheat production in the country will be at its peak and the farmers will be in deep trouble, he added. Mr Katiyar criticised the UPA government for supporting the USA and compromising the interest of the country. The central party leader however, avoided questions on internal problems of the party including those on Uma Bharati. Mr Juel Oram, the state BJP president, said that the reasons behind organising the state executive body meeting at Jeypore was that the party had been represented by a good number of tribal leaders compared to any other party. Hence, to give justice to the tribal representatives, the executive body meeting was organised in the tribal dominated district of Koraput. In its resolution, the state unit of the BJP did a virtual turnaround on the Kalinga Nagar problem. Earlier, it was bitterly critical of the manner in which the entire incident was handled by the state government but today it expressed concern over the displaced people and yet praised the government for accepting the proposals of the party on the issue. The BJP executive urged the state government to introduce a flawless policy on displacement and felt that the constitution of a ministerial committee in this connection was most appropriate. The party also demanded to include all the proposed projects of Orissa in the railway budget and allocate adequate funds. It demanded Central funds for establishment of a regional centre of the AIIMS and NIS in Orissa apart from inclusion of all the districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme.

Asian Age on "Regional Disparity and NIS"

2006-02-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Delhi on top, Bihar at bottom - By Sanjay Basak

New Delhi, Feb. 12: It’s in Delhi where the Congress-led UPA government is spending the maximum amount per person on human Resources development, while the lowest expenditure is in Bihar. Repeated attempts by a group of educationists to draw the attention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to this "glaring regional imbalance" have had no effect so far. The Prime Minister had recently gone on record saying: "I trust our government as well as the state governments evolve policies to remedy regional imbalances."

A preliminary report prepared by Prof. Chitta Boral of Arizona University "State-wise distribution of HRD national highways funding in India" goes on to show that while the government spends Rs 177.12 per person in Delhi, the amount per head in Bihar is just Re 1.87. The phrase "national highways" in this case is actually a reference to higher educational institutions. It explains: "Although these institutions theoretically allow equal access to students from all states, like national highways being used by people, students in a state where a particular institution is located have more awareness and more access to it as it is more convenient to them. In fact, the national highways are more evenly distributed in the country than the educational institutions." Highlighting the "glaring disparity", a statewise breakup of the funding of higher (Turn to Page 2)
educational institutions through the HRD goes on to show that the Centre was spending Rs 177.12 per person in Delhi, while it was Rs 105.42 in Uttaranchal, Rs 105 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 77.70 in Assam, Rs 33.78 in Himachal Pradesh, Rs 28.10 in West Bengal, Rs 25.12 in Karnataka, Rs 17.79 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 17.09 in Maharashtra, Rs 17.08 in Uttar Pradesh, Rs 16.20 in Jharkhand, Rs 16.05 in Andorra Pradesh, Rs 14.50 in Jam and Cashmere, Rs 13.38 in Punjab, Rs 8.52 in Harman, Rs 7.90 in Karen, Rs 7.39 in Chhattisgarh, Rs 7.20 in Madhya Pradesh, Rs 4.87 in Gujarat, Rs 4.07 in Orissa, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

Delhi, the report notes, has a large number of higher educational institutions: besides Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, there is the Indian Institute of Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, AIIMS, the School of Planning and Architecture and IGNOU.

Over the past few months, a group of educationists in India and abroad have been writing to the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi over the "regional imbalances" in education in the country. Dr Digambar Patra, of the department of physics of Waseda University, Tokyo, stated that the educationists had also organised an email protest campaign over the issue. Of them, Prof. Chitta Boral receives an acknowledgement of his letter from Mrs Gandhi. The letter was, incidentally, addressed to the Prime Minister, with a copy marked to Mrs Gandhi.

Besides referring to the disparity between states in higher educational institutions, the letters also referred to the "stepmotherly" attitude towards Orissa. There have been a lot of protests over the UPA government’s move to ignore former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi’s plan to set up a National Institute of Science in Orissa. The Centre has reportedly decided to shift the project to "friendly" states like West Bengal and Maharashtra, ruled by the Marxists and the Congress respectively.

Zee News: BJP demands AIIMS and NIS in Bhubaneswar

2006-02-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Ranchi, Feb 12:

BJP's Jharkhand unit has expelled eleven activists from the party for their "anti-party" activities. The executive committee of the party yesterday approved the disciplinary committee's recommendation to expel eleven out of 26 suspended activists for six years, BJP state president Yadunath Pandey said. The disciplinary committee, Pandey added, however let-off fifteen others with a reprimand and revoked their suspension. All of them had been suspended and served show cause during the February polls. Soon after the approval by the executive committee, the report had been sent to the BJP central leadership, Pandey said. The decision, however, has not gone down well among many senior leaders of the party with some leaders openly expressing their unhappiness. The party also condemned those who were "trying to gain political mileage" from the incident.Pointing out that displacement of people to make way for developmental projects had become a "huge problem", the resolution welcomed the setting up of the ministerial committee to go into the rehabilitation issue describing it as a "timely step". "The decision of the Congress not to cooperate in this regard has exposed its double speak," the resolution said. The party also expressed "grave concern" over the spreading Naxalite menace in the state while demanding that four other districts should be included in the list of Maoist-infested districts. The districts are Sambalpur, Deogarh, Jharsuguda and Jajpur which should be provided Central funds towards security related expenditure, it said.

The party demanded that adequate funds should be provided for the state in the railway budget to take care of ongoing projects. Funds should also be provided in the ensuing Central budget for the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Institute of Science (NIS) at Bhubaneswar.

Bureau Report

Sambada's take on an open letter to the Orissa CM, MPs, and politician of all parties

2006-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

An open letter to the honorable Chief Minister, MPs and other political leaders of various parties in Orissa:

Why is Orissa among the bottom in per capita HRD-NH spending by the central govt?

Why are we not doing anything about it?

What should we do about it?

Chitta Baral, Professor, Arizona State University

Dear honorable Chief Minister, MPs and other political leaders of Orissa

First I must commend all of you for the job all of you have done and are doing in watching like a hawk the railway budgets, Orissa's share of the national highways and the road budget. It was not long ago when Orissa had only about 1200 kms of national highways. In 2000 Orissa had 2863 kms of national highways and in 2004 it had 3704 kms. Since then Orissa has made its case for a 2000 km NH fromVijaywada to Ranchi, about 1200 kms of which will be passing through tribal dominated districts of Orissa. With respect to railways, allof you played a big role in establishing the ECOR head quarter inBhubaneswar. In recent years, in every railway budget session in the parliament, MPs from Orissa, regardless of their parties have been vocal about Orissa's needs and wants. As a result, things are a lot better now. For example, there are now direct trains fromBhubaneswar to many corners of India such as Jaipur, Haridwar, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Bangalore, etc. besides multiple trains to the metros. There is still a long way to go in both roads and railways but you all are pursuing that relentlessly.

However, all of you and us citizens too have paid much less attention to the development of the most important resource of a state, the human resource. As in roads, we have national highways, state highways, gram sadaks etc., similarly in HRD there are many kinds of institutions. The HRD national highways consists of the educational and technical institutions fully funded by the HRDministry and the institutions of national importance.

As in roads the national highways have a big significance; similarly in case of HRD, the HRD-NHs are very important. In this, Orissa is among the bottom, as it does not have any central university, anyIIT, IIM, IIIT, etc.
A detailed calculation that I have done, which is at http://www.equitableindia.org/, shows that while the central government spends Rs 4.07 on HRD-NH (per person) in Orissa, it spends Rs 177.12 in Delhi, Rs 105.42 in Uttaranchal, Rs 105 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 77.7 in Assam, Rs 33.78 in Himachal Pradesh, Rs 28.10 in West Bengal, Rs 25.12 in Karnataka, Rs 17.79 in TamilNadu, Rs 17.09 in Maharastra, Rs 17.08 in UP, Rs 16.2 in Jharkhand, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 14.5 in J & K, Rs 13.38 in Punjab, Rs 8.52 in Haryana, Rs 7.9 in Kerala, Rs 7.39 in Chhattisgarh, Rs 7.2 in MP,Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

Comparing in another way, the Government of India’s spending per person with respect to HRD-NHs, in comparison to Orissa, is 6.9times in West Bengal, 6.17 times in Karnataka, 4.37 times in Tamil Nadu, 4.2 times in UP, 4.2 times in Maharashtra, 3.98 times inJharkhand, 3.94 times in AP, 3.56 times in J&K, 3.29 times inPunjab, 2.09 times in Haryana, 1.94 times in Kerala, 1.82 times in Chhattisgarh, 1.77 times in MP, and 1.2 times in Gujarat.

This becomes much worse if one takes into account the recent announcements of IISERs (Indian Institute of Science education andresearch) in Pune, Kolkata, and Punjab (near Chandigarh).
Although recently all of us have come together and have made demands about the earlier announced National Institute of Sciences in Bhubaneswar, the central government has so far not only ignored our request but have added insult to our injury by making false claims that no such institute was decided in Orissa and by announcing a new IISER in yet another state ruled or allied with the central government. (One wonders if the president of India's, the HRDminister's, and the UGC chairman's announcement regarding an NIS is not a decision to establish an NIS then what is?)

The above numbers illustrates that the issue of HRD-NHs runs much deeper than NIS and Orissa is in the bottom because of repeated injustices like the NIS issue. If the central govt spends 43.52 times in Delhi, 19.1 times in Assam, 6.9 times in West Bengal, 6.17 times in Karnataka, 4.37 times in Tamil Nadu, 4.2 times in UP, and 4.2 times in Maharashtra, no wonder our very best go to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai or Guwahati to study in the HRD-NHs, from where they rarely return back. Due to lack of theHRD-NHS our best educators, scientists, professors, etc. move to other states and enrich them. We also lose out on non-polluting industries and companies with lot of high paying jobs, that prefer and thrive in the presence of HRD-NHs; and with that we lose a big chunk of our bright people who move to join those industries in Bangalore or Delhi. In other words the central government's gross neglect of Orissa with respect to HRD-NHs has contributed significantly to Orissa's backwardness.

(a) Why are we we not vocal about this?

(b) Will we tolerate if we our told that, oh, you Oriyas, if you need to drive on a national highway, you need to go to Kolkata or Mumbai. If you want to to stay in Orissa then you have to drive in broken gram sadaks. Of course we will not. But that is what the central government is indirectly telling us by spending 6.9 times in West Bengal, 6.17 times in Karnataka, etc. and not listening to our requests. Why and how are we tolerating this?

(c) Why our chief minister, our MPs, our congress leadership are not going to the prime minister, HRD minister and the planningcommission and making a national issue out of this?

(d) Why are not they bringing up this issue in various national forums?

(e) Why are not they writing about this in various national newspapers and magazines?

(f) Why are not they appealing to all of India about this gross injustice that has been (for last 50 years) and is being done to Orissa?

(g) Why are we not point out to the esteemed prime minister that there is a big discrepancy between his words (about making anequitable India) and his actions (the IISER announcements that makethe HRD-NH disparity much worse)?

I request the chief minister, the MPs and the congress leadership to unite for the above cause (like they do when making requests aboutrailways) and use the detailed document at http://www.equitableindia.org/ that computes the above numbers and the booklet that compiles the proofs regarding the announcement ofan NIS in Bhuabneswar (and the subsequent attempts to cheat Orissaout of it) at http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf in doing the following.

(i) Doing whatever is necessary (including steps that address a-g above) for immediately establishing an IISER (the renamed NIS) inBhubaneswar.

(ii) Contacting the new IIT committee and others (the PM, HRDminister etc.) about upgrading NIT Rourkela to an IIT or deemed IITstatus, as NIT Rourkela is ranked better than 6 of the 7 shortlisted institutes that are being considered for deemed IIT or IIT status; and subsequently making UCE Burla an NIT. (This raises thequestion regarding how 6 institutes that are ranked worse than NITRourkela are short listed ahead of NIT Rourkela for an IIT status.Why are we not questioning such stupid decisions?)

(iii) Pursue establishment of a KBK Central university with campuses in various towns of KBK such as Koraput, Raygada, Bhawanipatna, and Balangir, so that KBK has more educators, doctors, etc. and so that skilled and educated people are attracted to KBK rather than the current situation where people posted to KBK try all kinds of things to not go to KBK. (Such steps has worked wonders in the north east. Many highly qualified people have flocked to join the central universities in the North east.)

(iv) Pursue upgradation of the IIT Kharagpur extension center in Bhubaneswar to an independent campus offering undergraduate and graduate degrees.

(v) Contact the IIMs to open a branch in South Orissa (sayBerhempur), North Orissa (say Balasore or Baripada), or Dhenkanal(near IIMC). If IIM Bangalore can plan to have a center in Singapore, why can not one of the IIMs establish a center in Orissa.

A nonpartisan committee should be immediately made to keep track ofthe progress with respect to (i)-(v) and the planned AIIMs-like institute, National Law School, and health university. Only after we succeed in all of the above, and continue having more locally initiated educational institutes, Orissa will become a destinationfor not only tourists, but for young Oriyas and Indians with dreams. In addition, the above steps will distribute the HRD-NHs across Orissa thus making Orissa more balanced.
Finally, while we sort out the Kalinganagar issue and develop a consensus with our tribal brothers and sisters with respect to Orissa's industrial future, we should not forget our fight against the NIS/IISER injustice. We got to continue that fight until we getour IISER and then follow it up with a long range plane to achieve parity with other states with respect to the above mentioned HRD-NH related goals.

sincerely,

Chitta Baral

Sambada on central govt going to supreme court (in Oriya)

2006-02-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

News Coverage on Supreme court Case in Odisha.com

2006-02-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Central govt moved to Supreme court

2006-02-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

The Central Government has moved the Supreme Court on 27.1.2006 and obtained a stay against the Orissa High Court Order which originally had granted a stay of laying the foundation stone in Kolkata. The said order is attached herewith for your ready reference and necessary instructions. You can also see the order in www.courtnic.nic.in by going to Supreme Court and typing the case no: SLP(C) 1550 OF 2006.
The Govt has moved the petition in the absence of any one of us and by making a senior advocate called Mr. Gopal Subramanium appear in the matter.
However in effect the case in orissa which is scheduled to be heard on 22.2.2006 will have no force as the main issue has been shifted to the Supreme Court and the High Court may be helpless in doing much to the matter. ___________________________________________________________________

ITEM NO.40 COURT NO.10 SECTION XIA S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No(s).1550/2006 (From the judgement and order dated 08/11/2005 in WMP No. 10872/2005 in WP No. 10836/2005 of The HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK) UNION OF INDIA Petitioner(s) VERSUS STATE P.I. PROTECTION COUNCIL & ORS. Respondent(s) (With appln.(s) for exemption from filing O.T.and permission to bring addl.facts and with prayer for interim relief) Date: 27/01/2006 This Petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.P. MATHUR For Petitioner(s) Mr.Gopal Subramanium, ASG Mr.Rajshekhar Rao, Adv. Ms. Sushma Suri,Adv. For Respondent(s) UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Issue notice on the Special Leave Petition as also on the prayer for interim relief. The operation of the impugned judgment is stayed in the meanwhile. ( Satish K. Yadav ) ( Phoolan Wati Arora ) Court Master Court Master

Statesman: UGC clarification on NIS sought

2006-01-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

UGC clarification on NIS sought

Statesman News Service

CUTTACK, Jan. 22. — The focal point of the PIL over the alleged shifting of the proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) from Orissa has moved to the UGC after a month with the High Court seeking clarification from the UGC over its involvement in the proposal within a month.

In December 2005, the PIL had gathered heat when the Orissa State Public Interest Protection Council (OSPIPC), challenged the veracity of the claims made by Mr Prem Kumar, under secretary in the ministry of HRD in an affidavit submitted in the High Court. In November 2005, the controversy had taken a new turn with the Central government claiming before the High Court that no such decision was ever taken by it to set up any such science institution in Bhubaneswar. Mr Prem Kumar in his affidavit had stated that “no policy decision was finalised by the Central government for setting up any science institution at Bhubaneswar.”

But the OSPIPC had pointed out that the UGC had in December 2003 communicated to the vice-chancellor of Utkal University, a decision to establish NIS at four places (Bhubaneswar, Pune, Allahabad and Chennai). This was followed by a letter from a high power committee of the UGC in April 2004 indicating about preparation of a project report on it. The OSPIPC president, Mr Prasant Das, alleged that Mr Kumar had misled the court. The NIS issue had dominated the Assembly session on 23 November. The state higher education minister, Mr Samir Dey, responding to a call attention notice had alleged in the Assembly that the UPA government did not take any follow up step after it came to power in 2004.

It may be noted that in August 2005, the OSPIPC president had filed a PIL seeking judicial intervention against shifting of the proposed NIS from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. Acting on it, the Orissa High Court had on 9 November issued an interim order directing the Union government “to stay the shifting of the proposed science institution from Bhubaneswar to any other part of eastern India”.

Subsequently, Mr Prem Kumar in his affidavit had clarified that the Union Cabinet had in November 2005 decided in favour of creation of two new institutions devoted to science education and research. The Cabinet decision was taken on the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

Later, the Central government had decided to locate the two IISRE at Pune and Kolkata, the affidavit clarified while seeking grant of leave to set up an Indian Institute for Science Research Education (IISRE) in Kolkata.

NIS vs IISER -- Even HRD Minister Arjun Singh refers to the IISERs as National Institute of Sciences

2006-01-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

http://oheraldo.in/node/8769

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060119/1901001.htm

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=61604

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=349292

...

Denying the charge that the centre has shifted the National Institute of Science, proposed at Bhubaneswar, to Kolkata, Singh said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had announced setting up four NIS. When the law department, which felt that UGC was only a funding body and cannot set up any institution, examined the matter the issue became infructuous.

"It was incorrect to say that the institute proposed in Orissa has been shifted to Kolkata", he said adding that as part of Govenment's proposal to strengthen science education, three National Institute of Sciences have been proposed at Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh.
...

Pioneer: BJD, BJP MLAs flay HRD Minister on NIS issue

2006-01-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

BJD, BJP MLAs flay HRD Minister on NIS issue

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

MLAs belonging to BJD and BJP were furious on Thursday after the Union Minister for Human Resources Development Arjun Singh declared that there was no possibility of establishing the National Institute of Science ( NIS) in Orissa in near future. The UPA Government (UPA) decided to set up NIS in Kolkata, which was supposed to be established in Bhubaneswar.
Protesting against the statement of Mr Singh, BJD MLAs Jatindranath Mitra, Atanu Sabyasachi, Arun Sahu, Sanjib Sahoo, Vikram Arukh, Vikram Verma and Debi Mishra and BJP MLAs Bayadhara Mallick, Draupadi Murmu, Rabi Narayn Nayak, Pratap Sarangi said the Centre was taking decisions against the interest of the State. They said the Centre bore a step motherly attitude towards Orissa.

The MLAs said that the issue would be taken up with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after he returned from Delhi on Friday. They also threatened to take up issue in the Assembly in the coming session. They said that the Congress party had taken a different stance on the matter despite their party being a major partner in the UPA Government. The MLAs said they will go to people and expose the Congress in this matter.
The HRD Minister on Wednesday had said in New Delhi that the United Grants Commission (UGC) had not taken permission from the Centre before assuring to grant funds for the establishment of NIS in Orissa. He said the UGC's role was to provide funds and not take decisions. Mr Singh said when the appropriate time comes, he will consider about establishing NIS in Orissa.

High Court Extends NIS stay order till Feb 22: Odisha

2006-01-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Response to Arjun Singh's statement

2006-01-18T03:37:00.000-08:00

For a detailed response see page 6-15 of http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf

For anothe short response please see: http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/letter-to-editor-of-hindustan-times.html

My response to Hon'bl e minister Arjun Singh's response as reported in the previous two article:

First: He himself said in the Loksabha the following:

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 be established. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.

And after November 26, 2003 the DPR says that the UGC gave its in-principle approval to this proposal on April 9, 2004.

Thus the Honorable minister’s statement in the Lok Sabha is misleading. It is unfortunate that the Honorable minister does not consider an announcement by the earlier HRD minister and by the President of India about establishment of an NIS in Bhubaneswar, and an in-principle approval of UGC on April 9, 2004, a decision of the central government. Moreover, if the NDA government had not decided to set up the institutes, why would they have produced a detailed project report dated May 2004, around the time when their term ended and the UPA government took over.

Finally, even if the UGC could not legally establish the proposed NISs, they could have been established under a different parameter, the same one used for the IISERs, which happen to be almost same as the NISs in terms of their aims.

During establishment of institutes of the scale of an NIS or an IISER legal opinions of various kinds are often sought and appropriate changes are made. If one follows the time line, the legal opinion regarding the inappropriateness of using Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act was given in October 28, 2003. The Chairman, UGC 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 be established. In December 2003 the HRD minister and the President announced the setting up of NISs. In May 2004, a DPR about the NISs without any mention of the Sections 12 (ccc) or 12 (j) of the UGC Act and with complete details about the institute was published. This DPR mentions that on April 9 2004, the UGC gave its in principle approval to the NIS proposal.

Thus it is clear that:
The explanation given by the Hon’ble minister misleading.

Arjun Singh's statemsnts on NIS -- webindia123

2006-01-18T03:32:00.000-08:00

...
On the University Grants Commission's abortive move to set up a National Institute of Sciences in Orissa, the Minister said the Commission was not entitled to have made such an announcement.
..

Arjun Singh's statemsnts on NIS - indian express, outlookindia

2006-01-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

In http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=349292

...
Denying the charge that the Centre has shifted the National Institute of Science, proposed at Bhubaneswar, to Kolkata, Singh said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had announced setting up four NIS. When the matter was examined by the Law department, which felt that UGC was only a funding body and cannot set up any institution, the issue became infructuous.

"It was incorrect to say that the institute proposed in Orissa has been shifted to Kolkata", he said adding that as part of govenment's proposal to strengthen science education, three National Institute of Sciences have been proposed at Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh.
...

An acknowledgement to the letter I sent to the PM and copied to Smt. Gandhi

2006-01-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

Dear all:

Today I received an acknowledgement to my letter to the PM
which I copied to Smt. Sonia Gandhi. The letter came from
the AICC office. The letter is given below.
The letter I sent in early October is at
http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/10/open-letter-to-prime-minister-of-india.html
The letter I received is dated 17.12.05 and postmarked 19.12.05.

I sincerely hope that they read the letter and if they did I hope
they pondered about it. I guess if not already, others who sent letters
will get a similar acknowledgement letter soon.

I guess this shows that our approach of writing letters is not entirely fruitless.
At least they are being recorded somewhere. Hope more happens though.

best regards
Chitta

==============================================

Indian National Congress Phones 23019373/23019080 extn 435

All India Congress Committee
24, Akbar Road, New Delhi-110011

Digvijay Singh
General Secretary

Dear Shri Baral,

This is to acknowledge the receipt of your letter addresses to the Hon. Prime
Minister of India regarding gross injustice to Orissa by removing Bhubaneswar from
the NIS/IISER list. I have taken note of your feelings.

with regards

yours sincerely,

signature
(DIGVIJAY SINGH)

Shri Chitta Baral
Professor
Department of Computer Sc. & Engg.
Arizona State University
Tempe. AZ 85287

Data: Imbalance with respect to the HRD National Highways

2006-01-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

Please feel free to use the above in writing articles about this issue and
sending it to various news media.

cheers
Chitta

Some observations and suggested plan of actions on the NIS issue - I

2006-01-15T02:09:00.000-08:00

Dear all:

I was in Bhubaneswar during Dec 21- Jan 10th and talked to various people
on the NIS issue. Following are some of my observations and suggested plan of
actions.

1. The media in Bhubaneswar is very aware of the issue and have covered it in local papers
(and local editions of national papers) quite a bit. However, despite the local journalists
sending in many articles, the national papers have not covered it in their national editions that much.
Candidly many journalists suggested me that we write en-masse to the national papers
accusing them of neglecting to cover this issue and that may have an impact. I would suggest we do that.

2. Agamee Orissa has a done a great job and has a great plan
in bringing awareness of this issue (and the bigger picture) to the district level in Orissa. They have
lots of plans on this issue and they will bring it out as time unfolds.

3. There has been a few national coverage of this issue. I suggest that we seize them as opportunities
and write to those papers with additional articles on that issue, letters to the editor etc,
Normally, it is easier to publish on an ongoing topic in the newspaper than on a new topic.
So the papers that have already covered the issue have a higher chance of following it up
with more coverage. The particular coverages are:

(i) An article in Hindustan Times http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/hindustan-times-on-nov-29-arjun-on.html

(ii) A follow-up article in Hindustan times http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/hindustan-times-on-december-14th-arjun.html

(iii) An editorial in Pioneer http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/12/pioneers-editorial-on-orissa-and-nis.html

(iv) An op-ed piece in Hindu Businessline http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/central-institutions-and-regional.html

From (ii) it seems that after (i) appeared the Hindustan Times received a reply from the HRD ministry and as a result they published the article (ii).
This means that coverage in papers like TOI and HT, which have very high Delhi readership, result in a reaction. *Thus we must follow-up and respond to (ii).* I sent in a response,
but nothing so far. My response is at http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/letter-to-editor-of-hindustan-times.html
I suggest others should also write to HT at letters@hindustantimes.com
salil@hindustantimes.com

Similarly we shoudl write in response to (iii) and (iv) at
the addresses feedback@dailypioneer.com and
bleditor@thehindu.co.in

Please feel free to use the information in the booklet at
http://www.baral.us/nis3.pdf and also the blog site
http://iiser.blogspot.com

4. In regards to Times of India i was suggested that we shoudl write to
the addresses ranjan.roy@timesgroup.com
anand.soondas@timesgroup.com
toieditorial@timesgroup.com
editet@timesgroup.com
complaiing why it does not cover this issue in its national
editions.

5. Orissa MPs plan to continue their effort when the Parliament reconvenes in February.
They should all have copies of the booklet for their own purpose as well as for
giving it to their colleagues so as make them aware of the issue.

6. Please send the booklet (or the link to it) to as many Oriyas and Indians as possible.

7. Please broadcast this message to as many Oriyas as possible.

8. Finally, I think the time has come to broaden this issue and campaign for eliminating the
imbalance in HRD National Highways across various states in India. See Chapter 3 of the booklet
and http://iiser.blogspot.com/2006/01/imbalance-with-respect-to-hrd-national.html for some initial analysis.
More on this in later mails. Keep tuned to myodisa, ornet, agami orissa, and nis_iiser groups.

Thanks and best regards
Chitta
(ps -- Our efforts in bringing the issue to national media has bore some fruit. While a single article is
often ignored, a series of articles is often not ignored. Lets keep the pressure on and follow-up on the ones that
got published and try to convince new ones to publish on this issue. )

Imbalance with respect to the HRD National Highways

2006-01-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

By the HRD National highways we mean the union of

(i) the institutions of higher education funded by the HRD higher education division
(see http://www.education.nic.in/Annualreport2004-05/Uhe.pdf )

(ii) the technical education institutions funded by the HRD technical education division
(see http://www.education.nic.in/Annualreport2004-05/Techedu.pdf )

and

(iii) the institutions of national importance (see http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/utype.php?st=Institute%20of%20National%20Importance)

Together they consists of the following:

(a) the 18 central universities : Type (i)

(b) the 7 IITs (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati,and Roorkee), Type: Institute of National Importance and Type (ii)

(c) the 6 IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow,Indore, Kozhikode) Type (ii),

(d) IISc Bangalore Type (ii),

(e) ISM Dhanbad Type (ii),

(f) SPA Delhi, Type (ii),

(g) IIITM Gwalior, Type (ii),

(h) IIIT Allahbad, Type (ii)

(i) IIITDM Jabalpur (under construction), Type (ii)

(j) the 18 NITs (Allahbad, Bhopal, Calicut, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Jaipur,Jalandhar, Jamshedpur, Kurukhetra, Nagpur, Patna, Rourkela, Silchar,Srinagar, Surat, Surathkal, Trichi, Warangal), Type (ii)

(k) NIFFT Ranchi, Type (ii)

(l) NITIE Mumbai, Type (ii)

(m) SLIET Punjab, Type (ii)

(n) NERIST Itanagar, Type (ii)

(o) the 4 NITTTRs (Bhopal, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Chennai), Type (ii)

(p) the 4 BOATs, Type (ii)

(q) Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160 012 Chandigarh Type: Institute of National Importance

(r) All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar New Delhi - 110 20 Delhi Type: Institute of National Importance

(s) Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute For Medical Sciences and Technology, Thirunvananthapuram - 695 011 Kerala
Type: Institute of National Importance

(t) National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Sector 67, SAS Nagar (Mohali) 160 062 Punjab Type: Institute of National Importance

(u) Dakshina Bharti Hindi Prachar Sabha, PB No.1419 Thyagaraya Nagar Chennai - 600 017 Type: Institute of National Importance

(v) Indian Statistical Institute, 203 Barrackpore Trunk Road Calcutta - 700 035 West Bengal Type: Institute of National Importance

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our claim that as in case of roads where despite various other headings such as pradhan mantree gramya sada yojana, there is some balance (across states) in terms of national highways, similarly despite HRD budget spent in other headings, there should be some kind of balance in spending (across states) with respect to HRD national highways.

Using the latest budget given in http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2005-06/download_index.htm (part 7, sbe58, sb82 and sbe90)
we will show that Orissa is towards the bottom with respect to Rupees spent on HRD national highways computed per capita as well as computed as a whole. Moreover some states will have multiple times more spending than Orissa. This is unacceptable and this imbalance needs to be corrected asap.

The NIS/IISER issue in booklet form ( 3.37 mega bytes)

2006-01-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

Dear all:

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.

Central institutions and regional disparity: Business Line

2006-01-10T01:39:00.000-08:00

Central institutions and regional disparity
by Niranjan Sahoo and Pravakar Sahoo

There is a need for educational institutes of national repute in backward States such as Orissa to bridge regional disparity and trigger local development.

SINCE the introduction of economic reforms in 1991, some States have been on an accelerating growth path, while a few have not only been lagging behind, especially in socio-economic aspects.

Though we have made significant strides in education and health, their benefits have not reached all citizens in equal measure. Needless to say, a successful federation can become a reality only when there is equality in both social and economic indicators. Recognising the increased disparity among States, the National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government refers to the need to bridge this divide and promote all-inclusive growth.

One case for overcoming regional imbalance and restoring equity is that of locating central institutions. Although the country has made impressive progress in scientific and education research, it is inadequate to power a knowledge revolution. Moreover, such progress has been possible only because of "pockets of excellence" — a few elite institutions such as the IITs, the IIMs, and the IISc. By and large, universities have remained ineffective; barring a few, and such excellence has not reached all fields.

While a few States house nearly all the elite central institutions, many others do not have even one. In fact, taking note of this, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, while releasing the India Science Report, said: "I trust our Government as well the State governments will take note of these findings and evolve policies to remedy these regional imbalances."

This came as a reassurance at a time when several States are agitated over regional imbalance. However, the Prime Minister announced the setting up of the Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research (IISER) in Pune and Kolkata at the same meeting. While setting up new science and technology institutions is a step in the right direction, one wonder whether the IISER will replace the National Institute of Science announced by the previous government.

Two years ago, the then NDA Government had initiated a similar exercise of upgrading scientific and technological research in the country by instituting the National Institute of Science (NIS) in Pune, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Allahabad. One of the major objectives behind this was to correct the regional imbalance.

These new-age centres for cutting-edge scientific research were mooted by a group of Pune-based scientists and received strong support from the then Human Resource Development Minister. On December 10, 2003, the Government of India announced the setting up of four NIS. Since Orissa (Bhubaneswar) and UP (Allahabad) lag behind other advanced States in higher education and research due to lack of institutes of national importance, this announcement was welcomed by all, especially the people of these two States. The Orissa Government allotted 75 acres of prime land in Bhubaneswar towards this venture. But nothing has progressed from the Centre since then.

The aim of the National Institute of Sciences is the same as that of IISER. Thus, NIS and IISER both refer to the same concept.

Despite a lower population than the other States, Orissa is one of the top three States that send the highest number of students to other States to pursue a degree in medicine and engineering. This reflects the lack of good educational institutions in the State. It does not have any central university or institute of national repute such as the IIT, IIM, IIIT or ISI (Indian Statistical Institute). The State also does not have any premier autonomous science and technology institution funded by the Government of India.

Our system of proportional representation leads to the Centre neglecting smaller States such as Orissa. The Central Government must make sure resources are distributed fairly and the interests of economically backward States are protected.

In a recent address, the Prime Minister referred to regional imbalance in case of educational institutions and urged the State governments to deal with such issues. Such a balanced outlook is expected even in the setting up of NIS/IISER in Orissa.

The decision to relocate (and possibly rename NIS) IISER from Orissa has perturbed many, both within and outside the State. A PIL was filed in the Orissa High Court regarding this and the court stalled the setting up of IISER for the time being. In this context, it would be prudent for the Central Government to come out clearly on the progress of NIS and also the terms of reference of IISER.

The people, the Oriya community in particular, are confused about the developments. Are both NIS and IISER the same, but with different names? If not, what is happening to NIS? If they are the same, why has the institute been shifted from Orissa? The Government must clarify these.

If both NIS and IISER are the same, the news is disturbing from the point of view of attaining regional equality in higher education. This step will increase the regional imbalance of key central institutions. While no body has any grudge over locating the proposed IISERs in Pune and Kolkata, backward States such as Orissa must receive their due. Orissa has been demanding for a central university in the backward KBK region (Kalahandi, Bolangir, Koraput) and for an IIT, for quite sometime.

But these have fallen on deaf ears. The Pathak Committee set up to recommend upgradation of engineering and scientific institutions into IITs too does not mention any institution from Orissa.

Orissa being a backward State needs a research institution; this will help develop growth strategies for the State.

There is a need for an institute that offers education and training in basic science, integrated with state-of-the-art research. An NIS in Bhubaneswar will fulfil the long-standing demand of a Central Government-funded institute in the State and act as an agent of change. Moreover, institutes of national importance should be as widely dispersed as possible for balanced regional development.

(The authors are the Fellow and Faculty, respectively, at the Observer Research Foundation, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.)

(Comments: Thanks a lot to both the authors from all of us)

Why IISER was announced at Chandigarch hurridly: Analysis

2006-01-10T01:37:00.000-08:00

Dear All,
Its bit surprising for me that if the govt of India
(GOI) had to announce few more IISER, it would have
announced together one in North (Chandigarh) and other
in South (similar to Pune and Kolkata), as mentioned
by CNR Rao. It might be the reason that GOI has
nothing concrete to proof in Orissa hight court now so
that it could come out of it in next three months and,
further raising public protest in Orissa, which
together could delay functioning of IISER at Kolkata.
So not to delay functioning of the institute (which
was supposed to start in July 2006) it has hurridly
announced next one at Chandigarh. GOI has not chosen
Orissa for next IISER because GOI has been saying in
the court that Bhubaneswar was not in the list for any
proposed institute, so to keep its word and to make
sure IISER comes at Kolkata (due to left lobby), the
GOI is technically avoiding all our protests to fight
in the high court for IISER at Kolkata.

Therefore, we should continue our protest and raise
the issue during Ms Sonia Gandhi's visit to Orissa. We
should also request our MPs to continue their strong
protest in the parliament, and our MPs (irrespetive of
any political party) team from Orissa presonally
should handover the prepared booklet to the prime
minister, president, vice-president, speaker, H & R
minister, former H & R minister Dr Joshi, Mr Advani,
Mr Vajpayee, Mr Fernandese, left leaders, Ms Sonia
Gandhi, and PM-SAC committee to get a stonger effect
from it.

On the other side, it is also important to handover
the booklet to the concern advocate who is handling
the issue in Orissa High Court. We should try our best
to give all our support to the people who are dealing
it legally because legally our fight would be much
stronger and if we could win in the court GOI might be
forced to full fill our demand.

My conscience tells that there is greater chance that
next two IISER would be in Chennai and Bhopal (Arjun
Singh's place).

There is also a plan by H & R Minister to make Bhopal
University as a central university soon. Orissa govt's
demand of making Sambalpur University (which has many
similarities with Bhopal University like tribal
dominant area, same standard education, nearly same
time of establishment etc) as central university is
pending since a long time with H & R ministry of GOI.

So all of us, Oriyas and Orissa lovers, have to act
patiently and think that this the begining of our
protest in any form. Our protest should get higher
momentum in each step that we take in any form
irrespective of GOI's announcements for any other
region and states except Orissa.

Thank you very much.
With best regards
Digambara Patra
Tokyo, Japan

Analysis on things not working on our side

2006-01-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Dear all
We put enoromous effort in bringing in the NIS issue into media, unveiled the loopholes -UGC report and so on, made several silent protests, even brought in an interim stay in the smooth going IISER in Kolkata.
We did everyhting to put a (onetime) No. 7 online petition ever, made it to bring in Dr. Joshi and BJP talking in our favor, our senior cetizens approached vehemently, personally and through community to the able mind and resposnible people for making a move of the NIS and making our stand clear on the injustice. But to what avail?
Were we ever assured after several online/offline meetings by the GoI that our case will be given a second thought?
Were we ever assured that yes its a flaw, its an injustice, its a regional imbalance?
What we got in return instead?
1. Statements: "Money is not grown in trees"
" There was never one such proposal for NIS"
2. Actions: PIL was challenged by central government
and countless such ignorance to the sentiments of the oriya people?
The reason?
Perhaps we have to sit and analyse that we are lacking something:
a. what Jayalalitha is capable of doing,
b. what left is able to grab,
c. what is possible within the capacity of Mashelkar
and so on..
Its time we need a useful thought to be put in, more diplomatically, more politically, rather than going on working tirelessly with rosy rosy results in the begining and fruits being tasted by somebody else.
For sure Orissa cant produce a PM to have a IISER in Orissa (if the Punjab lilnk of present PM is to be counted). But we can draw a thin line of resistance which can force all those behind the decission to think twice!!
OR a cmoplete alternative is coming up of a pan-american university, completely funded by Non-resident-oriyas of the stature better than IISc, and having a bigger percentage of seat used by them. Its certainly not difficult to get several foreign univ collaborations for the above purpose.
SO are we ready for either of the above analysis to be materialised.
Its really call of the mother land, to be attended..

Subrat
IISc, Bangalore

Update on NIS/IISER - Baripada chapter opened

2006-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Email update by Mr. Lalit Pattnaik
forwared by Ms. Saubhagya Laxmi Mohapatra

Dear Friends,

This is a not so bad news. And we are not perturbed by this announcement of GOI.
Rather this indicates to the peoples of Orissa that GOI is aboslutely not bothered about the sentiments and requirements of Odisaha. GOI knows very well that when no bearth in Ministry was given to Orissa, Oriya's comfortably digested it similiarly if no Central funded institute will be given, Oriy's will also digest it.

However ,as planned, to mobilise support for NIS issue, the first district level co-ordination meeting was started yesterday, i.e. 8th January 2006(Sunday) at Baripada.

Around 40 Intellectual and 15 students( totalling 55) gathered in The Community Hall of Baripada, just infront of Collectorate. Ex Principal MPC college Mr Deepak Kumar Sarangi, President Bar Association with many Lawers, Professors and lecturers of MPC college, Social activists and prominent Lady Citizen of Baripada were present in the august gathering.

From Bhubaneswar Mrs Archana Naik, Mr Suderson, Dr Santosh, Mr Papu, my self and OSA Vice President Mr Dhirendra Kar joined the gathering at around 4 PM. The meeting continued upto 7PM and all were very enthusiastic about the Concept and our work. They said they are going to submit a memorandum for PM to Collector on 9th Dec'05 and take up Agami Odisha work in full speed.
An Agami Odisha group was formed and unanimously Mr. Bibek Pattnaik.was made the Conveynor for Baripada Chapter.

We all have promised to our selves at Baripada that NIS will come into existance in April 2006 at Bhubaneswar.

A Book on NIS is going to be released by Mr Chitta Baral and Dhirendra Kar at Hotel Marrion, Bhubaneswar at 7.30 PM to day. We are marching ahead and nothing can stop us from achieving our desired goal, i.e. NIS.

yours,
lalit pattnaik

Where do we go from here after the announcement of third IISER

2006-01-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

The decission taken by UPA Govt has a clear edge of ignorance over the constant appeal of Odiyas which either was never heard by whatever means we adopted, or was not in the way it was expected to be heard, to be precise like the way its heard elsewhere, with non-violence.
How can a committee or Govt go on ignoring such an appeal which lead to so many zero-hour publicity in the parliament (thanks to the media for covering all those)?
There are two ways I see from here, as we go about, (I would sincerely beg to differ from those who have difference in opinion).
First: We calmly wait for the decission to happen, and least hoping that Orissa will get a fair share on regional equity basis.
Second: We uncalmly wait for the decission to happen with the rule that the injustice is going to be dear for the central govt.
Can we still stick to plan-2, where in the center is forcing Orissa to become another Manipur?
Why should we be constantly neglected with the backdrop of some people, who operate from other than the post of the political portfolio, but keep a strong hold on biased decission?
Bande Utkal Janani

Third IISER to be set up at Chandigarh- Best example of political Hegemony

2006-01-08T02:56:00.000-08:00

also in new kerala
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=81226
pointers by Prof. Chitta Baral

Webindia123.com
Third IISER to be set up at Chandigarh
New Delhi January 07, 2006 9:06:26 PM IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday approved the setting up of the third Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in the country.

Following the earlier announcement of setting up two such institutes in Pune and Kolkata, Dr. Singh today gave the go-ahead for another IISER which would be set up near Chandigarh in Punjab.

The decision was taken in the wake of United Progressive Alliance government's initiative for furthering science education in the country.

The UPA coalition had earlier announced that while Indians were already making their mark in the scientific domain all over the world, it was necessary to further strengthen this thrust.
One of the concrete steps taken in this regard by the government has been the decision to set up IISER.

These Institutes would be aimed at actively forge strong relationships with existing universities and colleges in their neighbourhood, and share faculty, resources and infrastructure to give a definite push to the endeavour of science education.

It is envisaged that these institutes would strive for global level excellence in state of the art research.

All three IISER, to be set up in Chandigarh, Kolkata and Pune, will integrate under-graduate education, post-graduate education and research under the same umbrella.

One of the important goals of creating these institutes was to make education and career in basic sciences more attractive by providing opportunities in integrated teaching and learning of sciences and break the barriers of traditional disciplines.

The setting up of these Institutes is a culmination of a long-standing desire of the scientific community in India to set up high caliber institutes in which science teaching and education would be totally integrated with the state-of-the-art research. These Institutes would be set up with an approximate cost of Rs.500 crores each.

Many experts have expressed concern about the state of education and research in basic and natural science in the country. In spite of the fact that scientific establishments in space, nuclear and defence areas have come up in the past few years, the quality of science education has deteriorated considerably. Deliberating on all these issues in detail, the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister headed by Prof. C.N.R. Rao had strongly recommended establishing these Institutes.

For the Institute at Kolkata, 200 acres of land have been provided by the Government of West Bengal at Kalyani. Similarly, for the Institute at Pune, the National Chemical Laboratories, Pune provide 100 acres of land within its premises.

The IISER shall have programme of study in various inter-disciplinary areas of biological sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physical sciences, chemical sciences, life sciences and material sciences. Each Institute is expected to have about 2000 students in integrated master programme, doctoral programme and post-doctoral programme.

The entrance to these programmes will be through a competitive examination at all-India level. There would be about 200 faculty members in each of these Institutes across disciplines. The academic session will commence from the year 2006-07 in a temporary location.

On the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had also constituted two Implementation Committees - one at Kolkata and another one at Pune.

The Committee at Kolkata is headed by Professor Bikash Sinha, Director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Committee at Pune is headed by Dr. S. Sivaram, Director, National Chemical Laboratories, Pune.

It may be mentioned that at present the only Science Institute in the country is the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which is fully funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

This Institute, however, does not have an under-graduate stream and it caters to only post-graduate education and research. (ANI)

Comments: Thanks to the democracy of our country! We have to understand that our honorable prime minister has a unique way to show his response to the demand of millions of people of a state (Orissa)!

The sentence told by honorable minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee
".....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...."

is now very clear. Simply, UPA Govt. pulled back these institutes and wanted to setup IISERs (the same institutes, changing the name) in the states of its political allies. Certainly, Prof. Mukherjee lies before the members of parliament and the affidavit submitted to the high court is another example of hopeless bureaucracy.

One illusive remark always made in this connection that “the chairperson of SAC decided IISERs cities”. It is false. He recommends the setting up NIS/IISER not the cities.

If our prime minister dreaming to achieve some thing great and making India super power then, he is wrong. This is quite dishonest way of achieving it.

We have to wait and watch, we are the citizen of one of the biggest democracy!!

Manoj

---------------------------------------

Chitta's comments: I don't like the closed way such decisions are made. But Punjab was one of the states with no IITs, IIMs etc. So this decision is a positive one in terms of reducing HRD inequity across states. I hope the PM makes a similar announcement with respect to Orissa. If he does not, then perhaps what Manoj's says is right.

A letter to the editor of Hindustan Times about their article titled "Arjun sets the record straight" appearing on page 9 of December 15th 2005.

2006-01-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

Dear Sir:

This is in response to your article titled "Arjun sets the record straight" appearing on page 9 of December 15th 2005. It says "Singh said a decision was never taken to set up the institute in Bhubaneswar and, therefore, it would be wrong to say it was being shifted from Orissa's capital to Kolkata".

It is unfortunate that the HRD minister Singh does not consider an announcement (in December 2003) by the earlier HRD minister and by the President of India about establishment of an NIS in Bhubaneswar, a decision of the central government. The president's announcement is mentioned in the website http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html and one can look at his speech of Dec 28 2003 on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebration of UGC for corroboration. Moreover, a detailed project report on NIS dated May 2004 is still available in the government web site. We wonder, if the NDA government had not decided to set up the institutes, why would they have produced adetailed project report.

Finally, even if one believes the minister's statement regarding UGC's legal authority to be not a subterfuge, the proposed NISs could have been established under a different parameter, the same one as the IISERs, which happen to be almost same as the NISs in terms of their aims. Under what logic the UPA government decided to set up IISERs in Pune and Kolkata, in states that already have IITs, central universities and autonomous science and technology institutions, and scrap an NIS in Bhubaneswar which is in a state with very little HRD funded institutions and has no institution of national importance (IIT, IIM, ISI, etc.) and no central universities. This is especially puzzling when the planning
commission and the PM himself have rued the imbalance in higher educational institutions among various states. Scrapping the NISs and the decision on the IISER locations aggravate the imbalance ofHRD ministry's funding for higher education and technical education.A rough calculation shows that at present West Bengal has 10-15 times the funding under the above mentioned heading as Orissa and the ratio will be 15-20 times if the UPA government's decision topunish Orissa (UP and TN) and reward West Bengal (and Maharastra) stands.

We request the HRD minister, the prime minister and the UPA chairman to reconsider their decision and not create greater disparity among the states in the country with respect to HRD funding of higher education and technical education institutes. We also request the planning commission to not just rubber stamp the government decisions, especially when they go against their own findings and recommendations regarding the importance of bringing parity among states with respect to quality higher and technical education opportunities.

sincerely,

Chitta Baral
Professor,
Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral

Currently at: 133 Kanan Vihar, Phase 2, Patia
Bhubaneswar, 751031

The UGC letter to Utkal University dated July 23, 2003

2006-01-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

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

Excerpt from the Lok Sabha proceedings on Dec 20th

2006-01-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

(ii) Re: The reported decision of the Government to change the location of the proposed National Institute of Science from Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata

THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE (SHRI PRANAB MUKHERJEE): A couple of days ago, Hon’ble Member of Parliament Shri B. K. Tripathi and some other Hon’ble Members representing the State of Orissa wanted to know whether the Government has decided to change the location of National Institute of Science from Bhubneshwar to Kolkata. I assured the Hon’ble Members that after ascertaining the facts I shall come to the House and inform the Members.

The facts are – On 9th April, 2003, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken a decision to establish four Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences at Allahabad, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai and Pune. These Centre were proposed to be established under Section 12 (ccc) of the UGC Act. Vide this Section of the UGC Act, University Grants Commission is empowered to establish, in accordance with the regulation made under the UGC Act, institutions, for providing common facilities, services and programmes for a group of Universities or for the Universities in general. Ministry of HRD vide its letter dated 9th June 2003 had raised a query, whether UGC is legally empowered to set up such educational Centres under Section 12 (ccc) of the UGC Act. The matter was further examined in detail in the Ministry o HRD in consultation with the Ministry of Law. The Ministry of Law categorically opined that the UGC cannot establish the proposed Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences under Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act. The UGC was accordingly informed by the Ministry vide its letter dated October 28, 2003. 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.

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 be established. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.
The Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in its meeting held on 4th March 2005, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Prof. C.N.R. Rao recommended creation of two new institutes devoted to science education and research and also recommended that they may be located at Pune and Kolkata. It was at the recommendation of the SAC-PM that the process of setting up of these two institutes at Pune and Kolkata was initiated by Ministry of Human Resource Development. As there was no decision by the Central Government at any time, to set up a science institute at Bhubaneshwar, the question of shifting of the science institute from Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata does not arise. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Institute has been shifted from Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata.
Responding to the points raised by several hon. Members, the Minister further said: My point is that this is not my subject. My point is that the hon. Members wanted to ascertain certain facts from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. My responsibility was to collect the information and to share the information with the hon. Members. I do never say that there is no demand from Orissa to have an institution. Every Member of Parliament is fully entitled to demand that. The point which I tried to develop is that whole one year was taken by the previous Government.

Excerpt from the Rajya Sabha proceedings on December 20th

2006-01-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

II. Setting up of a National Institute of Science in Bhubaneshwar
SHRI B.J. PANDA: I am raising a grave matter which is agitating the people of Orissa. It relates to the National Institute of Science. In 2003, the then Government announced the establishment of four National Institutes of Science at Chennai, Pune, Allahabad and Bhubaneshwar along the lines of the Indian Institute of Science which exists in Bangalore. The explicit purpose of this was to bring about regional equity in providing high quality scientific and technical education to the people of India, particularly in Bhubaneshwar. In the meantime, we have been shocked to note a newspaper report in ‘The Statesman’ two months ago, in October, saying that two similar institutes are going to come up in Pune and Kolkata. There is no further news about what is happening to the NIS which are supposed to be set up in the four places, i.e. Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai and Allahabad. What is really agitating us is that there are newspaper reports that the Government has made statements that there was no such plan and there was no such commitment to set up an NIS in Bhubaneshwar.

There are reports that the Government has filed an affidavit in a PIL somewhere, perhaps, in the Orissa High Court that there was no such commitment to set up the NIS which is patently false because of the evidence we have got. We have no problem, if something is to be set up in Pune or if something new is to be set up in Kolkata. But what was already announced should not be taken away from Orissa. It must be set up in Orissa. I understand that the hon. Minister has, perhaps, given an assurance to the other House that the Government will respond to it. My request is, a similar assurance be given to this House also that this commitment shall be kept.

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (SHRI SURESH PACHOURI): This is a very sentimental issue. As per the information made available to me by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, on its meeting held on 9th April, 2003 the University Grants Commission had taken a decision regarding establishment of four Science Institutes at Bhubaneshwar, Allahabad, Chennai and Pune. This decision was taken under Section 12 of the University Grants Commission Act. Thereafter, on 28th October, 2003, the NDA Government, after consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice in this regard stated that the University Grants Commission is not empowered to open such Centres as per the decision taken under the said Section 12 and, therefore, that cannot materialise. I do not know whether it is true or not but as per the documents provided to me by the Ministry of Law and Justice, this was well beyond their jurisdiction.
A meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council was held on March 4, 2005 which decided to establish two new institutes. Therefore, firstly, it should be ensured that whether during the NDA Government’s tenure, such a decision was not taken by the University Grants Commission but it was taken by the Government itself and if that decision was taken by the then Government, the Government will never hesitate to express its positive response over it. So far as the decision taken regarding Pune and Kolkata, I think that the Government is still committed to that. However, I would convey the sentiments of the hon. Members to the Ministry concerned.

(Shrimati Sushma Swaraj, Shri Sitaram Yechuri and Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi associated.)

CM Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 11th Nov 2005

2006-01-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

D.O.No UM.1/05-547/CM

Dated 11.11.2005

Dear Prime Minister Ji:

The news item that the National Institute of Sciences is now being set up at Kolkata instead of Bhubaneswar has aroused widespread public discontentment. Of late, there has been a public interest litigation in the High Court of Orissa praying that the Institute should not be shifted from Orissa. The people of Orissa feel letdown by the decision to shift the Institute to Kolkata particularly because the Chairman, University Grants Commission had, as early as23.07.2003, indicated establishment of the Institute in Orissa. The site for the institute has already been selected and the change ofdecision at this stage is a serious set back to us. I have taken up the matter with you twice vide my D.O. letter No UM.1/05-421/CM.,Dated 23.08.2005 and No UM.1/05-491/CM., Dated 29.09.2005.
I once again strongly urge that the earlier decision of Government of India may please be honoured and the institute set up in Orissa.

with regards

yours sincerely

Naveen Patnaik

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi

CM Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 29th Sept 2005

2006-01-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

D.O.No UM.1/05-491/CM

Dated 29.09.2005

Dear Prime Minister Ji:

Kindly refer to my D.O. letter No UM.1/05-421/CM., Dated 23.08.2005
regarding establishment of National Institute of Sciences at
Bhubaneswar. As I had mentioned, Orissa was favoured with
establishment of the National Institute of Sciences which was
communicated to us by the Chairman, University Grants Comission vide
their letter No. F-1-74/2003(CM) dated 23.7.2003 and accordingly my
Government had gone ahead for selection of a suitable site for the
same. In the meantime, the site has already been selected. It is
worth mentioning that in the past Orissa has not been favoured with
either an IIT or IIM or any other Central University. The current
spurt in the industrial activity in the State makes it a deserving
location for establishment of National Institute of Sciences at
Bhubaneswar.

I would, therefore, request you to kindly take immediate steps for
establishment of National Institute of Sciences at Bhubaneswar for
which Government of India had given definite commitment and any
deviation at this stage would bring wide spread discontentment among
the people of the state.

with regards

yours sincerely

Naveen Patnaik

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
New Delhi

CM Naveen Patnaik's letter to the PM on 23rd Aug 2005

2006-01-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

D.O.No UM.1/05-421/CM

Dear Prime Minister Ji:

This is regarding establishment of National Institute of Sciences at Bhubaneswar. In this connection it may be mentioned that Chairman, University Grants Comission had communicated to Vice Chancellor, Utkal University, Utkal University about establishment of one of the centers at Bhubaneswar vide his D.O.No.F-1-74/2003(CM) dated 23.07.2003. Steps have been taken by my government to identify necessary land for the purpose.

Newspaper reports have appeared stating that the Institute is now getting shifted to Kolkata. If these reports are correct, I would like to point out that this will be a reversal of the decision of NDA government. Orissa has neither an IIT nor IIM or even an IIIT nor a central university. I, therefore, urge you to kindly sanction establishment of National Institute of Science under Government of India at the earliest for which state government have already completed works like identification of land as per the advice of U.G.C.

with regards

yours sincerely
Naveen Patnaik

Hindustan Times on December 14th: Arjun sets the record straight

2006-01-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Arjun sets the record straight

Soumyajit Patnaik Bhubaneswar, December 14

Union Human Resource Development minister Arjun Singh has termed as "incorrect" a report that said a proposed science institute in Bhubaneswar was being shifted to Kolkata.

The report published in HT on November 30, said the HRD ministry was planning to shift the proposed National Institute of Science (NISc) out of Orissa.

In response Singh said a decision was never taken to set up the institute in Bhubaneswar and, therefore, it would be wrong to say it was being shifted from Orissa's capital to Kolkata. According to Singh, UGC's decision to set up four science centers, at Allahbad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, and Pune, was not valid under the UGC act.

Singh said: "The HRD ministry had raised a query whether UGC is legally empowered to set up such edicational centers under the UGC Act. The matter was examined in detail by the ministry in consultation with the law ministry, which said the UGC cannot establish the proposed centers. the centr had at no time approved these institutes, as proposed by the UGC."
According to Singh, the scientific advisory council to the PM, in a meeting on March 4, 2005, in a meeting on March 4, 2005, recommended two new science institutes, one at Pune, the other at Kolkata. These institutes were to be named Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research. The proposal received "in principle" approval of the Planning Comission on August 24, 2005.

The PM also took a meeting on setting up of the institutes. The cabinet approved the proposal on October 27. The foundation-laying ceremony at Kolkata was scheduled for October 30, which, however, was cancelled after 29/10.