Posts filed under ‘Sambalpur-Rairakhol-Kuchinda’
Why should Prof. Arun Pujari be appointed as the VC of Sambalpur University for the second term?
Following was a repose from Dr. Arjun Purohit on the VC appointment issue of SU (this was posted in KDDF):
Odisha unsafe for doctors: VSS medical college, Burla students register protest
Following reports are from the Sambad:
Sambalpur University offers option of switching courses to Post Graduate applicants
BHUBANESWAR: The Sambalpur University has come out with a novel formula to revive its dying post graduate (PG) departments and at the same time admit more students in different courses.
Under the new system called the application transfer arrangement, if a student is not selected for the PG course for which he/she applied, depending on eligibility, the student will be “pursuaded” to take admission in some other course where seats are lying empty. Departments like statistics, anthropology, food technology, home science, bioinformatics and electronics subject generally receive very few applications.
Confirming the varsity move, PG Council chairman Prof B K Tripathy on Tuesday said students who will fail to get selected for a seat in the course applied for, will be counselled and given an option to take admission in one of these courses.
While there is just one applicant for statistics, which has 16 seats, there are very few aspirants for anthropology, food technology, bioinformatics electronics and home science.
Tripathy said there are very few colleges offering statistics at the graduation level. Hence, very few students want to pursue post-graduation in statistics. On the other hand, there are 66 applicants for 16 seats in MA or MSc mathematics. Some of these students will be given an option to take admission in statistics, if they want.
The home science department this year has just four applicants for 16 seats. “This may be because the course had a new nomenclature this year. It was earlier called MA/MSc in home science. From this year, the varsity has changed it to MA/MSc home science (nutrition and human development) ,” Tripathy said.
The varsity has got a record 250 applications for MSc Physics which has 24 seats. Some of these students will be given option to take admission in MSc electronics which has received around 10 applications for 20 seats.
The Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology, which offers the bioinformatics and electronic courses, said students who have applied for MSc life sciences but failed to secure a seat will get a chance to take admission in MSc bioinformatics.
Students, however, are not optimistic about the move. “I have applied for maths. Why should I switch to statistics and waste my time?” said an applicant preferring anonymity.
Besides physics, departments of chemistry, English, sociology and political science also have received huge number of applications.
The varsity has got over 230 applications for 24 chemistry seats and 88 applications for 24 English seats. The varsity has got around 1800 applications this year for various PG courses compared to 1500 applications last session, varsity officials said.
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose College, Sambalpur lies neglected
Following report is from The Telegraph:
Sambalpur, June 23: Netaji Subash Chandra Bose College here, which was granted the status of “government lead college” of Sambalpur district by the state government in 1990, is dogged by problems allegedly because of administrative apathy.
The college, which was being run by a private trust, came into government hands in 1982.
Until almost the next seven years, the college did not have its own building and was run from the town hall. In 1990, it shifted to its present 8.5 acre campus at Pilakandeipara in Maneswar block.
Infrastructure woes of the college did not end even after it moved to its permanent building. To start with, the college still does not have regular water supply. Lack of drinking water facility has remained a major concern for both staff and students. Although the college has more than 1,400 students, there is no hostel facility to accommodate those who come from outside the district. Plus Two science students alleged they were not getting proper guidance in the absence of a laboratory assistant and attendant.
“Though Netaji Subash Chandra Bose College has been endowed with the status of a ‘government lead college’, it is crippled with infrastructure problems. As per the norms, a ‘government lead college’ should have got a lot of facilities. The college has been named after Netaji Subash Chandra Bose but there is no statue of the freedom fighter on the campus,” said principal Dilip Parichha.
The principal alleged that despite drawing the attention of the higher authorities on several occasions, there had hardly been any initiative to improve the situation.
“The college building is lying in a dilapidated condition and classrooms need immediate repair.
“During monsoon, it becomes difficult for us to conduct classes as rainwater constantly seeps through the roof. We had also urged the block authorities to repair the road in front of the college. But all this seems to have gone in vain,” said Parichha.
Laxmidhar Jena, who studies in the college, said students hesitate to take admission here as it was located far away from the city.
“The road leading to the college is in a bad condition. One could conveniently reach the college only if the government constructed a bridge over the Haradjor river,” he said.
Pawan Kumar Ahir, a Plus Three final-year commerce student of the college, said the college playground was full of wild shrubs.
“We heard that a grant of Rs 10 lakh was received from the Western Orissa Development Council to develop the ground, but the amount was not sufficient,” he said.
VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla state-of-affairs irks High Court team
Following report is from the expressbuzz.com:
SAMBALPUR: A three-member delegation from the Orissa High Court led by amicus curiae Prabhat Ranjan Dash expressed dissatisfaction at the facilities available in VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla, during its visit on Saturday. Dr P K Pradhan and advocate Tarananda Pattnaik are the other members of the team.
The delegation said besides insufficient number of doctors and para-medical staff in the hospital, there was lack of medical equipment to treat critical and emergency patients. Despite bringing this to the notice of the State Government, no step has been taken so far. Dash said there was just one faculty in Neuro-Surgery Department and even the Cardiology Department is devoid of basic life-saving equipment. “These departments are not conducive for treatment of critical patients,” he said.
Even the Burn Unit does not have any facility and the mandatory Plastic Surgery Department which should be attached is not there, Dash added. Similarly, the five dialysis machines are insufficient and the required number of doctors are not available. As far as the 10-bed ICU is concerned, the four ventilators are not functioning. Informing that funds have been sanctioned for uninterrupted power supply, he said that the corridors of the hospital do not have lights and no fans in the wards.
Xavier’s Institute of Management (XIMB) plans for a University at Sambalpur
Following is a report from the http://www.pagalguy.com:
Bhubhaneswar-based Xavier’s Institute of Management (XIMB) is in the process of turning into a university soon, its Director Fr PT Joseph, SJ tells PaGaLGuY. In this interview, he also speaks about the curriculum changes the institute is planning for its Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) and the PGDM Rural Management courses.
What changes can the incoming batch of 2013 look forward to benefitting from at XIMB?
From the point of view of the fulltime programme students, we will be revising the curriculum a little bit next year. Apart from that, although it doesn’t directly affect PGDM or PGDM(RM) students, but we have started a 1-year advanced management programme on Resettlement and Rehabilitation and Corporate Social Responsibility for 15 executives of Uttarakhand’s Tehri Hydro Development Corporation. This along with our other initiatives in the rural management and social sector will continue to be under focus in the coming year.
Are you looking at an increase in intake for any of the the two-year programmes?
We were looking at expansion in the number of seats but the proposal hasn’t gone past AICTE’s regulations. But we may become a university soon and therefore increase intake from a university perspective. That process might take one or two months to finalize, but we are in the process of becoming a university.
Would that mean that the PGDM degrees would be offered as full-fledged MBA degrees under the XIMB University?
The PGDM will still remain as an AICTE-approved course, it may not become a university degree for now. But after we get university status we may start some other type of programmes under the university. Right now we have gotten the government sanction of Rs 10 crores and are involved with acquiring the necessary land for the University in Sambalpur. Until land is acquired, which is priority for now, we aren’t in a position to share more details.
What is XIMB’s faculty strength now and how are you thinking about expanding it?
As of now we are 55 in total. One more is joining in December and another two may join in January 2011. We hire faculty whenever we come across somebody good. For example, one of the faculty joining next is a Cornell University PhD with lots of experience. Another person in the recruitment process has worked in Netherlands and has a PhD from Korea.
What kind of curriculum changes are you going to make in the PGDM and PGDM(RM) courses before the next batch joins?
We have already started a new course on Environment and Sustainability which is mandatory for all the 180 PGDM students. There’s another mandatory course on Emotional quotient and Leadership. Next, we are planning a meeting of all the faculty on the January 12, 2011. Before that meeting, a committee is preparing the background papers by looking at changes in the global and Indian economy. Only after the January 12 meeting will a clear picture emerge about the exact changes.
But speaking in general, we’ve been teaching management that is too bifurcated by specialization in our view. As you know, students choose to go for either marketing or finance or other specializations during the course. We are having a feeling that there should be some integration between these specializations by changing their content and give each course a holistic approach. For example, we know that there is a good market for inkjet printer cartridges. But inkjet cartridge production also generates a large amount of waste and affects the environment. So when we teach either of marketing or production management, we need to also bring awareness of sustainability in and show how both marketing and production are linked. If we can do this, we will not only make better managers but also better human beings. Apart from that, we would like to increase our connection with the bottom of the pyramid. We have a very strong programme in which all 180 PGDM students went and stayed in villages for 3 days. We want to increase their exposure to bottom of the pyramid and to leadership. We would also like to focus on ways to increase mentoring from faculty and senior students.
What are your thoughts on b-schools changing their admission policy to reduce the number of engineers in the batch?
This is something we tried to do last year already. We wanted to bring down the number of engineers and increase the batch diversity by taking in students from other backgrounds. But unfortunately all the students who are getting good grades in XAT were engineers and we could not reduce their number last year. But we’ll continue to give quantitative ability lesser weightage compared to verbal and commnication skills and try to reduce the number of engineers.
Looking at the Indian scenario, I would prefer 60% engineers and 40% non-engineers ideally in the XIMB batches. The job market requirements are still such that the engineering background is preferred so we cant reduce it too much.
We have traditionally seen what an engineer-driven MBA job market looks like. But in your view what scope do non-engineers with an MBA degree have in the market?
Only the product marketing, production and manufacturing companies need people to necessarily have engineering backgrounds. But the remaining type of jobs, that is finance, human resources, some types of marketing and market research, advertising are areas that do not really require engineers.
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to set up medical and engineering colleges in Orissa
Following report is from the Pioneer:
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will set up a medical college and an engineering college in the State as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Informing about the proposed institutes, Energy Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said the State Government has lauded the CSR proposal of NTPC. The location for the colleges are yet to be identified and talks are on, the Minister informed.
Following is another report from http://www.business-standard.com:
National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC), India’s largest power generation utility, has sought 15 acres of land from the Orissa government to set up a medical college. The company also intends to set up a power engineering institute in the state.
The locations and other specifics of these two institutes are yet to be finalized.
“NTPC has sought 15 acres of land for setting up a medical college in the state. It has also evinced interest in setting up a power engineering institute. The company has written to us, requesting for land allotment and we will hold an inter-departmental meeting soon to decide on the site for the medical college and the power engineering institute. The details of the medical college are yet to be finalized but as per the norms of Medical Council of India, they have to start with a 300-bed facility”, an official source told Business Standard.
NTPC which had proposed to set up two super thermal power plants to be set up at Gajamara in Dhenkanal district and Darlipalli in Sundergarh district and also add 1320 Mw to its thermal power station at Talcher, was keen to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the state owned Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco).
The PPA was to be signed between NTPC and Gridco for a period of 25 years. NTPC is setting up a 3200 Mw power plant at Gajamara and 4800 Mw power plant at Darlipalli.
One of the conditions set by the state government for signing of the PPA was the setting up of a medical college and a power engineering institute. The second condition was allocation of 50 per cent power for the state from the two proposed super thermal power stations.”NTPC has claimed that it has got the approval of the Centre for allocation of 50 per cent of power for the host state. We have asked the company to produce a copy of the letter of approval of the Centre”, the source added.
The proposed super thermal power projects of NTPC at Gajamara and Darlipalli were scheduled to be operational by 2016-17. The Gajamara project needed 2900 acres of land and NTPC claimed to have conducted the gram sabha for this project in March this year.
This is a good initiative by NTPC. The Orissa govt. must ask other industries to establish medical and engineering colleges in the industrial zones of western Orissa. In particular, such industry sponsered institutes need to be established in Sambalpur-Jharsuguda and Rourkela-Sudergarh belt.
Gangadhar Meher College, Sambalpur to get unitary varsity status
Following is a report from the expressbuzz.com:
BERHAMPUR: The State Government has decided to elevate Khallikote Autonomous College here and Gangadhar Meher College at Sambalpur to unitary university status, said Higher Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra here today.
A government appointed task force on higher education reforms had suggested upgrading these two premier autonomous colleges to university status, the Minister said while addressing a function of the Students’ Union of Khallikote College.
Mishra however stressed the need to develop necessary infrastructure facilities before the second oldest college of the State was declared a unitary university.
While at least 50 acre was required, Khallikote Autonomous College had only 16.74 acres of land in its possession.
“There is a proposal to get another 2.50 acres from transport departments garage adjoining the college”, he said.
The Minister asked the local MLAs to locate another 50 acres in the town for the college’s expansion. He also assured the students to fill up the vacant posts soon. Around 50 out of 90 posts of teaching staff are vacant in the 132-yearold college, where over 3,600 students are pursuing studies in 19 different departments, 15 of them having post-graduate departments.
The proposal for a foot bridge from KKC to Junior college is under consideration and funds have been released for renovation of Jhansirani ladies hostel, Swami Vivekananda boys hostel of the college.
Among others, Berhampur MP Sidhant Mohapatra, MLAs EC Choupatnaik, P Panigrahy, BMC Mayor SS Dash and BDA chairman Kailash Rana spoke.
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 