IIM Sambalpur to run from Jyoti Vihar, Burla

Following is a report from the TNIE:

SAMBALPUR: The temporary campus of Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur (IIM-S) will be shifted to Sambalpur University after September this year. At present, the premier institution is being run from a private institution, Silicon Institute of Technology (SIT), at Sason here.Informing this, Director of IIM-S Mahadeo Jaiswal said the institute will run from the Sambalpur University till permanent campus of IIM-S at Basantpur here gets ready. The permanent campus is likely to be ready within next three years while the work on the boundary wall has already started.

Jaiswal said they will soon sign an MoU with the Sambalpur University in this regard. The State Government has already allotted some buildings on university campus to run the IIM-S.
The Director said an elite B-school runs for 24 hours but they face problems in taking class during evening hours as the SIT is located in an isolated place. The faculty members of IIM-S could take classes in evening hours after shifting of the temporary campus to Sambalpur University. Moreover, permanent faculty members are being recruited.

The B-school requires modern class rooms for the students. However, IIM-S cannot upgrade the class rooms on temporary campus as the Government does not allow upgrading infrastructure in a private building. However, they can upgrade class rooms at the university, Jaiswal said.

Vice-Chancellor of Sambalpur University CR Tripathy said the draft copy of the MoU has already been sent to the Central Government for approval. Apart from providing building to run the IIM-S, hostel facility will be provided to the students, he added.

Basantpur near Burla will be the new Education Hub

Following report is from the Sambad:

Government College of Engineering, Kalahandi, awaits AICTE approval

Following is a report from TOI:

BHAWANIPATNA: The Government College of Engineering, Kalahandi, does not have the approval of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Recently, students submitted a 10-point character demands to commissioner-cum-secretary, employment & technical education & training department Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar, who was visiting the college.

Students also complained that the college does not have a hostel building though four years have passed since establishment of the college. As a result, all 972 students are forced to stay at another place in Bhawanipatna. Every year, 240 students take admission in the college.
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Besides, the college is functioning without a laboratory and the library does not have sufficient number of books. The students also wanted internet facility on the college campus. Lack of proper transport facilities to and from the college is another problem the students have to deal with on a regular basis. At present, all the students have to manage with only four buses.

The commissioner discussed various problems with college staff and Kalahandi collector Bijoy Ketan Upadhyay. He assured the students that the problems would be solved soon. “Within 3 to 4 months, the hostel building would be completed. Initially, two floors will be built. Sufficient books will be available in the library and laboratory classes would start soon. The internet and transportation facilities would also be provided to students within a month,” Kumar said.

Later, Kumar told mediapersons that the institute is a government college and AICTE approval is not required, but it would be given soon.

Free training for migrant labourers kids at Institute of Hotel Management, Balangir

Following report is from TOI:

BHUBANESWAR: The State Institute of Hotel Management in Balangir has decided to train children of migrant labourers of the district in food production and food and beverage services to check further migration. After training, they would be employed in the local hospitality industry. Those, who have studied at least up to Class VIII, and have attained the age of 18, will be eligible for the free-of-cost training.

“The programme is being started keeping in mind the large-scale migration that Balangir district witnesses every year. We will go to the migration-prone areas to identify eligible candidates from among the children of migrant labourers,” said Chandrakanta Mohapatra, principal of the institute.

While the food production training will be of two-month duration, food and beverage services training will continue for one and a half months. The training programme will be free of cost with the Centre sponsoring it under its ‘Hunar Se Rojgar’ scheme.

“We have the capacity to train 350 students, all of whom will be from the migration-prone belt. However, others who fit in the eligibility criteria can also join the training. Out of Rs 27 lakhs funded by the Centre, Rs 13 lakh will be spent on the training, said the principal. He also said more children would be gradually incorporated into the programme under the state government’s Nijukti mission. A total of 375 students might be accommodated by the end of March, said the principal.

‘After the training programme is over, we will ask hoteliers to recruit the trained youths. Since urban Balangir has many good hotels, there won’t be any problem in placement,” said Suresh Kumar, a trainer. He said free uniform, tools, food and accommodation will be provided to the trainees. After completing the training, students will have the option to be self employed as well.

The food craft institute was up-graded into a hotel management institute in Balangir to boost up tourism and hospitality industry in the region and generate local employment. Earlier, the institute has set a record in giving training to roadside dhaba owners across the district.

The proposed Xavier University’s Balangir campus gets green signal

Following is a report from the Pioneer:

Xavier’s University to open campuses in Puri, Sambalpur and Balangir

Following is a report from http://www.livemint.com:

New Delhi: In a departure from the current trend in business education, the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) is opening its own university and taking away some of its courses from what it describes as a restrictive All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) accreditation process. This will allow it to impart “innovative courses”.

To be named Xavier’s University, the institution will start its first campus in Orissa’s Puri district, followed by two more campuses in Sambalpur and Balangir districts.

“The AICTE has a lot of restrictions when it comes to expansion,” XIMB director P.T. Joseph said over the telephone from Bhubaneswar. “Now, we have got a go-ahead from the state government to start our own university.”

AICTE chairman S.S. Mantha could not be reached for his comments despite several attempts.

Joseph said the institute will spend about Rs70 crore in the first phase of the university plan, of which Rs20 crore will come from the state. While the first campus in Pipli, Puri, will be spread across 35 acres, the Sambalpur and Balangir campuses will be built on 25 acres and 15 acres, respectively. The university will be set up as a private one under the state’s rules, which means it will have more autonomy. “There will be more investment as we progress,” Joseph said.

The central government also wants to turn leading engineering and management institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) into multi-disciplinary schools. The state-commissioned Yash Pal Committee on higher education reform had advocated the multi-disciplinary approach.

“IITs and IIMs were created in the first phase of nation building and kept out of the traditional university structure to give them free play to be able to help the nation have a pool of excellent engineering and managerial talents,” said the 2009 Yash Pal panel report. “To a fair extent, these institutions have succeeded… they need to broaden their curriculum and assume the role of full-fledged universities without losing their unique character.”

To start with, XIMB will offer students the rural management course without AICTE accreditation. “XIMB will remain as an institute under the AICTE umbrella. If they create problems, then we have to think otherwise. But we are taking our (two-year) rural management course to the university from next year when the university starts operation,” Joseph said. The institute will also run a master’s programme on public health in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It will also offer its three-continent master of global management programme under the university.

XIMB’s plan is a smart way of tackling issues related to AICTE, said Pramath Sinha, founding dean of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

“AICTE was created as regulator to protect the interests of students and parents from fly-by-night operators and maintain a certain level of quality. But the body has become too restrictive for quality players. From regulation, it is now doing more of control that’s stopping quality institutes from expanding and innovating with course and curricula,” Sinha said.

Allowing serious players to open universities is creating an ecosystem that’s free of excessive control, he said. Sinha is planning to open a university in Haryana under the state’s laws.

Joseph said Xavier’s University will offer both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in areas such as environmental management, microfinance, healthcare management and disaster management. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation of the campus on Saturday, according to an official invitation.

The state will pass a legislation to open the private university soon and till that time XIMB will call them additional campuses, instead of a university, the institute’s spokesperson said.

Prashant.n@livemint.com

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.

Balangir to have an govt. institute of hotel management

Following report is from The Telegraph:

Balangir, Sept. 14: Students aspiring to pursue a career in hotel management will be able to do it without having to step out of the district. If everything goes according to plan, Balangir will soon boast of a government-run hotel management institute — the second in the state after Bhubaneswar.

Principal of Food Craft Institute (FCI) Chandrakant Mahapatra said: “If things work out as planned, Balangir will soon have the second government-funded institute of hotel management in the state after Bhubaneswar. The union government is keen to upgrade the Food Craft Institute in Balangir into an institute of hotel management.”

Mahapatra said to facilitate the process, the Centre had demanded transfer of FCI land to the tourism department. It also demanded that FCI be re-registered as an hotel management institute under the Society Registration Act. “We are working on the two criteria. The land transfer process has been expedited. I am going to Cuttack today for registration related work,” he told The Telegraph.

He further said that the institute would be known as State Institute of Hotel Management (SIHM) and the Centre has assured to spend Rs 12 crore on infrastructure.

“The Centre will provide the infrastructure and the state government will have expenses for running the institute. The institute will offer BSc degree course in hospitality and hotel administration (HHA) and students will have to take an all-India entrance test to get admission,” Mahapatra said.

Started in 2004, FCI offers diploma in food production, food and beverage service, front office operation and housekeeping operation. It also renders technical advice to the hotel and catering industry. The institute was adjudged the best among all the FCIs in 2008-09.

Soumyakanta Panda, a student in food production, stood first in the country. The tourism department awarded him a gold medal and Rs 5,000 for his achievement.

The FCI also offers short-term courses from time to time. At present, it offers short courses on hospitality training under the “Hunar Se Rozgar” programme.

“These are free courses in food production and food and beverage service. During the training period, the institute provides free uniform and free food,” Mahapatra said.

He added: “There is also provision for stipend of Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 for the courses. But it is subject to 90 per cent attendance by the trainees. The Centre has provided Rs 10.51 lakh for the programme and we expect the two courses to churn out at least 200 skilled people.” After training, students will be provided placement.

Supporting the demand for establishment of an Indian Institute of Management at Sambalpur city

To,

Honorable HRD Minister Shri Kapil Sibal

CC: 

Mr. Naveen Patnaik, honorable Chief Minister, Odisha
Honorable MPs, Odisha
Journalists and Intelligentsia  

Sub: Supporting the demand of establishment of an Indian Institute of Management at Sambalpur city
 
Dear honorable Shri Sibalji,

MHRD and other central Govt. ministries have been establishing various centrally funded institutions in Odisha to make it a developed state. However, most of the centrally funded institution viz. National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and railway medical college are located in Bhubaneswar. So far, the state govt. has not established any centrally funded Institutes in the western part of Odisha.

From decades the people of western Odisha have been demanding the establishment of centrally funded institutes. But nothing is happening as Orissa govt. is continuing to be capital-centric by proposing new central governments institutes in the capital region. However, in principle, it should happen like it is happening in various developed states of India (viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, etc). I wish Odisha should follow the example of developed states of our country.
 
As reported by media Shri Amarnath Pradhan, honourable MP has raised the issue of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Lok Sabha and demanded its establishment in Sambalpur city [1].  This demand is genuine. I wholeheartedly support the demand of Shri Amarnath Pradhan, honourable MP.
 
Sir,

Kindly, consider the proposal for establishing an IIM at Sambalpur city; which is well connected to all districts of Orissa and all  cities of India.
 
The Sambalpur city of western Odisha is sandwiched between Burla and Jharsuguda. Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda region is emerging as a knowledge hub and establishing such an institute will help in cross-fertilization of ideas among the scientists, economists and scholars of humanities and social sciences.
 
Beside that Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda area has many advantages viz.
 
· Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda area is well connected to most of the regions in the state and emerging as a central location for on going industrial activities in Odisha such as Sambalpur – Angul – Cuttack – Bhubaneswar belt, Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela belt, Jharsuguda – Sambalpur – Lanjigarh – Rayagada – Koraput belt, and Sambalpur – Jharsuguda – Korba – Bilaspur-Raipur belt. Apart from the existing Industries, several major industries are coming up in this region including Vedanta Aluminum in Jharsuguda. These Industries will provide an extremely good environment to the students and staffs of Indian Institute of Management for carrying out various management related consulting projects and student internships. 
 
· Sambalpur and Rourkela city area are two major metropolitan areas of the state. Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda is more accessible for students from all the districts of western Orissa.

· The AAI is taking initiatives to establish an airport in Jharsuguda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jharsuguda_Airport). Moreover, this area is well connected to Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Vishakhapatnam, Raipur, Nagpur, Ranchi, and Mumbai by rail.
 
· The Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda area has all the necessary amenities like road connectivity, hotels, malls, restaurants, bookshops and parks which will definitely attract world class faculties for this Institute.
 
 
Therefore, the central govt should establish the Indian Institute of Management at Sambalpur city of western Odisha.
 
Thank you and best regards,
 
Sanjib
 
References:
1. http://www.tathya.in/news/story.asp?sno=4395, http://wp.me/pFC4h-G6

—
Dr. Sanjib Kumar Karmee, PhD
Department of Biotechnology
Delft University of Technology
Julianalaan 136, 2628 BL Delft,
The Netherlands

MP demands IIM at Sambalpur, Orissa

Following report is from The Samaj: