Year Gone by Makes Way for ‘A Year of Hope and Great Promises for Bihar’

After a long time, it seems a purposeful administration is in place in Bihar. The political leadership, led by Chief Minister and ably supported by Dy. Chief Minister, shows immense promise and looks like capable of handling multiple ills which has been plaguing the state for a longtime. To cap it all Bihar has also got some capable ministers now, who seem quite promising in manning important ministries. In fact, this enthusiastic bunch of ministers is making the other ministers who are relics of past also strive harder.
While Chief Minister has brought in a fresh whiff of efficiency in the administration making it appear all inclusive, and at times populist also (like in case of Pension to participants in 1975 anti emergency agitation and likes), the Dy CM seems to be quite erudite and reinforces the administrative efficiency further (as observed in initial management of flood, handling of financial matters including CD ratio and the latest fiat on movement of files among other actions) through his no nonsense approach. Two of them seem to gel in very well, and are able to manage a fine balance to the great advantage for governance in Bihar.
State seems to be doing well on Law & Order, Road Development, Water, Electricity, Education, Health and Urban Development. A vision seems to be underlying all the actions related to these thrust areas of the government (partly assisted by centers mission approach, off course). With the resolute implementation, state will definitely score well in these sectors. Still a lot more action is desired in these sectors. For example under Road Development, TN has got sanction for over 3100 KM NHDP roads for 4-laning even when it is in one corner of the country. In stark contrast, Bihar, though being at the national cross road, has only 1608 KM of such Roads approved for 4 laning. A similar situation can be seen in case of urban development where only two cities from Bihar has been declared mission city under JNNURM. Though based on population and also taking into account need for urbanization of Bihar, state should ideally have five cities in the list. Here too Bodhgaya does not include Gaya while one would have expected that at least Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga will figure in this list of mission cities. In educational sector, Bihar is still waiting for the bare minimum of higher education institutions not to mention its fair share. So far state has to make do with mere public pronouncements of certain central ministers in this regard. Nothing is there on the ground to show anything till now. In health sector state is awaiting the setting up of AIIMS which was announced over five year back. As for power sector, it is still awaiting some concrete action on power generation beyond the mere signing of MOU. Plan for a Nuclear Power Plant at Rajauli has got no mention anywhere after the visit of a team of certain officials from center. Nobody knows whether it is on or off. Most promising yet unrealized action relates to water resources department in form of integrated river management. DPR preparation on interlinking of river has been carried out, yet no realizable plan seems to be in place for other related activities like inland water transport, high dams in Nepal (for checking floods and for creating all weather irrigation potential and generating hydro electricity).
Major areas of concern continue to be industrial & services sector. Industrial revival along with services sector growth is necessary to take load off the agro sector. Though a sizable ground work has already been done and there is a clear understanding of what ought to be done. Yet state needs to cover a lot of distance in this regard. For example, state administration has started in right earnest by getting a resources mapping done for the entire state and has followed it up with a good plan to boot. State Industry department has rightly identified the traditional strengths of the state economy with elaborate plans for Mega Food Processing Zone, Mega Agro Processing Zone, Leather Park, Textile Park, Handloom Park, Aqua Culture Park, Dairy Industry and also Jute Park at carefully selected places. On services side also there is a talk of reviving tourism sector. However, a lot still seems to be amiss as can be seen in the subsequent paragraphs.
Road map for reviving services like Education, Hospitality (Travel & Tourism), Retail, Health, Financial Services and Entertainment seems at best sketchy. Aryabhatt Technical & Professional University Bill with potential to unleash tremendous growth in education sector is yet to get the cabinet approval. As for hospitality, clarity seems to be clearly lacking though state is endowed with a great potential from wellness tourism to spiritual tourism. In addition it is a gateway also to North East and Nepal. As for health sector, despite a sizable number of doctors from the state overall present allover the country and beyond, states health services continues to languish. There is no plan to position state as healthcare hub as such. Similar is the situation in entertainment sector. Here too, Mumbai continue to be the choicest city even now. As far as financial sector is concerned, it would be one of the most promising yet far too difficult to germinate in a place like Bihar. A much more concerted effort built around the high caliber professionals coupled with focused state governments’ policy would be required for the same. Setting up of a "Center of Excellence in Financial Education & Skill Development", churning out over 5000 professionals of various calibers, can be a move in right direction. Though developing financial sector will be the most challenging of all the sectors, yet, it is highly desirable for ensuring easy access of capital to local entrepreneurs. Industry cannot thrive without a good financial industry presence locally. State can also do well to focus on human resources development for logistic managements and retail industry as this is likely to be one of the most rapidly growing sector. IT & BPO industry could be considered a lost case for Bihar. State would do better by focusing on the industry which IT sector will serve, and in the due course driven by the local necessities; this sector can also take some rudimentary shape in Bihar.
On the industrial front a lot more is desirable. Till now, there is no talk about having a growth center for emerging technologies like Biotechnology and Nanotechnology. There is neither any institutional infrastructure nor any anchoring industry to tap into these sunrise segments. S&T department has done a fine job to come out with policies on these two sectors (though yet to be approved by the state cabinet), and hopefully we will have right resources and technology in due course through their effort. State needs to move a lot faster in this matter to establish itself as the leader. As for Communication & Information Technology effort seems to be simply missing and with emerging industry in south it may very well be heading towards national saturation. Bihar seems to have lost out because of lack of human resources, institutional infrastructure and anchoring industry. This segment does not figure in any of the industrial policy statement of the state till now (though there was a electronics park set up in Hajipur in past). Bihar seems to have good case of PCPIR (including Drugs and pharmaceutical industry) at Barauni. However there is no appreciable movement with exception of routine feeble demands. No concerted move has been made by the state administration roping in central ministers from the state. The result is central administration turning a deaf ear to CM’s request. It is being denied on the ground of not being the preferable place based on the Techno- Economic feasibility. This is a clear cut case of discrimination against Bihar, reminiscent of freight equalization policy of the past. Same alibi has not been offered in case of Kakinada refinery, Dabhol Plant (which central PSU's are forced to run after politician from state got away be enriching themselves) and even Sethusamundarm and Ennore power project (with Domestic Coal). There are numerous such industries being set up in country whose choice of location can not be justified as the best on techno-economic analysis. Going by this criterion, there is no justification of having refineries and power projects in and around Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. It is plain politics aimed at furthering regional agenda of the people at helm of affairs cleverly cloaked in techno-economic talks.
Make the matter even worse; state is yet to come out with plan for development of electrical and mechanical hardware industry apart from civil and metal industry. Clearly Gaya toward Sasaram through Aurangabad, and also, towards Nawada would have justified setting up of heavy industries. This regional has the potential to be developed as the industrial belt of Bihar. Yet no clear cut pattern is visible in distribution of all such industries planned at the moment. A more detailed industrial vision would underline the case for developing Gaya as Civil Engineering location by locating all prefab civil work, granite works, stone quarry industry etc there. Aurangabad could have been developed as a hub of metal industry with integrated steel plants, forgings and foundries, along with power generation, cement factory and likes. Sasaram perhaps would do well as center of heavy industries like power plant equipments, heavy earth movers, heavy machine tools etc. Also government seems to be going nowhere with the mechanical hardware/ automotive industry for which conventional wisdom would suggest the ideal choice as Munger. However, if we see the distribution of such industry some are planned at Biharsharief and Chhapra, and yet others are in Fatuha and similar other places. Thus state is loosing out on the benefit of clustering impact. To compound the growth prospect of mechanical hardware/ automotive industry even further is the delay in setting up of various railway factories announced by the present railway minister as well as the previous railway ministers. These are getting delayed where as capacity at pre-existing units elsewhere in the country is getting jacked up substantially loosing limiting the scale of operation for these factories. As for electrical industry there seems no clear cut choice of place as of now, however, electrical hardware industry, should be developed in Koshi region (around Madhepura-Katihar-Purnia). With the planned electrical locomotive factory and a number of power plants in the vicinity (Kahalgaon, Farakka, Pirpainti, Barauni, Katihar and also hydropower projects in and around and also the northeast ), it would eventually emerge as an ideal choice.
Overall the coming year seems to be a year of hope and promises. State administration is slowly but surely gaining confidence and also the developmental momentum. Already state has got a head start in policy reforms related matters. Efforts on infrastructure will also start showing result possibly towards the end of this year. Overall Road, Water, Electricity, Internet, Education and Health seem to be on track with a complementing Law and Order Machinery. One critical infrastructure which ahs been a glaring omission so far and has not even been talked about has been Gas Grid. Lot of Activity is already happening in this sector across the country. Also City Gas Distribution Plan (if any) will also be dependent on this. Also on Urban Infrastructure a lot needs to be done be it basic sanitary, sewerage, drinking water, traffic related issues or much sophisticated issues like Mass Rapid Transport System, or Civil Aviation Infrastructure.

On institutional infrastructure side, much will have to depend on central government which has earmarked 19% of plan outlay for education up from 11% in previous plan. On larger plan size, this segment will see a major jump in over all outlay. State will have to carefully count its gain in this regard. Off course, state will also have to invest its resources where it can be assured of the best returns, that is, the human resources development sector. Year has definitely ended on a positive note in this regard with various developments related to revamping of polytechnics & ITIs, announcement of setting up of Chandragupta Management Institute, starting up of five new engineering colleges as well as setting up of three new medical colleges.
Also of interest would be to watch the way privatization of sugar mills and distilleries goes. State will have to show up something concrete on the various thermal power plants like Kanti, Barauni expansion, Nabinagar 1980 mw, Pirpainti (2000 or is it 4000, I keep on reading various figures on it) and also Katihar as well.

State’s economic revival will get a necessary boost from the much publicized railway factories like Diesel Loco at Chhapra, Wheel factory at Marhaura, Rail Coach Repair Factory at Barh, Jamalpur Workshop renovation work, Wagon coupling and axle plant at Dalmiyanagar and Madhepura Electrical Locomotive Factory. Also keenly watched would be Chemical & Fertilizer Ministers effort at reviving fertilizer plant at Barauni, IDPL at Muzaffarpur and Phosphate Factory at Rohtas. In his role as Steel Minister he has already announced setting up of steel processing factory at Betia and Hajipur. Hopefully, minister will pitch in for a PCPIR (as head of the administrative ministry) at Barauni as well and will also pick up the CM’s gauntlet to announce an Integrated Steel factory for Bihar. He would have to take up the challenge of getting these two proposals pushed through the union cabinet using troika of strong cabinet ministers from Bihar in union cabinet (comprising of himself, railway minister, and rural development minister along with not so strong minister of Social Justice & Empowerment). State can pin its hope on MOS for HRD and MOS for Water Resources as well. However there is not much hope from other ministers from Bihar at center like MOS for Communication & IT and MOS for Heavy Industries. Latter ones have got nothing to show as their contribution to home state and in fact not taken any initiative what so ever.

There is a strong case for developing Katihar as a regional trade and commerce hub by connecting to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China through Sikkim, North East and beyond that is Myanmar. A strong vision with a complementing action plan would be needed for the same.

Has Anything Like This Happened in Bihar ? Dr Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of IT & Telecommunication, Please Take Notice .....

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=34235

To sustain this growth trajectory in the sector, as a major policy initiative, DoT decided to set up seven Telecom Centres of Excellence in collaboration with major Telecom Service Providers and Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institute of Management in Public Private Partnership mode in different parts of country. The main focus of these centres shall be to enhance the talent pool, creating an environment of technology innovation, securing and managing our national information infrastructure during peace/disaster and ensuring general economic upliftment through increased connectivity at an affordable price. Six Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) have been signed during the year.

Railway Minister Should Consider Setting up This Type of Institutions at Patna or Gaya Instead of Delhi

Delhi already has these kind of institutions too many.....Its the time that such institutions get located in Bihar to give state some strategic advantage. Ignoring the same tatmounts to missing out on economic potential of such institution. 'Hope the railway minister will realise the same.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=34243

Making India a global hub for International Railway Managers

In a historic step towards making India the global hub for International Railway Managers, the foundation stone was laid for the International Railway Strategic Management Institute (IRSMI) to be set up in New Delhi. The Institute, an initiative of Indian Railways and International Union of Railways (UIC), is planned to be fully operational by the year 2010 with independent infrastructure. The Institute will provide International training facilities in co-operation with top most global Business Schools to Railway professionals. This will make India a center for providing trained manpower to Rail Companies across the globe. The Institute under the aegis of International Union of Railways (UIC) will prepare International Railway managers to meet the future challenges in rail operations.

National Development Council Delibrations to Approve 11th Plan

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=34132
http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2007/dec07/r2007121915.pdf

Focus on education sector presents a good opportunity for Bihar to revisit its overall Human Resources Development Strategy.

Expectedly Bihar can hope to host a Central University of Excellence, an Upgraded Central University and also the jewel institutions like IIM, IIT, AIIMS and IIIT (one or may be two, one each for software and for hardware) as already announced in various forums by different central authorities, besides hitherto unannounced IISER as well.

Since overall burden of planning lies with the state, it would be expected that state will approach the center with a plan for taking the number of institutes to at least one engineering college and one medical college in each district of the state in the very first year of plan period. These engineering colleges could be planned with most common bachelor level engineering streams like Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Electronics, Civil and Computers. Specialized institutes should be separate from these suggested institutions and should not be planned as part of them.

For example state would need specialized institutes focused on creating necessary skill sets for sectors promising the largest job creation like a "Center of Excellence in Financial Education churning out over 5000 resources with various kind and level of skill sets”. State should also strive to have a National Institute of Biotechnology and a National Institute of Nanotechnology and may be an Indian Statistical Institute pertinent to the needs of emerging professions. The list can be further extended to prepare a comprehensive wish list
with focus on having institutes befitting the states economic needs and developmental agenda viz Institute of Travel & Tourism Management, National Institute of Food Technology & Entrepreneurship Management, National Institute of Design, National Footwear Design Institute, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Indian Institute of Rural Management, National Institute of Hydrology............ besides a NIFT and a NIPER as already planned.

Possibility of all this happening is definitely bright as appears in the excerpt of the PM's speech.

“The outlay on education goes up from 7.68% of the Central GBS in the 10th Plan to over 19% in the 11th Plan. In fact, education is the most favoured sector and the three fold increase in its share and a five fold increase in the actual outlays demonstrate the criticality of this sector in ensuring sustained inclusive growth in the future.”

Detail contours of the same reads as follows.....

“Education is an area of special focus in the XI Plan. Already, we can see that faster growth is leading to skill shortages and increases in wages and salaries for people with the right type of skills. We need a greatly expanded supply of educated and skilled labour to support our ambitious growth targets. Education is also our best hope for achieving inclusiveness and for spreading development to backward regions and marginalized groups. Nothing will ensure an effective spread of opportunity to all sections of the population more than the availability of good quality education particularly in rural areas. The XI Plan attempts to bring about a massive transformation in this area through many new initiatives. While strengthening the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a new scheme for universalizing secondary education is being proposed. In addition, 6000 model schools in all Blocks, 30 new Central Universities, 370 new colleges in educationally backward districts, a Skill Development Mission to cater to 1 crore students per year and a huge expansion in the number of Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Information Technology, Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research are proposed in the XI Plan. This is a decisive start to bridging the knowledge gap in our country. But all these ambitious investments will bear fruit only if the Central and State Governments work purposefully to see that results are in line with expectations and that the quality of these institutions does remain top-class.”

Onus seems to be on state as it appears that if state were to approach center with appropriate evidences demonstrating the historical marginalization as well as the proof of existing imbalances along with role and relevance of these institutions in helping states development plan, central government would oblige.

And this is How Central Institutions are being Set Up in Certain States...

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33993
CONTINUATION OF SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL INSTITUTE OF TEXTILES MANAGEMENT, COIMBATORE – APPROVED.
14:18 IST
The Union Cabinet today gave its ex post facto approval for setting up of “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Textiles Management” ( SVPITM), Coimbatore with a Plan support of Rs.29.00 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan.The Institute would be a centre of excellence in the field of textiles management and research studies. This decision would enable the Institute to have infrastructural facilities, viz. Purchase of land, Administrative Block, Hostels, Canteen, Computer Labs, Computers and Software & Teaching aids at a cost of Rs.18.00 crores. ****RCJ/HS/NSK/LV

And Now a GOI Flying Institute for Maharashtra........

LONG-TERM MEASURES TO MEET THE SHORTAGE OF PILOTS: CONTRACTING OUT OF MANAGEMENT OF INDIRA GANDHI RASHTRIYA URAN AKADEMI AND ESTABLISHMENT OF FLYING TRAINING INSTITUTE AT GONDIA, MAHARASHTRA
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=32493
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for management contract agreement of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi with M/s. CAE Inc., Canada and also gave its approval for formation of a subsidiary company of Airports Authority of India for establishing a flying and aviation training institute at Gondia in Maharashtra as a Joint Venture Enterprise with M/s. CAE, Canada. The management for taking of IGRUA would be taken over by M/s. CAE Inc., Canada for better management of the Akademi in a more professional manner in order to produce 100 pilots per year. The subsidiary company of AAI will establish a flying and aviation training institute which will help in meeting the growing requirements of pilots and technical manpower relating to the aviation industry.

Where is the NIFT announced for Bihar ???

SETTING UP OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY (NIFT) CENTRE AT RAE BARELI
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=32491
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for setting up of a Centre of NIFT at Rae Bareli as a full-fledged Centre like seven other NIFT Centres already functioning in the country. The infrastructure and other facilities at the full-fledged Centre of NIFT, Rae Bareli would ease pressure on existing Delhi NIFT Centre and minimize the regional mismatch between the number of seats available and the number of applicants based on present locations of NIFT Centres. It would also meet the requirement of additional seats on account of implementation of OBC reservation as and when it is implemented. NIFT, Rae Bareli Centre would be first Centre to be set up in any backward areas of the country.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CENTRAL/CENTRALLY SPONSORED SCHEME “UPGRADATION OF 1396 GOVERNMENT ITIS THROUGH PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP”

For improving the quality of vocational training in the country and make it demand driven so as to ensure better employability of the graduates, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its in-principle approval for Implementation of Central/Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Upgradation of 1396 Government ITIs through Public Private Partnership” for the XI Plan period and approval for implementation of the scheme for one year for the first batch of 300 ITI at a total cost of Rs.774.50 crore. Out of Rs.774.50 crore, Rs.750 crore shall be used for upgradation of 300 ITIs and Rs.24.5 crore shall be used for management, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme. Under the Public Private Partnership mode, for each ITI to be upgraded, an Industry Partner will be associated to lead the process of upgradation. The Industry Partner will be selected by the State Government in consultation with the Industry Associations. An Institute Management Committee (IMC) will be constituted for each selected ITI. The IMC will consist of following members: (i) Industry Partner or his representative, as the Chairperson(ii) Four Members from local industry to be nominated by the Industry Partner(iii) Five members to be nominated by the State Government(iv) Principal, ITI as ex-officio member Secretary of the IMC After the approval, 300 selected ITIs will be upgraded through Public Private Partnership. Industry partner will be involved in all aspects of training from development of curriculum to trade testing. Academic and financial autonomy given to the ITIs will improve their internal and external efficiency. The demand driven and improved quality of training will lead to better employability of ITI graduates.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=32194

SETTING UP OF INDIAN INSTITUTES OF SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (IISERS)AT BHOPAL AND THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for setting up of two Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram, at a total cost of Rs. 1000 crores ( Rs. 500 crore per Institute). Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram are the fourth and fifth in the chain of IISERs to be set up in the country by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Government of India has decided to create the IISERs with the unique objective of integrating undergraduate education, postgraduate education and research under the same umbrella. The basic idea of IISER is to create research universities of the highest caliber in which teaching and education will be totally integrated with the state of the art research. These universities will be devoted to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in sciences in an intellectually vibrant atmosphere of research. One of the important goals of creating these universities is to make education and careers in basic sciences more attractive by providing opportunities in integrative teaching and learning of sciences and breaking the barriers of traditional disciplines. One other significant concept of the proposed IISER is to actively forge strong relationship with existing universities and colleges and network with laboratories and institutions, in order to share and complement faculty resources as well as research, library and computational facilities. The IISER shall have programmes of study called Schools in various interdisciplinary areas of Biological Sciences, Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Materials Sciences. Each Institute is expected to have about 2000 undergraduate students, postgraduate students and research scholars, and about 200 faculty members, across disciplines.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=32184

If Bihar at all Exists on Radar of Ministry of Science and Technology of India???

Note: Click on the Images to See the Enlarged View

Distribution of Strategic Central Institutions

ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (NISER) AT BHUBANESWAR

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for establishment of National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar at an estimated cost of Rs. 823.19 crore and also creation of 761 posts in academic, scientific, technical, administrative and auxiliary categories. NISER will start functioning initially from the campus of Institute of Physics (IOP) and its academic programme will start from September, 2007.The said institute will conduct the following programmes in science education for bright and meritorious students selected on all-India basis : a) An integrtated 5 year M.Sc. programme in the core and emerging branches of Basic Sciences to students after their 10+2 Higher Secondary schooling. This in turn will be integrated with Ph.D. programme on the one hand and employment in various R&D organizations and industry in the country on the other.b) Integrated m.Sc. + Ph.D after B.Sc from other Universities.c) Ph. D. programme after M.Sc. from other universities.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31005

TRANSLATIONAL HEALTH SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (THSTI) AT FARIDABAD, HARYANA http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31002

TRANSLATIONAL HEALTH SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (THSTI) AT FARIDABAD, HARYANA
20:50 IST
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to the following proposals : i) To establish Translational Health Science and Technology Institute under the Department of Bio-Technology as an autonomous institution, with a total cost of Rs. 98.00 crore ii) To set up an extramural center which will over a period of seven years generate revenue for meeting 50% of the recurring expenditure excluding salaries and infrastructure upgradation. The Translational Health Science and Technology Institute will facilitate development, optimization and evaluation of technologies for public health in respect of bio-technologies by concerted work through an inter-disciplinary team. ****** SH/JS
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31002

Excerpts: PM's Speech Laying Thrust on Higher Education in Particular and Education in General

I request states also to give priority to education, as education alone is the foundation on which a progressive, prosperous society can be built. Growing revenue earnings have improved the fiscal capacity of the States. They must now give priority to education. Towards this end, our Government has decided to invest in setting up good quality schools across the country. We will support 6,000 new high quality schools -- one in every block of the country. Each such school will set standards of excellence for other schools in the area.

(Note: This ,interalia, implies that Bihar should get 534 schools(Guess these are new schools). Bihar government will do well to plan the school domain under its CSS in such a fashion as to take optimum benefit of this scheme. Mark out the domains and assign them to central government for opening these schools without compromising on CSS plan)
As our primary education programmes achieve a degree of success, there is growing demand for secondary schools and colleges. We are committed to universalizing secondary education. An extensive programme for this is being finalized. We will also ensure that adequate numbers of colleges are set up across the country, especially in districts where enrolment levels are low. We will help States set up colleges in 370 such district

( Note: Bihar should get at least 35 such colleges if not 38)
The University system, which has been relatively neglected in recent years, is now the focus of our reform and development agenda. We will set up thirty new Central Universities. Every state that does not have a central university will now have one.

(Note:Detailed plan states that there is going to be 14 new brand ones & 16 upgraded ones, Bihar must get one brand new one by providing land for the same.It must also get one upgraded central university, if not more. Since this will take the total number of CU to 53, Bihar should have got 4 of the CU though)
In order to promote science and professional education, we are setting up five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology, seven new Indian Institutes of Management, and twenty new Indian Institutes of Information Technology. These will generate new educational opportunities for our youth. I am sure that, working together, we can ensure that at least a fifth of our children go to college as compared to one-tenth now.

(Note: Hopefully state will get one IISER, one IIM and two IIIT, one for hardware& design and other for software from the announcements to be made. State should brace itself for hosting these institution with adequate provisioning of land and should pursue the same diligently )

The vast majority of our youth seek skilled employment after schooling. Last year I spoke the need for a Vocational Education Mission. Such a Mission is ready to be launched. We will soon launch a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development, through which we will open 1600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres.

(Note: Bihar government should plan to host institutes in proportion to its population if it wants to do justice to the need of Bihar Populous. This implies that state gets 130 ITI’s (one each in all the 130 towns ), 813 Vocational schools (one for each police station area) & 4237 skill development centers ( one each shared between two panchayats). For urban areas state governments shall arrange the skill development centers through its own initiative shared perhaps between two ward areas)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Full_text_of_PMs_address_to_the_nation/articleshow/2282440.cms

14 New Central University of Excellence

In a bid to have similar higher standard of education in the new 14 Central Universities proposed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the government wants to bring a uniform legislation to govern them all. The new universities would cost government Rs Rs 41,802 crore.
According to a senior government official, the HRD ministry will come with a draft law for all the new universities to have uniform high standards of excellence. Recently, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had told HT that the government intends to develop these institutes into “centers of excellence” at part with one of the best in the world.
The decision to have a uniform legislation is said to be a step in this direction. HRD ministry officials, who deliberated on the issue on Monday, said uniform legislation would ensure better regulation and maintaining of high standards of education. “It will also give a sort of uniformity to higher education system in India, which is lacking,” a ministry official said.
The government has also proposed that the new Central universities should be modeled on Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, the only university in the country among top 200 in the world.
The proposed law will also ensure linkages between Central universities enabling easy mobility of students from one university into another and a centralized admission system. However, the HRD ministry has some reservation on whether the centralized admission system would be possible for graduate and post-graduate studies in arts or commerce as evaluating students’ ability through a test may not be possible. Government officials also said the proposed law will frame complete autonomy for these universities based on JNU governance model to check “political interference” in appointment of vice-chancellors and faculty. The law would provide complete autonomy to the executive and academic council on how to run the university within University Grants Commission guidelines.
The government also plans that 14 Central Universities will have an engineering school, a management school and a law school. But, the decision on the fees to be charges will rest with the university, an official said. The Planning Commission had recommended that the fee for undergraduate courses should be Rs 12,000 per annum with 40 per cent of students getting substantial scholarships. “The fee structure should cover 20 per cent of the cost for running the university,” the official said.


http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=1f415857-1b32-449d-a449-c5160caa7232&&Headline=Uniform+legislation+for+14+central+universities

Move for 8 more IITs, 7 IIMs

NEW DELHI: In a major rollout for high and technical education, Planning Commission has proposed a seven-year special plan (2007-14) which includes setting up eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 NITs, 20 IIITs and 50 centres for training and research in frontier areas. Of the IITs, three have already been cleared and one IIM at Shillong has received the green signal. The seven-year special plan for higher and technical education would start in the 11th Plan and spill over to the next without being diluted. The plan panel has proposed a funding of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for the seven year plan. The full Planning Commission will discuss the proposal threadbare when it meets on August 6 to deliberate exclusively on the impetus that should be delivered to education for the 11th Plan. The special plan envisages setting up of 30 central universities. One central university will be located in each of the 16 uncovered states while 14 new ones of world class will come up in states which provide land free of cost in attractive locations. These universities will have various schools including medical and engineering institutions. Also, 370 new degree colleges in districts with low gross enrolment ratio would be established and 6,000 colleges would be strengthened. In the field of technical education, the seven-year plan talks of expansion and upgradation of 200 technical institutions in various states. There is also a plan to upgrade seven technical universities which include Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Andhra University Engineering College, Vishakapatnam, University Engineering College, Osmania University, Jadavpur University, Institute of Technology BHU and Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, AMU. Apart from eight IITs and seven IIMs, there is a plan to have five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, two Schools of Planning and Architecture, 20 National Institutes of Technology, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology and 50 centres of training and research in frontier areas. The central assistance under the special plan has a very strong reform component and looks up to states to agree for a minimum set of reforms to restructure higher education system covering admission, revision in curricula, collaboration with foreign universities and networking.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2249600.cms

My Notes: It would be worth watching what Planning Commission has got in store for Bihar. Would they move to restore parity by favouring the state in a major way in allocation of all these institutions, or they will continue on the old set pattern of favouring the favoured destinations(states)? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biharbrains/files/List_of_Institution_with_Locations.xls

Though it looks like that it is not going to decide on the destinations for these institutions at this macro planning level, still it would be worthy of the attention from the state which has mostly been ignored in past inallocation of central institutes and also in allocation of other national strategic assets.

SC order may derail PM’s pet project

Question mark over other prestigious Mohali projects after apex court dismisses plea on Anandgarh township
Maneesh Chhibber

Chandigarh, July 08: “I am delighted to be here today to lay the foundation stone for a new temple of learning in Punjab, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. I sincerely believe - and it is my earnest hope - that this institute will take Punjab to a new horizon in science teaching and research.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke these words on September 27, 2006 during the foundation stone laying ceremony of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Mohali. The IISER is to be set up on about 200 acres in Sector 81 at a cost of Rs 500 crore.
In the same speech, the PM had also expressed happiness over the fact that first of the five National Institutes of Public Health was being set up at Mohali by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in collaboration with the Punjab government.

However, the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the Anandgarh case — the SC set aside land acquisition for the prestigious project on the grounds of procedural lapses by the government agencies — may derail these projects.

While the process for acquisition of land for these projects is mired in legal tangles, the state government officials don't want to admit whether these prestigious projects would be completed on time and, more importantly, at the same spots where they were planned.
Apart from the National Institute of Public Health, Mohali was also selected to be the site of country's third IISER, National Institute of Biotechnology and the National Institute of Nanotechnology.

Land owners have challenged the acquisition process on the ground that the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act (PRTPDA), 1995, were being violated.
“We have already challenged the process of land acquisition for these projects at Sector 81, Mohali. Our main contention, something that has been upheld by the apex court, is that the government turned the entire process faulty by not following the provisions of Sections 56 and 57 of the PRTPDA.

According to these sections, there has to be a Board to specify an area as a regional planning area, local planning area or a site for a new town or project clearly defining the limits of the area. After considering the objections and suggestions that may be received by it, the Board may declare the area to be a planning area by a notification in the official Gazette, and thereafter appoint a planning agency for performance of the functions related thereto. However, this procedure was not followed in the impugned cases,” said senior advocate G S Grewal, counsel for the landowners, who have challenged the acquisition process.

In Anandgarh's case, the Supreme Court held that “the declaration of the planning area, a site for a new town, was never validly made by the competent authority after following the prescribed procedure and, therefore, there was in law no validly selected site for a new town nor a validly declared planning area”.

Grewal said now that the SC has ruled on the issue, the cases pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in which same questions of law has been raised are likley to be dealt in a similar manner.

In the case of land for IISER, after the government announced compensations for each of the about 400 acres to be acquired in the villages of Chilla, Mauli Baidwan, Kumbra, Raipur Khurd and Manauli villages, the landowners challenged the award, too.

Bihar Writes to Center for an IISER

Science & Technology Department has initiated a major program to revitalize Science & Technology in Bihar and to prepare the state for evolving technological requirements of the future. Other element of this program is to increase quality output of technically competent resources to meet the emerging requirements of the national economy in particular and global economy in general. Recent move to submit a demand for an IISER to federal government is one of the important reference points in the effort to bring many more such institutions to the state.

The driving motive behind this initiative is to harness the immense economic benefit by making state the hub of skilled and knowledge manpower resources. Underlying this immense possibility for such institutions is the observed large-scale migration out of state for technical education and a good presence of resources from the state in research institutions in other states and even in other countries. It is short of awakening to the fact that even without presence of a single good research institution or academic institution, state has been producing such a vast pool of highly qualified resources. State’s potential in this segment can be tapped more effectively by locating these institutions nearer home so as to create a better awareness and make access to these institutions more affordable.

Given the demand–supply gap, and states enabling policies, the economic viability of even a large number of privately funded institutions is possible and the same is reflected in the number of leading educational trusts and renowned world universities approaching the state government .

Till now, one of the important cogs in the scheme of things, that is, seeding the high quality national institutions in the state has been a glaring omission. It is matter of grave concern that federal government of India has failed to do justice to the state in this regard. Leadership at center level has been mostly engaged in patronizing and addressing their constituency at the cost of national exchequer. Some time in this process even jeopardizing the overall national interest. On the one hand there are states where national exchequer was used to create entire institutional and economic infrastructure to make them a shining example of Indian growth story, on the other hand there are states which lacks even a vestige of such national institutions and economic infrastructure. Sadly, that also includes the third most populous state of the country which is home to 8% of national population.


In this regard the initiative taken by BB over the last few years for an IISER has been quite a commendable act. This lacuna has been brought to the fore and in the public domain. Now the things have started gathering pace at state level as can be seen in the recent actions and pronouncements of Commissioner & Secretary of Science and Technology Department. Federal administration can not take any alibi for the lack of initiative from state now. Ball is firmly in the court of the federal government now. Would they be able to deliver to state a fair share of 20 research centers (out of a total of above 250 such research centers across the country) or for that matter 12 national academic institutions(out of over 175 such institutions under various ministries), it is yet to be seen. However, if national leadership takes care for restoring parity to the state by allocating over 40 of centrally funded autonomous institutions ( out of total of over 433 as Per expenditure committee report 2004-05 or CAG report which states the number above 499 in year 1998-99 report), state will definitely be a much improved place for its denizens.