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

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.