Orissa Higher Education Task Force

Introduction and Background pointers‎ > ‎

The official site of the task force is at http://www.dheorissa.in/DHE/TaskForce.aspx. Following are some links from that page.

Notifications

Tentative Meeting Dates:

Initial meeting in Bhubaneswar: October 19 2009
Regional Workshop in Sambalpur: October 20 2009
Regional Workshop in Vikarm Dev College, Jeypore: October 22 2009
Regional Workshop in Berhampur: October 24 2009
Regional Workshop in Ravenshaw College, Cuttack: October 26 2009

another report on this

Regional Workshop in FM University, Balasore: October 28 2009
State Level Workshop in Utkal University, Bhubaneswar: November 4 2009

The task force members are:

Chair: Professor Trilochan Pradhan: Founder and Retired Director, Institute of Physics and Ex-Vice-Chancellor of the Utkal University
Convenor of the Task Force: Mr. Madhusudan Padhi, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Higher Education
Prof KL Chopra (former Director, IIT Kharagpur), NBA
Prof Debi Prasanna Pattnaik
Prof DP Ray, VC, OUAT
Prof AK Pujari, VC, Sambalpur University
Prof Sunil Sarangi, Director, NIT, Rourkela
Prof Chitta Baral, Arizona State University USA
Prof Priyambada Hejmadi (former VC)
Prof Swadhin Patnaik, Director, Institute of Mathematics
Mr. Abani Baral
Prof DV Ramanna, XIMB
Prof LN Mishra, former Utkal University VC
Prof Rabindra Ku Nanda, former Prof in Chemistry
Prof Damodar Acharya, Director IIT Kharagpur
Dr. Rajib Sahu, Resources Consultant
Dr Achyut Samant, UGC member

In addition, the special invitee to this task force include:

All other vice-chancellors of universities in the state (Utkal, Berhampur, NOU, FMU, Ravenshaw, BPUT, VSSUT, Culture U, KIIT U, SOA U, NLUO, CUO, Sri Jagannath U)
Director, NISER, Prof Chandrasekhar
Ex-state information commissioner Radhamohan
Director, IIIT, Bhubaneswar, Prof Gopal Nayak
Commissioner-cum-state project director, OPEPA
Director of higher education
Director of secondary education
Director of elementary education
Director of technical education and training
Director of medical education and training
Prof Bhagaban Prakash
Chairman, HDF, Prof D K Ray
Prof Dhanada Mishra
Prof M K Mishra
Retired principal, R D Women’s College, Prof Bijaya Mishra.

The main task of this task force is to prepare a vision for higher education in Orissa that includes two one year plans (2010-2011 and 2011-2012) and two five year plans (2012-2017 and 2017-2022) corresponding to the 12th and 13th five year plan of India.

As per a Times of India report:

The task force will "study the present scenario of higher education in Orissa in all sectors including industries, agriculture and medical; suggest ways and means to improve the situation and bring it at par with international standard, keeping equity, excellence and inclusion as focus areas and suggest draft higher education policy for the state."

Officials said five regional consultative workshops will be held in Cuttack, Balasore, Sambalpur, Jeypore and Berhampur and a state-level workshop in Bhubaneswar to elicit opinion of the intelligentsia and stakeholders. Besides, sub-committees will be formed to examine such aspects as "expansion and structural configurations, quality and curricular concerns (including teachers training), governance issues (including autonomy and regulatory system), and financing of higher education."