Dear all:
First a little bit of good news. There have been various media reports that the Chief Minister spoke to the Prime Minister on Vedanta University on 23rd August 2010. Also, there was a report that the environment ministry may now give approval. (Key word here is that it may. We need to watch out to see if that happens soon or not.) [UPDATE: Since that report new reports have appeared that suggest that the environment ministry is kind of harassing Orissa on this issue.]
We recently learned about a new hurdle. Although the Orissa Assembly passed the Vedanta University bill in July 2009, the honorable Governor of Orissa has not yet given assent to this bill. Thus we need to write to his office.
Following is a petition about that. Please copy and paste and make appropriate changes to your liking and send to the email addresses below. (As always: Email has the best and quickest impact.) Please do also sign the petition and spread the word. Please note that signing the petition DOES NOT automatically send an email. You need to send email separately.
best regards
Chitta Baral
To: govori@ori.nic.in, govsec@ori.nic.in
cc: cmo@ori.nic.in, csori@ori.nic.in, hedsec@ori.nic.in, soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in, pmosb@pmo.nic.in, s.pitroda@nic.in, sam.pitroda@c-sam.com, kapil@kapilsibal.com, kapilsibal@hotmail.com, office@rahulgandhi.in
Dear Honorable Governor of Orissa:
We learned from the Orissa media [a] that the Vedanta University bill is under consideration at your office. It mentioned that the Vedanta University bill was passed by the Orissa assembly in July 2009; more than a year back.
Sir: Through this letter, we would like to explain the importance of Vedanta University to India and Orissa and would like to request your honor to give assent to the bill at the earliest, as there is an emergency.
We also request you to make the case with the Indian Government to remove the hurdles put by the environment ministry on this university.
Sir: There is an immediate urgency, as the delay in the establishment of Vedanta University in Odisha has led to other states (in particular Andhra Pradesh and Karnatak) making efforts to take the university to their state and away from Orissa. [b,c,d] If this university moves from Orissa then that would be a huge loss to Orissa.
Sir: As is well known, Orissa is rich in minerals and over the year various companies have mined various minerals from Orissa without much benefit to Orissa. For example, the Tatas have mined extensively from Orissa for more than 100 years, but have established their institutes elsewhere. [1] They made IISc in Bangalore, TIFR in Mumbai, Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, all now taken over by the central government.
Recently one of the industrialists (Anil Agarwal) with interest in Orissa has proposed establishment of Vedanta University, a Rs 15000 crore (3 Billion USD) university in Orissa out of which the promoter Anil Agarwal has pledged to give 1 Billion USD of his own money. [2,3,4] This is unprecedented in not only India but the whole world. His is not an underhanded pledge but a pledge made to the world and it is covered in Time, USA (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100powergivers/article/0,28804,1616375_1615711_1615671,00.html), Independent, UK ( http://news.independent.co.uk/education/higher/article3045374.ece ), Forbes, USA (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Anil-Agarwal_WDNS.html ) , PBS TV USA ( http://www.charlierose.com/guests/anil-agarwal ), etc.
The vision of this university is unprecedented in India and as a result many do not understand some of its aspects such as why it needs 6000 acres. For that reason you may have received some representation from people. The media also reported some controversy regarding the status of Anil Agarwal foundation. As you can see in [f] as required and also mentioned as a recommendation by the honorable Lok Pal [g] the Anil Agarwal Foundation is indeed a public company.
Coming back to the land requirement, as I read in the draft master plan [5,6], the university proper is about 1000 acres, there is about 2000 acres in greenery and the rest 3000 acres is for townships, sports facilities, etc. This is modeled after Stanford University which has similar acreage. An immediate question would be why not just have the university and ignore the rest. For a university to be world class it needs a significant funding source (such as endowments) beyond tuition fees. The annual budget of a regular top 100 (in the world) US state university (Arizona State University) [7] is about 1.7 billion USD/year (= Rs 8000 crores) and the annual budgets of Stanford [8] and Harvard [9] are in the range of 3.5 billion USD (=Rs 16,000 crores). In contrast the annual budget [10] of IISc (Indian Inst of Science, Bangalore) is about Rs 220 crores and all of our IITs put together [10] is about Rs 2000 crores/year. Even taking into account the purchasing power numbers the difference is huge. Thus even with the pledged 1 Billion USD which would get all spent in making the buildings, the planned townships etc. are crucial for Vedanta University to have a steady funding source. That is what makes me believe that there is a chance that it can become a world class university.
Supporting the role of additional land in building world class universities,
the Chairman of Knowledge Commission is quoted in India Today [e] as saying "Since public finance is an integral constituent of universities worldwide, most of the new universities shall need significant initial financial support from the Government. Each university may be endowed with a substantial allocation of public land, in excess of its spatial requirements ...” We hope that the above statement further explains why Vedanta University needs 6000 acres.
Now, the budget for one of India's new IITs [11] is Rs. 760 crores, a new IIM [11] is 210 crores, a new central university [12] is 300 crores, a central university with a medical school [11] is 720 crores, an IISER [13] is 500 crores and an AIIMS [14] is 850 crores. These all add up to 3340 crores which is much less than the 5000 crores Mr. Anil Agarwal has pledged to contribute personally (through the Anil Agarwal foundation) towards Vedanta University.
So we hope you can understand why we say that Vedanta University is a once in a century opportunity for Orissa. Please, please help in its early establishment so that it is not tempted by offers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka; or worse it decides to scrap its plans.
Sir: Minerals have been looted for hundreds of years from Orissa with nothing much to show for it. This is one real chance for Orissa, (which is at the bottom of statistics in everything) to get a knowledge multiplier that has a chance of significantly improving Orissa in all parameters.
One of the first thing that the university was building (before it was stopped by the environment ministry) is a 1000 bed hospital and medical college [15-18]. I do not know what sense it made to the environment ministry in Delhi to stop the building of a medical college that would serve a deprived state that is at the bottom of everything.
We understand that many people are skeptical about Vedanta University, partly because its promoters do not have a huge track record in higher education. But with our CM's encouragement, they were starting with a medical college [15-18].
In any case, we can understand environmental issues with respect to mines or industries or power plants. But this is a planned university which by design [6] will preserve 2000 of its planned 6000 acres as greenery. It is using land that is mostly infertile to farming due to sand infiltration. It is indeed near a sanctuary for deers. But we have had IIT Madras carved out of Guindy national park [19] and IIT Bombay is next to Sanjay Gandhi National Park. IIT Mandi is being made in the mountains and forests of Himachal Pradesh. At the same time, a trip to IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore, campus or NCL Pune will enlighten many how well planned institutions of higher learning actually improve the environment of their surroundings.
As mentioned before, there is news that because of the delay Vedanta University is contemplating moving to a southern state [b,c,d,21,22]. If Vedanta University is moved from Orissa, then that will be a loss of a century for Orissa.
If the Vedanta University is completely scrapped that will be a huge loss to India as well, as the honorable PM and the honorable HRD minister and the Knowledge Commission are rightly desperate about establishing universities with world class potential in India and Vedanta University would have motivated other billionaires to dream and execute similar universities across India.
As mentioned before we are writing to you because Orissa papers have mentioned that the bill having passed in the Orissa assembly in July 2009 is waiting for your approval.
We request you to see through the politics of opposing anything Vedanta. As Business India notes, many who are opposing Vedanta University in Orissa are from Congress and BJP, while the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh and the BJP government in Karnataka are wooing the Vedanta University to move to those states.
Sir: For too long, Orissa has been at the bottom of everything and its minerals have been taken to raise the standard of rest of India. This is one chance of a century that should not be missed by Orissa.
Sir: As the Governor of Orissa your honor is the custodian of Orissa and we request you to take appropriate actions so that this once in a century opportunity is not wasted. In particular, please give assent to the Vedanta University bill and please convince the Indian Government from removing the hurdles so that Vedanta University can start building its medical college and hospital which it was about to build [25,26,27] and for which master plan were ready.
(Included below are pointers to various references mentioned above.)
sincerely,
The undersigned
[a] Dharitri report that Vedanta University Bill is pending with the honorable Governor: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/5262
[b] Business Standard on Karnataka and Andhra's wooing of Vedanta University: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/rosaiah-invites-aaf-to-relocate-vedanta-university-to-ap/405561/
[c] Sambada Headlines regarding Vedanta University being wooed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/5214
[d] Sambada mentioning that Orissa Chief Minister bringing the issue of Vedanta University with the Prime Minister. http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/5218
[e] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/26086/NATION/School+for+squabbles.html
[f] http://www.orissalinks.com/wp-content/uploads/image/2010%2004%2006%20Anil%20Agarwal%20Foundation.JPG
[g] http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4196
[1] Open letter to Tatas: http://sites.google.com/site/chitta/openlettertothetatas
[2] Vedanta Univ Web Page: http://vedanta.edu.in/
[3] Keeping track of Vedanta University's progress 1: http://vedantauniv.blogspot.com/
[4] Keeping track of Vedanta University's progress 2 : http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/category/universities/bbsr-ctc-puri-area/vedant-university
[5] Understanding Vedanta University's plans: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1696
[6] Land Use Plan: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2878
[7] ASU Budget: http://budget.asu.edu/all-funds-budget-0
[8] Stanford Budget: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/businessaffairs/cgi-bin/downloadpdf_v3.php?file=BudBk_2010-11_sec1.pdf
[9] Harvard Budget: http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_Harvard_Fact_Book_2009-10_FINAL.pdf
[10] Higher Education Budget 2010-11: http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2010-11/eb/sbe58.pdf
[11] IIT, IIM, World Class Univ budget: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=37684
[12] Central Univ cost is 300 crores: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=29814
[13] IISER budget: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=12975
[14] AIIMS budget: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/aiims-to-start-functioning-in-jodhpur-in-23-yrs-azad/517370/
[15] Vedanta Medical College 1: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2986
[16] Vedanta Medical College 2: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2983
[17] Vedanta Medical College 3: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2513
[18] Vedanta Medical College 4: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2309
[19] IIT Madras took land from Guindy National Park: http://www.iitm.ac.in/biodiversity
[20] http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/env-crz-vedanta.pdf
[21] http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2010_07_24_The_Learning_Curve.html
[22] http://sify.com/finance/vedanta-may-shift-varsity-to-southern-states-news-default-kgobu9ifgjb.html
[23] Prof. Baral's rejoinder to Ramesh's comments on IIT in Orissa: http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/286
[24] http://www.hindustantimes.com/Environment-Ministry-puts-on-hold-Vedanta-University-in-Orissa/Article1-542363.aspx
[25] http://www.jensenpartners.com/projects/vedanta-university-teaching-hospital
[26] http://www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=9C1D8AFF47604273815B68CD6BE372A7&nm=News&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=DF5CBB68FE264682A1FB4987A2B0FB87
[27] http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2983
| No.1 Chitta Baral, |
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| No.4 Prasant K. Mahapatra, Scientist Qr No. C-27, CSIO Colony, CSIO, Sector-30C, Chandigarh-160030 |
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