Primary and Secondary Education:
[Insurance-plan-Aug15-05],
[Insurance-plan]
Editor's comment, Aug 14, 2005: The private engineering colleges and medical
colleges should be encouraged to open one or more Class I-XII schools.
In general, these private colleges should spend 10% on the above,
80% on their own stuff, and another 10% on post-graduate education.
For the 10% parts they can either have their own ClassI-XII
school and M.Tech/Phd Program or pay the amount to an appropriate
fund.
Editor's comment, Aug 14, 2005: For Oriya medium students to compete
well in national and international level exams and competitions,
after class 7 one should have the option of pursuing science
and social science either in English or Oriya. To overcome
the worry that students will lose touch with Oriya by
pursuing science and social science in English, from Class 7,
Oriya should be split to two parts, and be assigned twice
its current weightage. I.e., instead of 100 marks
for Oriya, there will be 200 marks for Oriya.
The two parts could be (i) grammar and vocabulary
-- similar to TOEFL and GRE, and (ii) Writing and literature.
(
Some decisions related to this made by the Orissa government.)
Editor's comment
on July 4 2005: My impession based on reading the newspapers
is that Orissa govt has probably become wary of some of the big Indian
players after
the TATAs taking advantage of them in Gopalpur,
and other companies in other places. It seems like
(from reading various reports:
[0:a list from 1999-how
many of them materialized?],
[1]
,
[2],
[see page 3],
[4]
)
the TATAs signed MOUs about
plants and infrastructure etc. at Gopalpur
and got mining leases but then
kind of forgot about making the plants and building
infrastructure but have been using the mines.
They used excuses, some valid, regarding this and that
infrastructure not being there. [They have signed
something more recently; lets see if that is for real or
a sham to get mining leases renewed. Some progress
in regards to their promise seems to
have taken place: a;
b
] The expectation was
that Gopalpur would be like another Rourkela or Jamshedpur.
But nothing remotely like that has happened.
Coming back to POSCO, the MOU seem to have many clauses that would
prevent POSCO from taking advantage of Orissa without
delivering on its promises. Also, if POSCO does something like
the TATAS, its easy to fight them, unlike fighting the TATAs.
Even saying something bad about the TATAs is a no-no in India.
[Thus the government should be careful in any of its signing with the
TATAs or similar big Indian powerhouses. It should make sure that
any mining lease should be tied to the other promises very tightly,
and without loopholes.]
So I personally am hopeful that POSCO will have a big impact
on Paradeep and Orissa, more than the impact of any
other private company in Orissa. Plus the investment comes
from outside India, not from inside India. Thus making more capital
available to other projects in India.
Also the government is right to not put its egg in one basket.
It makes perfect sense to try different avenues: foreign investors
such as POSCO as well as the various Indian companies.
Factories in neighbouring states -- impact on Orissa infrastructure:
[Mittal-Jharkhand] Editor's comment on July 27, 2005:
Jharkhand and
Chhatisgarh are landlocked. Mineral and manufacturing plants in
Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh
would need access to ports. This will provide opportunity
for Orissa to make its case (get Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh
legislator's support)
and make further infrastructure development
such as ports, roads and railways. In particular, Dhamara and Chandabali port,
train lines to them such as
Tata-Baripada-Balasore-Dhamara, Bimlagarh-Talcher-Paradeep,
and Daitari-Bansapani-Haridaspur-Paradeep, and roads
(
Jharkhand,
Orissa,
Chhatisgarh)
to them. While Jharkhand plants can use Haldia port in West Bengal,
for Chhatisgarh the closest ports are in Orissa (Dhamara, Paradeep,
and Gopalpur). Since Haldia port is overloaded, even for Jharkhand
easy accessibility to Orissa ports is important.
[a step in this regard],
[another step]
28th July 2005: Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh should
come together and jointly pursue several things. For example,
an IIT in Rourkela (which has the best NIT among the three states)
would benefit all the three states, as Rourkela is
very close to both Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand. In return Orissa can support
for an IIM in Bilaspur or Raipur. Good road and railway connectivity
from Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand to Orissa ports will be beneficial
to all. The three states can jointly promote cultural tourism
to the tribal areas of the three states.
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