P.K. Mahanandia: Salute to a living legend

A Dalit as India's cultural Ambassador in Europe By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

We all celebrated when Bobby Jindal made it to American Congress several years back. Similarly whether it is Mahendra Chaudhury in Fiji or Vasudev Pandey in the Carribeans, Indians always rejoice on the victory of their 'own' people. But, it is strange that an Indian who is known as the 'cultural ambassador' of India for his noble efforts to propagate Indian arts and culture in Sweden, remain unknown to a large tribe in India. It is certainly because he happened to be a Dalit and has no public relation firms to publicise his work and achievements. Nevertheless, PK Mahanandia's life and achievements can give us many lessons of how we treat our geniuses and that if opportunities are provided any body can shine under the sun. Moreover, in a country where caste hatred dominate our discourse, Mahanandia got an opportunity to develop his life and show his skills to the world only after he left India. He got married to Swede Nobility after a pure love story, which virtually had no parallel? Much before, he could achieve so many distinctions even as representing Sweden at various UN conferences, Mahanandia was humiliated in his home state of Orissa and later in the streets of Delhi just because he happened to be born in an untouchable family he had no God father who could guide him and provide support to pursue his dream to become an artist? It is important that we should understand what this story tells us. So first let me introduce him to you. Yes, Mr P.K.Mahanandia, would have made it to Swedish Parliament this year had his party Junilistan received some more votes at the national level. Mr. P.K.Mahandia became legend in his own lifetime for his amazing work, his love story and his contribution to strengthen the multicultural life in Sweden.

PK as he is fondly called was originally Pradyumna to his parents. Born in an untouchable weaver family, in 1949 in a village of district Kandhapada, Orissa, this outcaste always had a fascination for the nature. He had seen the dangers of the Varna system and how it reduces people to nothing. An individual become useless because of his caste identity. His father was a postman who later rose to become postmaster. The father wanted to educate his children and hence PK was sent to local schools yet his caste identity always came in between to haunt him. His fellow student would laugh at him and mock his family and caste. Knowing this, his father arranged him a hostel at Mahendra High School but here also the cook behaved in the similar fashion what I would recall what Dr Ambedkar witnessed when he returned to India from Abroad. It agonized the young mind of Pradyumna. I am sure all those who are reading this would understand that caste is not class in India. It is worst than any other disease,

Pradyumna was a born artist who had grown in the lap of nature. From the college days, his art started reflecting in his various works. But very unfortunately Pradyumna was unable to concentrate on his education. While he remained weak in mathematics even though, he was a keen student of science at the school level.

He later joined Viswabharati to study art on the advice of his elder brother. Despite his selection at the art school, it became impossible to pay the high fee and he had to return home disappointingly. It was more disappointing that this legendary artist could not find a Bhadrlok gentlemen taking care of him and exploring his art. One wonders what were the virtues of Vishwabharati if it could not nurture a talent in India. But perhaps that is not in our traditions particularly when we all suffer from Dronacharya syndrome. Hence, after his failure to get admission in Vishwabharati, he joined college of art, Khallikote, which was affiliated to government of Orissa. But that did not satisfy his quest to develop art and he finally took admission at Delhi College of Art to study Fine Arts 1971.

In Delhi he had to face similar problems. The struggle continued where he slept on the streets and used the public toilets. He still remembers those horrible days when he used to roam around particularly near the old coffee house, which is now Palika Bazar More painful was that there was no body to help him provide him the basic necessities of life. He would walk barefoot and was virtually homeless till a friend Tariq Beg shared his accommodation with him. Talent never remain hidden and with in few years, Pradyumna became an expert in making portraits, as his biographer noted Oriya poet of international repute Mr Jayant Mohapatra writes ', The excellence of the portrait of the cosmonaut Valentina Tereskova was the first in his efforts at portraiture, and remains a memorable creation for all time. His art became topic of discussion everywhere, and his name found prominent place in the country's newspaper. Pradyumna could then easily obtain permission from the Delhi High Commission and he began to take his art to the streets, sketching and painting near the Fountain in New Delhi's Connaught Place.'

In 1975 Charlotte, a Swedish student Charlotte came to know about the creation of portraits by Pradyumna, in a leading English Newspaper the Hindustan Times. Perhaps, that changed the entire life of Pradyumna. Charlotte decided to visit his exhibition and went to Connnaught place where Pradyumna was making portraits of those who desired so. Watching him make portrait of people made immediate influence in the mind of Charlotte. During the making of portrait for Charlotte both of them fell for each other. They married according to local traditions and Charlotte was later rediscovered as Charulata and in short Lotta.

While Charlotte had to return to Sweden because of her visa, Pradyumna decided that he would go on his own to that country. May be, the traditional 'purushartha' or 'manliness', prohibited him to take a favor from his wife who could have easily send him an air ticket. It was nearly impossible to earn that much of money by designing portraits in the streets of Connaught place in the mid seventies. So one fine day, Pradyumna realized that he probably might not earn the amount of money required to buy an air ticket to Stockholm and therefore he decided to go to Sweden on Cycle, which was his support system to commute in Delhi. It was 1977 and Pradyumna started from Delhi and passed through Amritsar and reached Afghanistan. From there he proceeded to Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany and Austria, Denmark and then Sweden. PK remembers how difficult it was for him to travel in these tough mountainous regions. At the Sweden border, Pradyumna was stopped by the immigration authorities, who wanted to know the purpose of his visit to Sweden. The poor fellow showed them his marriage photographs and letters with Charlotte which the officials refused to believe. The official found it unbelievable that a woman from Swedish Nobility would marry to an ordinary man from India. They feared that the man was lying and therefore they called her. It was only after Charlotte informed that that the said man was her husband that the authorities decided to let him in. It was remarkable that Charolotte had never referred to her family background to Pradyumna very unlike with our stiff traditions where family background and father's business becomes bigger subject than the individual getting married.

This shows also a clear difference between the two cultures. The Indians value system and the Swede culture. At a time when we have witnessed many honored killings in India because of the caste tag, a woman of Swedish aristocracy marrying to an Indian Untouchable boy in the 1970s was itself unbelievable. For an India, which is still struggling to accept that Dalits are equal partners in development, this is an important lesson. When I asked this question to PK Mahanandia as what difference he found in the two cultures since he has been living in Sweden for nearly 40 years, he said, " I personally never felt any discrimination in private or in public. May it is due to my personal image in this country. People respect me by knowing my background as an outcast and married in the Swedish aristocracy'.

It is interesting that PK has been able to find some relationship between India's caste system and similarities in Sweden. 'Perhaps you know CHATURVARNA, of India is the same as in ancient structure of Nordic society. In Sweden It was called "Fyra Stånden. "Swedish society was divided into four main groups ADEL, PREST, BORGAR and BONDE. Their birth professions were like Chaturvarana in India. If you enter into Swedish Parliament There is a room of Chaturvarna (Where I had arranged Dalit arts exhibition), you can se 4 huge oil paintings representing Adel, prest , borgar and Bonde like Kshatriya, Brahmin, Vasya and Shudra. It seems Sweden has already come over the problem of Chaturvarna a long time back but India is not able to get rid of Chaturvarna mentally", he says.

Mr. Mahanandia says that India can learn a lot from Sweden, as they are a better democracy than ours. India has a long way to develop itself into a mature democracy.

Interestingly, a documentary film on his life, broadcast by Swedish National television three times, became the entry point for common Swede to hear and understand the word "Dalit". Impressed with his impeccable credential P.K.Mahanandia was invited by a new political party JUNILISTAN to visit European Parliament Brussels and then nominated as a candidate to contest the elections for the Swedish Parliament. 'I personally got 9.7% of all votes where margin is 8%. It means I would have come into the Swedish parliament if my party had got 4% vote in whole of Sweden. Last EU election 2002 party had got more than 14. %," Says Mahanandia.

In Delhi, as the Lok Sabha passed the reservation for OBC bill, the merit mongers have again taken to the streets decrying government actions. Merit is again the talk of the town and Dalits are lampooned as dull, ordinary, lazy and non-meritorious people. I felt compelled to ask Mr Mahanandia, who is a living legend and respected for his art all over the world as what is his view of merit. He said, 'Merit does not belong to any caste, creed or sex. If opportunity is given any one can rise. Reservation should be according to the population of the area in private and in public'.

Many of the dalits have converted to other religions because of the continuous humiliation at the hand of the caste Hindus. What is the right choice, I ask. According to him, 'Buddhism is more human and more democratic way of living, after all now whole world is crying for humanity'. He sincerely feels that the struggle of Dalits is a battle of whole humanity. While treating love and marriage is private affair, he feels that discrimination is a disease and can only be cured by individuals. So it is important to understand that individual is supreme and that caste discrimination kills individual identity.

In 2005 Orissa's Minister of State Mr Nagendra K Pradhan proposed his name for Nobel Peace Prize, for his outstanding work to promote peace and art all over the world. PK has started Orissa Cultural Centre in Boras, Sweden.

The most important part of Mahanandia's achievements is that he is not bitter even after having faced so much of discrimination in life. In fact, his contribution to spread Indian art, culture and handicraft has been immensely respected and acknowledged in Sweden and other parts of the world. More over, in 1979 he instituted scholarship for needy students of art, Indian dance and music. His village had severe water problem and PK understood this and arranged drilling tube-well for solving the water crisis. In year 2000, he built 'eco-cottage' to encourage village tourism in Orissa. He regularly supports and sponsor activities in his village. A large number of his admirers visit this eco village in Orissa. It is a tribute to his conviction and work that 20% of his income is invested in Orissa.

As a rare individual, P.K.Mahanandia is a role model for all those who aspire high and fight against the unnatural injustice imposed by a priestly class. In Mahanandia's success lies great lessons of humanism for India and its people. Indians need to be proud of him and his achievements but at the same point of time must introspect how legends like him are nurtured and respected world over but not in their own country. How long will we allow this to happen and then claim that we believe in ' Vasudhaiv Kutumbkum'. More importantly, can we really say that discrimination in India is based on economic condition and not on the basis of the caste identity of an individual? P.K.Mahanandia's story also reminds us to get rid of our 'matrimonial' values based on caste and religions and bring different culture together by human bondage based on purely inter personal relationship of love, respect and affection.

Tribals of Orissa's iron-ore-rich Keonjhar have a sorry tale to tell

By Pankaj Yadav

Keonjhar, Dec 20 (ANI): It's a sad tale of about 16 lakh tribals in Orissa's Keonjhar District. Despite being the top revenue-generating district in the state, through the export of iron ore and other minerals, Keonjhar's residents are at the receiving end of an indifferent treatment from the state government, claims local MP Ananta Nayak.

The number of unwed mothers, the number of HIV/ AIDS cases in the district have been on the rise, so has soil erosion. Most of its people suffer from malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, pre and post-natal deaths, and the district is also home to the highest number of student dropouts from primary schools, as per official records of the past three years.

A second time MP from the district, Nayak, a tribal himself, says he has approached every authority, right from the State Chief Minister, Navin Patnaik to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and even UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, but has failed to get the desired results.

He claims that his district produces nearly 36 percent of the country's quality iron ore, 30 percent chromites, and about 40 percent manganese deposits, and provides raw materials to several steel plants in the country.

But, thanks to the apathy of the state government, there are no basic facilities or infrastructure available to the local populace. Everyday, as many as 15,000 trucks pass through the nearly 150-km long single road (National Highway # 215), leaving absolutely no space for other vehicles to pass by. Resultantly, nearly 1100 road accident deaths have been reported over the past three years, says Nayak.

Lately, in order to launch a movement against the 'suppressing attitude' of the state government, which happens to a BJP-BJD alliance, the locals have grouped themselves under the banner of the Keonjhar Citizens' Forum.

Himansu Sekhar Kuanr, the secretary of the Forum, describes how poor and indifferent the response from both the state and Centre Governments has been. According to him, very soon, the Railway Ministry would inaugurate a railway line that would be used only for transporting iron ore and other minerals.

"When we approached one of the Railway Board members with the proposal that at least one passenger train should be sanctioned on the newly laid rail line, we were abruptly told that this could not be done", adds Himansu.

He further says that in order to meet its greed for foreign exchange, the state government is exporting most of its minerals to China, who in turn, is simply dumping it for future use.

"But the big question before us is that what we would leave for our future generations, after a few years the mineral deposits would be exhausted," says Himansu.

Giving details of miseries the people in Keonjhar are going through, he says that in last three years, 1186 people have died in road accidents involving trucks carrying iron ore to the Paradeep Port and thousands have been left wounded;

-- 27 people died inside ambulance being not able to reach hospitals

-- In the past three years 640 students couldn't reach the secondary school examination centers due to sever road congestion, and more than 2000 people were issued with non-bailable warrants because they couldn't attend the court dates in time.

-- Millions of tons of iron ore is being transported on road to Paradep Port for export, rendering the entire district unsafe for public mobility since there is no alternative route;

-- Around 76 percent of the people in the district live below the poverty line, despite it being rich in valuable mineral deposits.

The Keonjhar Citizens' Forum, a non-political body representing the cross section of the people of the district, is sincerely trying to bring these facts of human miseries and detriment act of national interest at various levels for the last four years.

"But, to our dismay this colonial exploitation and political apathy towards Keonjhar is not coming to an end," says Himansu.

Forum members come to the Capital at least twice every year at their own expense, around the time when the Parliament session is on. And, their MP's official bungalow in South Avenue acts like a perfect abode for the cash-stricken tribals! (ANI)

Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reform organization, has issued an apology to the Dalit communities of India. The organization issued the apology after consulting with Hindu activists and its own Dalit members. It reads:

We, at Navya Shastra, deeply regret and apologize for the atrocities committed on the sons and daughters of the depressed communities of India, including the tribals, the "untouchables" and all of the castes deemed as low. We shamefully acknowledge that the ideals of varna and its practical manifestation in castes (jatis), promoted and encouraged the notions of inequality, lesser and greater, high and low, superior and inferior among human beings. An ideal that does not aspire for equality of human beings is not worthy of being an ideal. Caste and varna have relegated many to a degradingly low status. This was a divisive, inhumane and a ruinous social construct. Navya Shastra fully recognizes this and rejects unequivocally as heinous and despicable varna and caste together with all Shastras and theories that endorse
them or support the unjust and demeaning social hierarchy that these imposed on
the Indian society. Navya Shastra understands that all Hindus cannot be equals when such theories are still amidst us. We ask for forgiveness for w hat our forefathers did in the past to directly and indirectly contribute to any and all indignities heaped by one human being upon another in the name of Dharma and God, and which some among us continue to do even in this enlightened era. The depressed and lowest castes have been the keepers and protectors of our oldest and most ancient traditions and wisdom. They have kept in practice the traditions that have become foundational to what we call "mainstream" Hinduism today. Some of the tribal languages, spoken even today, have provided the substratum for many of the spoken and classical languages of India. Most of our mainstream indigenous medicinal, agricultural, craftsmanship and other knowledge systems owe their origins to the knowledge and practices that have been propagated and retained within these castes over millennia. The folk performing arts were and are the main sources of input into the classical and popular art forms. We want to celebrate and fete all these traditions on this day, and pay homage to them. These traditions form the very foundation on which the Indian civilization stands today.

---

-- Director's speech during 4th Convovation---
DIRECTOR�S REPORT

Sri. Subroto Bagchi, Chief Guest of this occasion, Dr. Bansidhar Panda, Chairman, Board of Governors, Members of Board of Governors, Members of Senate, Distinguished Guests, Colleagues, Degree recipients, Students and Staff of this institute, Media persons, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my proud privilege and honour to welcome you all to the Fourth Convocation of National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. Before I present the highlights of our activities, let me have the pleasure of introducing our distinguish Chief Guest of the Convocation, Sri. Subroto Bagchi, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, of M/s Mind Tree Consulting Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore.
Sri Subroto Bagchi stands as a fine example of a dynamic leader of Industry. He received his degree education from Utkal University in Political Science.
After working with leading U. S. and Indian companies in the software services area for over a decade, Sri Bagchi co-founded Mind Tree in August 1999. Sri. Bagchi is also credited with setting up Wipro�s U. S. operations in Silicon Valley. Over the years Sri Bagchi has made memorable contributions to the world economy as a business leader. Apart from being a renowned industrialist, Sri Bagchi takes keen interest in writing in various magazines and newspapers on management and technology issues. He being a well-known orator has spoken at various educational institutions and industries world over. Sri Bagchi has always been admired by students who have rated him as one of the best among today�s business leaders. In the
year 2006 Business Today Magazine ranked him among top fifteen most influential business persons. The presence of such an eminent personality will be a source of inspiration to our bright young graduates poised to take up challenging careers.
It is also my pleasure to welcome Dr. Bansidhar Panda, our esteemed Chairman of the Board of Governors to the 4th Convocation of the Institute. The progress of our Institute not only in academics, but also in infrastructure, administration and student activities, is a direct outcome of the inspiration of our Chairman, Dr. Panda. Dr. Panda is a visionary and has played a key role in the development of small industry in Orissa for over four decades. We expect that the Institute will scale new heights of glory and recognition under his inspiring leadership.

The presence of these two eminent dignitaries will inspire our young graduates to work hard to take the Institute and the country to new heights. With this brief introduction of the two very distinguished guests, I take the liberty of presenting before you the highlights of institute activities during the past one year.

REC to NIT - the transition

It is over four years that the Regional Engineering College gave way to the National Institute of
Technology. A predominantly undergraduate college was converted to a composite UG-PG technical university. The focus changed from impartation of shop floor skills to innovation, research and development of new technology. The job function of faculty and staff was
redefined in terms of creative work rather than dissemination of existing knowledge; the academic programme was redirected, at least partially, to topics of current interest and project-based learning from the traditional subjects and examination-centric pedagogy. All this required change in outlook of faculty, staff and student. We have succeeded in initiating that change, and this we consider as our biggest achievement. We are working towards creating
intellectual property that will give technological independence to our country in the world arena, and towards generating human capital that will sustain this creative process over decades, if not centuries to come.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES

It is widely seen that globalization and the new economic order has brought in new challenges to
institutions of higher learning in science and technology. Availability of high quality human
resource in science and technology has become an absolute necessity. Our institute has undertaken a number of steps to meet the new challenges through upgradation of our academic programmes. Among the innovations introduced into the academic process during the past academic year are continuous student evaluation, course feedback, and, curricular reforms.
Our Institute has tried to create an ambiance of academic excellence that is conducive to growth of innovative research and support to industry.

The academic programme of NIT Rourkela has remained one of the best in the country since the inception of the REC. That tradition has been maintained during the academic year 2005-2006, with special emphasis put on the postgraduate and research programmes. With the
support of the Ministry of HRD, the Ph. D. programme has been strengthened. I am happy to announce that this year; we shall award nine Ph. D. degrees, a number that has steadily increased since our conversion to NIT.

For the first time our Institute awarded institute fellowships to Ph. D. students under the TEQIP programme. Subsequently the Ministry of HRD has approved research fellowships in all the departments, for which the recruitment process has recently been concluded. As approved by the Ministry we shall continue to add research fellowships every year through both direct and project funding till the research student population becomes comparable to that in major technical universities around the world. Our research programme covers not only the traditional disciplines of engineering, but also humanities, physical and social sciences. Our proposal for being recognized as a training Institute for engineering college teachers has received favourable consideration by the National QIP Co-ordination Council. We are hopeful that from the admission year 2007-08, most of our engineering departments will be eligible to admit students to Ph. D. programmes under QIP.

The M. Tech. (Research) programme, introduced three years ago is becoming increasingly popular. I am glad to share with you that six candidates will be awarded M. Tech. degree by research during this convocation. This programme has proven particularly useful in smaller departments and specializations where a regular M. Tech. programme can not be offered.

The regular M. Tech. programme has also got a phillip by introduction of new programmes in Ceramic Engineering in the Department of Ceramic Engineering, Thermal Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Power Drives and Controls in the Department of Electrical Engineering, VLSI Design and Embedded System in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering and Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering. The high power delegation of the Central QIP Coordination Council also visited our Institute for extending the QIP M. Tech. progamme to more branches of engineering in our Institute.

Our undergraduate programme continues to attract some of the best talents in the country. The B. Tech, programme has been strengthened by introduction of course feed back system, open electives, greater emphasis on project work and continuous monitoring. Computerised monitoring of attendance, personalized progress monitoring, counselling through departmental
faculty advisors, and introduction of slow pace programme has made students more responsible, leading to significant drop in failures and delay in completion. Preparations are under way for
introduction of new undergraduate programmes in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology as well as inn Industrial Design.

As creative project work gains greater importance in our undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, the opportunities for creation of marketable intellectual properties are increasing. To facilitate protection of such intellectual property, the Board of Governors has approved an Intellectual Property Policy for the Institute. The Institute is taking proactive steps to make faculty, students and technicians conscious of the value of their intellectual property and ways of safeguarding it.

SPONSORED RESEARCH, INDUSTRIAL CONSULTANCY AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

The Institute�s faculty is being increasingly
recognized by Government and private agencies through
award of sponsored research grants and consultancy
projects. NIT, Rourkela is proud of Prof Gopendra
Kishore Roy of Chemical Engineering Department who has
been conferred the coveted �Samanta Chandra Sekhar
Award� for 2006 by The Orissa Bigyan Academy (Orissa
Science Academy) for his outstanding achievements and
valuable contributions in the field of engineering and
technology. The Institute has also taken proactive
steps to promote initiatives leading to such
recognition. A large number of research proposals have
been submitted by faculty members to various
Government agencies, and approvals are being received.

Among the successful proposals are two major projects
awarded to the Department of Mechanical Engineering by
the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences on
development of Cryogenic systems, a project on
development of expoxy based composites using poultry
feather awarded to the Department of Metallurgical and
Materials Engineering by the Department of Science and
Technology and two projects on development of advanced
ceramics from agricultural waste awarded by the
Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Department
of Science and Technology to the Department of Ceramic
Engineering.

The Department of Information Technology, Government
of India has supported us with educational projects on
Information Security and VLSI Design, carried out by
the Departments of Computer Science and Electronics &
Communication Engineering. Other important projects
include that on Rural Road Pavements from NRRDA and
Development of Lead free Relaxor Ferroelectrics from
UGC. The Department of Biotechnology has awarded a
project on creation of Bioinformatics Infrastructure
in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

The Institute�s commitment to provide direct
intellectual assistance to industry and Government is
reflected through consultancy projects, testing
service and continuing education programmes. Major
consultancy projects have been secured by the
Department of Civil Engineering from the Chhatisgarh
State Electricity Board on Design of Ash Ponds and
from the Government of Orissa on study of labour
productivity in civil construction.

Continuing Education of personnel employed in industry
and Government in another major pillar over which an
institution of higher learning stands. Our Institute
has taken the initial steps in that front. Courses on
Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Systems, and on
Computer Aided Drafting were offered to engineers of
Rourkela Steel Plant by the Department of Mechanical
Engineering. The Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering offered short term courses
on VLSI technology which were well attended by
teachers and students of electronics from across the
State of Orissa.

The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
offered a course on Development of Interpersonal
Skills under TEQIP funding which benefited Government
officials and faculty of local colleges, apart from
young executives from industry. The Department of
Computer Science has recently concluded an
introductory course on Digital Signal Processing.

In collaboration with the Indian Institute of
Production Management Kansbahal, our Institute has
offered an Advance Diploma in Maintenance Management
and Condition Monitoring) ADMM & CN) which has
received applause from industry. From this year
onwards this course will also be available in distance
mode.

TRAINING AND PLACEMENT

The Training and Placement Centre has done an
excellent job of placing our graduates and
postgraduates in reputed organizations. It has also
succeeded in organizing industrial training for all
students. I am proud to say that our graduates and
postgraduates are highly rated and respected in both
core and software industry. This year, companies such
as IOCL, L&T, Tata Groups, DRDO, Hindalco, Mahindra &
Mahindra, MECON, IBM, TCS, Accenture, Wipro and many
others visited our Institute for campus recruitment.
Almost all the graduates and more than fifty percent
of the postgraduate have already been placed through
campus placement. Many of the students have also been
selected by their dream companies like Microsoft,
Samsung (R&D), Amdocs, Cisco, Tata Motors, Sasken, On
Mobile, Google etc. Work is in progress to build
superior infrastructure for placement activities.

THE RESEARCH AND LABORATORY FACILITIES

To build a world-class institute, we need world-class
infrastructure. This year, a number of new and
sophisticated equipment have been added to our
laboratories under both Plan and TEQIP funding. Among
the major equipment installed are the Anton Parr
rheometer and the BET surface area analyser in the
Department of Ceramic Engineering, high pressure
liquid chromatograph and FTIR spectrometer in the
Department of Chemistry, Gas Chromatograph,
Fermenter/bioreactor and ultra low temperature freezer
in the Department of Chemical Engineering. The
Industrial laser doppler vibrometer procured by the
Department of Civil Engineering has been employed not
only for study of vibration of bridges, but also for
measurement of rotational speed of a high speed
turboexpander under development in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering. The Civil Engineering Department has also acquired a new electronic universal testing machine and a nuclear moisture meter. Equipment for imparting education and training in microprocessors, personal computers and image processing have been added to the Computer Science laboratories. Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics & Communication Engineering have added state of the art high frequency oscilloscopes, RTOS hardware, logic analysers, satellite communication trainer and optical fiber laboratory systems. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has focused on pneumatic and electro-pneumatic systems, electrochemical machining, robotics, and modular automatic production systems.

Our Material Science programme has been enriched by the addition of a FTIR imaging system and a differential scanning calorimeter. The newly acquired scanning electronic microscope has filled in a visible void in our material development programme. The Mining Engineering Department has added a Rock Testing Set up built around a triaxial Unit Hoek cell.

The Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Physics have pioneered the introduction of low temperature engineering into our institute. A liquid nitrogen generator producing 40 litre of liquid nitrogen per day has been set up in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, while a two stage cryocooler producing a temperature of 8 Kelvin has been set up in the Department of Physics. With that, our institute will carry out research over a temperature range from near absolute zero to almost 2000o C.

We have also added a series of high value technical software to our laboratories. They will be useful not only in research programmes and student projects, but also in a new range of software based laboratory classes. Among the important software products are added to our laboratories are Fluent CFD package, Matlab, dSPACE, DSP & FPGA hybrid platform, Labview SURFACE visiion software etc.

THE COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE
With a liberal plan grant from the Government, we have substantially improved the computing infrastructure in the institute. I take special pride in highlighting the quantum jump in the computational capabilities. Every faculty member has been given a high end PC for research and communication. Every department has been given a computer laboratory of proportionate size for student use. In addition, the Central Computer Centre has built two large computing halls which can accommodate nearly hundred fifty students. All the facilities are opened round the clock depending on the need of usage. All the rooms of the student halls have been connected to the institute LAN through fibre optic cable. One hostel has been provided with wireless LAN technology for connection to campus LAN.
Our continuously growing campus needs constant revamping and augmentation of facilities. The networking of the hostels has been implemented with Extreme range of switches and AMP certified networking passive components.
With the expansion of the network to hostels the old core switch, which is the heart of the network, has been augmented by an enterprise level switch working at 800 Gbps. The server infrastructure has adequate number of servers, Storage Across Network (SAN) and Network Attached Shortage (NAS), one Terabyte of Fibre channel storage and Ultrium tape drive of 4 Terabytes capacity. This composite infrastructure provides central storage and high speed computing facility to the academic community. The institute has also procured Microsoft Site License for MS Windows XP desktop operating system, MS office XP and MS Visual Studio. In addition, we have set up site licence for basic technical software such as MATLAB, Autodesk Mechanical desktop, Autodesk Civil Desktop, Fluent CFD package. The Institute also has campus license for Anti Virus solution from Computer Associates.
The institute is connected to the outside world through a 4 Mbps dedicated Internet link from STPI Rourkela which operates round the clock. This link has helped us to provide uninterrupted Internet facility to every one on our campus. Orders have been placed on STPI Rourkela and Bharti Airtel to upgrade this link to 10 mbps. The Internet connection also helps the outside world get access to our institute through our Internet website. We have introduced an identification management solution that provides uniform login for mail server, linux and windows servers, file and application servers, and for secure Internet access located in the campus. An AUTO-CAD laboratory Computer Aided Drafting and a training laboratory for computer basics are being set up in the Computer centre.

CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Conferences, seminars and workshops are important academic activities that foster interaction among scientists and increase visibility of the Institute among its scientific peers. The Institute has taken initiatives towards hosting of scientific conferences and inviting scientific workers from across the country to our campus.

During 2006, the Department of Mechanical Engineering hosted five conferences. Among them are conferences on: Recent Advances in Industrial Tribology and Maintenance (RAITM-2006), National Conference on Emerging Trends in Nanotechnology and Innovations in Design and Manufacturing, Recent Trends in Mechatronics Nanotechnology and Robotics, the All India Seminar on Challenges for Quality and Reliability, National Conference on Issues Related to IPR: Challenges and Opportunities. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organized a National Conference on Soft Computing Techniques for Engineering Applications. A National Workshop on Institute Industry Interaction (NWIII) was organized by the Institute which was supported by the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP). A series of conferences have also been planned for the year 2007.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES
An equitable balance between academics and extra-academic activities is necessary for development of all round personality of a person. The students of our Institute have been known for their excellence in sports and cultural activities. The Institute has always lent active support to these programmes. The Student Activity Centre (SAC) has been given a new constitution, encouraging stronger participation by the students in management. The process of the student body election has been simplified and directed towards creation of an all India fraternity without a regional bias. The overall activities have been divided under four societies: the Technical Society, the Games &Sports Society, the Literary & Cultural Society and the Film & Music Society. Each society has been given specific responsibility and a free hand to choose the method of carrying them out. For the first time, the SAC has been permitted to support self-driven student initiatives in the form of technical, cultural and sports clubs and associations.
During the year under review the SAC has been very active. The Technical Society of the Student Activity Centre has coordinated the Third Annual National Level Student Symposium, CONFLUENCE 2006 during January 12 to 15, 2006. Students from institutes across the
country participated in the seminars, technical games and in model and software contests. Our students have also participated in TECHNICHE 2006, the technical festival of IIT Guwahati and bagged the Runners-up medal in the (PATHFINDER) robotics competition. B. Tech. final year students of the Department of Chemical Engineering have made the Institute proud by being placed as the second runners up in �Chemical Quiz� organized by the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. I congratulate all our students for their achievement and wish them success in technical, sports and cultural events during the years to come.
The Games & Sports Society organized the Inter NIT Sports meet covering lawn tennis, basket ball and football. I am happy to share with you that NIT Rourkela students bagged the highest position in Football. The Games & Sports Society also organized the 45th Annual Sports Meet of the Institute during 3rd and 4th November 2006. The students of the Institute had a unique opportunity of playing a friendly cricket match with the National Hockey team led by the Captain Sri Dilip Tirkey in our sports stadium on 12th November. Preparations are under way for hosting the Inter NIT Lawn tennis, basketball, volleyball and athletics competitions during the current academic year.
The students of our institute have traditionally published several Newsletters and magazines that have high cultural and journalistic value. The latest in the series is an electronic newsletter named Monday Morning which brings all information about the institute to every desktop when we start the week. I congratulate the student team and their faculty advisor Dr. Ipsita Das for the wonderful service.

CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT
The NIT campus has a new look with regard to security, cleanliness and hygiene. This has been possible by the constant supervision, upgradation and development efforts put in by the entire campus community. The campus, particularly the academic area, now has green lawns, gardens and flowers. It has all the amenities for developing superior personal, social and academic skills. The campus community has strived to inculcate the spirit of teamwork among the students, faculty, staff and their family-members to create a cultural bond among all.
It is a mini-township in itself with all modern facilities including its own water-supply system. The demand of electricity in the academic as well as residential areas has increased over the past few years. In order to overcome the problem of power shortage, new transformers have been procured, overhead lines are giving way to underground cables and the state electricity authorities have been approached for improving the quality of power supplied. The academic area, campus and hostel area have been better illuminated. The student hostels have also received a face-lift. It�s my pleasure to announce that the four hundred seater Homi Bhaba Hall for boys has been operational, albeit partially. The construction of a new floor in Hostel-6 has been completed. This will enable many more students to stay on campus and carry out active research. We are also working towards creation of a formal accommodation for married students. The well- furnished and aesthetically designed Guest House is an attraction by itself for the visitors. The flora & fauna around it make the stay nice and pleasant. The Visitors� House provides comfortable stay with improved boarding and lodging facilities. I can assure the distinguished guests of today�s function a healthier hospitality.

OUR ALUMNI

Our alumni have played a major role in growing the communication of NIT Rourkela in India and abroad. They have always played a key role in taking the Institute to new heights. The Alumni Association has established a quarterly electronic newsletter highlighting the achievements of alumni, faculty and students. It facilitates communication among alumni distributed around the globe. Many of our distinguished alumni have accepted responsible assignments, which have brought glory to our Institute.
Mr. Sandip Das an alumnus of 1978 batch of Mechanical Engineering Department has been appointed as Deputy Managing Director; Hutchison Essar Pvt. Ltd. one of the most reputed telecom companies in India. Dr. S. Mohapatra an alumnus of 1971 batch of Electrical Engineering has been appointed CEO & Chairman of the Board of Quest Diagnostics Inc, the leading provider of diagnostic testing information and services in the U.S. His company features in the Fortune 500 list of companies. Shri S. P. Rao an alumnus of 1969 batch of B. Tech. Electrical Engineering has been appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director in the prestigious Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL). Mr.Tushar Kanti Mishra an alumnus of 1981 batch of Chemical Engineering has been appointed as the Vice President, Pharmaceutical operations at Pharma Company Monosal Rx. LLc, which is also a fortune 500 company, making water soluble drug component. Recently, the 1980 batch alumni celebrated the Silver Jubilee of their graduation in our institute and have created a fund for construction of a permanent office on campus for NIT Alumni Association.

GRADUATES OF THE YEAR

In this Convocation we are going to confer degrees to 347 B.Tech. , 85 M.Tech. and M.Tech. (Research), 34 MSc. , 30MCA and 09 Ph.D. students. I feel very proud to announce the names of the following students who are the recipients of different Gold Medals and Degrees for their academic excellence and all round performance in the year 2006. I personally congratulate the two institute Gold Medal winners: Miss Sushree Preeti Mohapatra of Civil Engineering, the Best Graduate of the year and Miss Rizuwana Parween of Mechanical Engineering, the Best Post Graduate. I also congratulate Sri Surjyendu Narayan Dhal a graduate in Electrical Engineering who has been conferred the coveted Professor Bhubaneswar Behera Gold Medal for the Best All rounder of 2006 batch. I congratulate Sri Partha Sarathi Mishra a graduate in Ceramic Engineering for receiving the Institute Gold Medal for the Best B Tech project. I congratulate the winners of the silver medals and all graduating students on successful completion of their mission of obtaining well deserved degrees from this wonderful Institution. On behalf of the Institute I offer my heartiest congratulations to all the medal winners and the graduating students. I hope the knowledge and training you have received from this institute will empower you to overcome all challenges in your future endeavors.

Parents and family members of the degree recipients deserve our congratulations for providing encouragement, support and inspiration to these students. I share this moment of joy and pride with the parents of our degree holders. Your child is a special person who has proven his or her worth by earning a degree from this prestigious institution.
This degree however, confers on him a special responsibility to lead the nation on the path of
progress. The degree he received will open up a number of opportunities enabling him to see the wider horizons of life. We shall all be looking forward to his/her achievement in future.

The students graduating from prestigious engineering institutions during this decade are a special lot. They are entering the job market when our country is poised for quantum growth in technological capabilities and industrial output. Unlike many of their predecessors they will face global competition.
They will play a significant role in the industrial scenario not only of our nation but of the whole world. They will have to perform a multitude of tasks at their work places which they were not taught in college. In this age of competition they have to continuously work hard and learn new things to besuccessful in their fields. Though there may be many ups and downs, I am confident that our students will have the capability and the dedication to stand up to the situation and do their bit in creating the new India.

Before closing, please allow me to share with you a dream that every NITian shares : NIT Rourkela is passionably committed to technological independence of India through research, innovation and entrepreneurship, and to inculcating this commitment among technological institutes in India in terms of intellectual property and human capital.

JAI HIND

Rourkela Sunil Kumar Sarangi
16th December, 2006 Director

Open letter ro Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr Muthuraman

Dear Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Muthuraman,

After reading the following

Meanwhile, Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant said in an interview with Bengali news channel Kolkata TV that the company was "committed to the development" of Singur and "well-being of the people on whose land the factory will come up".

The commitment remain the same only Gopalpur has been replaced with Singur

I couldn't resist myself to let the people of West Bengal know , how liars the TATAs are. Around 12 years back you have changed lives of people of 3 or 4 villages , Badapur , the poorest village, followed by Patrapur and Sindhigan.

You have forced them to go to another place, forced to change their profession. Some survived and some ran away to Surat (Gujrat) to earn their bread and butter.

We also came to know that you kept appeasing some bureaucrats of Orissa with large size High Definition color TVs to keep their mouth shut. This was reported in a news paper in Orissa a year back.

We have written several letters to Chief minister of Orissa, who feel proud to share stage with Mr. Ratan Tata. he will never ask you to return the land to IDCO to keep it as a reserve for future project like Mittals/Russian etc. Obviously, he will never slap you with any show cause notice.Our request has gone to dustbin.

For several years you have hired a office space at Berhampur , near Gajapati Nagar, just to fool people that TATA STEEL project is still active.

The day you have decided not to go for steel plant, you should have returned the land to IDCO, so that IDCO would have given that to some other party and the people of Berhampur would have seen some Industrial development.

After writing several times in this forum also the main opposition congress never raised this as an assembly question.We don't have a bold leader like Mamata Banrjee.

We have sufficient reason to believe that your contribution to the election funds of political parties of Orissa is the reason of keeping their mouth shot.

Mr. Ratan Tata is a highly respected figure in India and abroad. It gives me no pleasure to write an open letter to him. But it is necessary because I have spend my 15 years of life very close to that area and seen how people's land taken for nothing. TATA steel breached People's aspirations and no more a credible brand name among us.

We have full sympathy with the villager of Singur as we share the same concern and full support for Mamta Banarjee. Long live Mamta Banarjee, who is trying to save a 6 crop land.

I also urge the Kolkata Press to bring this events to public and let public judge the false promises of TATAs, please have a look at the following piece of news from Business standard as well. 3+ years passed no action.

Finally, on behalf of Orissa Today Group, I urge Mr. Ratan Tata to return the land acquired at Gopalpur to IDCO so that the same can be used by Mittals and so many acres of land will be saved for further acquisition.

Thanks

Manoj Padhi

Moderator - Orissa Today group.

Tata Steel, Orissa form SPV for Gopalpur SEZ
Business Standard — July 29, 2003

Kolkata: Tata Steel and the Orissa government will set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the proposed Gopalpur special economic zone (SEZ).

B Muthuraman, managing director, said the SPV will be set up for promoting the SEZ. Tata Steel is, however, yet to decide upon the extent of its holding in the SPV. The modalities are expected to be finalised shortly.

The advantage of a SEZ is that the Gopalpur port can handle deep draft vessels. Moreover, the steel ministry had also approached the railway minister for setting up a railway transport corporation in Gopalpur.

The Orissa government is also looking at converting the fair-weather port into an all-weather one. The SEZ will effectively utilise the 4,000 acre acquired in Gopalpur by Tata Steel for its proposed 10 million tonne steel plant, planned in the 1990s. Work on the project was never initiated.

The first phase of the mammoth project was estimated at Rs 7,000 crore. The land was acquired by displacing one village completely and four others partially. Three factors prevented Tata Steel from going ahead with its plan — no progress on the port, poor linkage of iron ore and non-availability of water.

However, to meet existing demand Tata Steel decided to augment capacity by adding one million tonne at its Jamshedpur plant. Commenting on the steel business, Muthuraman said prices were expected to be stable in the coming months. Tata Steel posted a 315.93 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 267.07 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2003.

Net sales for the quarter grew 27.8 per cent to Rs 2,257.10 crore compared with Rs 1,764.93 crore. Analysts tracking the company said the steel sector is on an upswing and the trend is likely to continue, at least as long as China remained a net importer of steel.

While Tata Steel had already become economic value-added positive, the company is gearing up to manage the inevitable volatility of the cyclical steel industry.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kolkata: Former prime minister and prominent Left Front ally V.P. Singh met with Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee Friday and urged her to withdraw her indefinite hunger strike protesting the upcoming Tata car project in Singur.

Banerjee, however, refused to withdraw her fast until the West Bengal government accepted her conditions, including a halt in the acquisition of Singur farmlands, about 40 km northwest of here.

Singh met Banerjee at the Esplanade in downtown Kolkata where the leader is on fast. The Trinamool chief's hunger strike entered its 12th day Friday.

"I urge you with folded arms to withdraw the fast. You need to live for the sake of the poor," Singh told Banerjee.

"I promise that this fight would be fought everywhere in India. This is a national issue and we are fighting it in many places. We all have to come together and fight for the farmers," he added.

"I have come here to find a way out through talks," Singh said as Banerjee apprised him of the Singur situation and how "women and children are tortured there" and "democratic rights of the people are being curbed".

She told him that the state government was "giving the land almost free to the Tatas along with electricity and water".

"It is a six crop land in many places. It is a model agricultural land. Some industrial units which have come up there have also been asked to leave in favor of the Tatas," Banerjee said.

Earlier, Singh had met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya over the same issue.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant said in an interview with Bengali news channel Kolkata TV that the company was "committed to the development" of Singur and "well-being of the people on whose land the factory will come up".

He made said the Tata Motors would not give up the project and roll out the car by mid 2008.

--
Q: What's the difference between the Government and the Mafia?

A: One of them is organised.

Manoj Padhi