India's Missile Man APJ Kalam ready to renew Nalanda link

APJ Abdul Kalam, who as President of India had first proposed setting up of the Nalanda International University, today agreed to chief minister Nitish Kumar's request to serve the upcoming centre of excellence as a visiting faculty. Kalam was in the state capital on the invitation of the Assembly secretariat to address members of both Houses of the legislature.

It was during his address to a joint sitting of the legislature in March 2006 that Kalam, then President, had first mooted the idea of Nalanda International University on the lines of the great ancient seat of learning. Kalam on Tuesday played professor to the "class of legislators", imparting them lessons in leadership and tips on how to transform themselves into perfect leaders of the people.

Nitish, who was among the "students", recalled how Kalam was the "first visionary" to envision the Nalanda university, becoming its first visitor. "Kalam's vision has seen the light of day with Parliament enacting the law for the institution,” the chief minister said. "I requested Kalam sahib to continue as its visitor. But he refused."

"It is, however, heartening that Kalam sahib has agreed to my request to teach in the university despite staying away from its governing body," Nitish said. Kalam said he would keep coming to Bihar. "I have agreed to the chief minister's request," he said. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is the chairman of the mentor group-turned-governing council of the university. The incumbent President of India is the visitor to the university as per the Act.

A controversy had broken out over the university some months ago following Kalam's decision to "disassociate" himself from the university, apparently because the governing council had decided to appoint Gopa Sabharwal, an associate professor of sociology at LSR College, Delhi, as the vice-chancellor-designate without consulting him. A section of academics has questioned the decision to appoint Sabharwal, arguing she was not competent enough to helm such an important project. The charge has been rebutted by Sen, who has given his vote of confidence to the sociologist.

JD(U) legislator Irshad Ahmed on Tuesday raised the issue again and asked Kalam if Sabharwal was the right choice for the job. The former President sidestepped the query. "The President of India is the new visitor to the institution and it is for the visitor to decide on issues related to such positions," Kalam said.
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Bihar Government sets terms for President mentor group

The Presidency University mentor group, with Harvard University professor Sugata Bose as its chairman, doesn't want the new university to be just another addition to the list, encaged within the run-ofthe-mill Act passed in the West Bengal assembly during the Left regime.

The Nalanda mentor group will be looking at complete overhaul, right from setting up search committees for recruitment of teaching staff and officers up to the level of the vice-chancellor, and streamlining the admission procedure to attracting the best talents. The group is also leaving open the option of keeping the newborn varsity a state one, or giving it a central university status, or recommending the "new innovation university" tag for it. At least, that is what the terms of reference for the mentor group indicate.

The Harvard professor and chairman of the mentor group handed out the terms of reference to the media on Wednesday after he called on chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Writers' Buildings. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has agreed to advise the chairman. "The chief minister will be meeting Sen when he comes to Kolkata on July 8. As you know, we are both in the Nalanda mentor panel," said Bose.

Jadavpur University emeritus professor Sukanta Chaudhuri has been included in the 10-member mentor group, despite his resigning from the committee set up for improving higher education as a whole. During his meeting with the CM, Bose also took note of the suggestions made by the illustrious Presidency College alumni and teachers in several platforms, the latest being a seminar organised by the Presidency College Alumni Association.

The aim of the mentor group would be to suggest ways to groom the new university into a centre of excellence with emphasis on merit and high quality teaching that was once the USP of the premier education institution. While charting out the terms of reference in consultation with Sugata Bose, the chief minister took care to plug all possible loopholes that might frustrate the goal.

For instance, the state government wants the mentor group to come out of the confines of the Act, and suggest a model university governance structure appropriate to pursue "excellence and equity." They include introduction of multi-disciplinary studies, electronic access to library, cross-registration agreements with research institutes in West Bengal and India and also develop international partnership with select universities all over the world.

In a bid to achieve all these, the new university needs an outstanding and diverse faculty who can foresee and innovate changes in the curricula and make amends to it from time to time to keep abreast with the latest changes in the academia. At the administrative level, the mentor group will try out ways to remove all sorts of "red tapism" as far as possible that had stunted the growth of the teaching staff in terms of conducting research, attending international seminars and also getting grants from several funding agencies. The mentor group also leaves room for participation of the alumni in the development of the university, both academic and financial. The university vice-chancellor Amita Chatterjee, while speaking at the alumni seminar, referred to some of the teething problems such as space constraint, dearth of sanctioned teaching posts, a rich library and state-of-the-art laboratory, apart from teaching staff.

According to chairman Sugata Bose, the 10-member committee will submit some short-term and longterm recommendations and progress reports to the government in phases beginning August 2011. The next four reports will come in January 2012, August 2012, January 2013 and June 2013. The mentor group has eight members at the moment with a provision to co-opt two more members adding up to a total 10. They include Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Harvard professor Sugata Bose, Isher Judge Ahluwalia of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, MIT professor Abhijit Banerjee, director National Library Swapan Chakraborty, Jadavpur University emeritus professor Sukanta Chaudhuri, Freiburg professor Himadri Pakrasi, Allahabad University professor Ashoke Sen.