hope on the horizon

The head of the newly installed BIT-Sindri’s board of governors on Wednesday said he would strive to restore the “glory days” of the institute which was once preferred ahead of IITs by students.

M.P. Singh, the former vice chancellor of Vinoba Bhave University (VBU), has been appointed chairman of the 10-member board — the highest decision making body of the cradle.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Singh said bringing the institute under the World Bank-assisted Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) would be his first priority.

“I will take up the issue with the government so that BIT-Sindri can reap the benefits of the second phase of TEQIP,” he said.

Singh said he would “ensure the institute is provided autonomy soon”, adding that he would also try to lift the placement percentage from 85-90 at present to 100.

The state science and technology department’s stamp of approval has come as a relief to the institute, as it has been saddled with a non-functional board of governors following the retirement of several members including chairman V.K. Srivastava last year.

Welcoming the development, BIT-Sindri director S.K. Singh said he received a letter from the department with the final list of board members on Tuesday.

Among other board members are director, science and technology department, Arun Kumar, JSPL executive director (mining and power) O.P. Jha, associate professor of IIT-Delhi Ashok Kumar Keshri, head of department of civil engineering, BIT-Sindri, R.P. Sharma, associate professor of chemical engineering department, Om Prakash and IIM-Raipur director B.S. Sahay.

The body will include representatives of VBU and UGC, who are yet to nominated.

S.K. Singh will act as the member secretary. The chairman of the board will be authorised to nominate three other members.

The composition of the new board is in accordance with UGC guidelines, which calls for representation of various sections including industry, teachers’ fraternity and the university.

“A number of pioneering decisions such as semi-autonomy status for BIT-Sindri, regularised sessions, rechristening of the graduation degree as Bachelor of Engineering instead of BSc Engineering and syllabus upgrade were taken during M.P. Singh’s tenure as vice chancellor of VBU,” S.K. Singh added.

M.P. Singh said he would call a meeting of the board after talking to the institute director and Arun Kumar.