Koraput Central varsity plans big

Masters programme in tribal welfare and community development will soon been included in the list of new subjects and schools that have been approved by the executive council of Central University of Orissa which celebrated its first Foundation Day. While highlighting the progress achieved by the university over the period of last one year, its Vice-Chancellor Surabhi Banerjee said that various new schools, including school of education and education technology, school of health sciences, school of bio-diversity and conservation of natural resources, school of legal studies, school of basic sciences and information sciences and school of development studies, have been approved by the executive council and soon students would be enrolled in the respective streams.

The university was taking every initiative to provide quality teaching environment.

While a good number of guest lecturers in each subject were contacted, a pool of eminent visiting faculty was selected from across the country to teach in the university, the Vice-Chancellor said. The challenges of bridging the gap between students and eminent scholars of society would now be minimised by extending the facility of video-conferencing for the students of the university on its campus.

On the infrastructural growth front, work on the 450.9 acre land at Sunabeda which was allotted by the State government for constructing the main campus of the university was in progress.

Source: The Hindu

Astha International plans Rs 500-cr township at Berhampur

Construction boom in Berhampur

Astha International Limited, one of India's leading direct selling companies, expects to acquire 300 acres of land at the commercial capital of Odisha, Berhampur by January 2011 for its Rs 500-crore integrated township project called 'Astha City'. This would be the company's first residential cum commercial real estate project in Orissa which accounts for nearly 50 per cent of its overall turnover.

S S Kisan, Chairman and managing director, Astha International said, "We hope to take possession of 200 acres of land for our integrated township project at Berhampur by January 2011. Orissa is an important market for us and besides direct selling of the whole gamut of products, we would also like to invest in sectors like real estate and hospitality in the state.

Astha International, based out of Surat, Gujarat clocked revenue of 40 crore from its operations in the Orissa market in 2009-10 and its revenue is set to reach Rs 50 crore by the end of the current financial year.

To cater to its growing business needs, the company is planning to have ten offices in the state by this fiscal end. These offices would come up at locations like Balasore, Soro, Berhampur, Balugaon and Rourkela to name a few. The company has opened an office in Bhubaneswar and this would serve as the zonal office for the states of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.Astha International would also scale up its employee strength from 50 at present to over 500 in the next couple of years. The direct selling firm would ramp up its strength of distributors in the state from 1.3 lakh a present to 10 lakh by the end of 2012.

Besides its proposed township project, Astha International has also evinced interest in setting up a three-star hotel in the city but the details are yet to be finalized. The company also intends to build a mall in the city with a total built-up area of 15,000 sq ft.

Astha International, which has more than 10,000 products in 26 different segments, also plans to float a bank called Astha Bank by 2011-12. The company claims to have got the license from the Reserve bank of India and the bank is set to commence operations from 2011-12.

Berhampur Airport (Rangeilunda) progress updates from OTV

Click here to see the future plans for Berhampur Airport at Rangeilunda

The historic Berhampur Airport (Rangeilunda) is located at a distance of around 5km from the city and adjacent to Berhampur University. The Rangeilunda air base was built by the Britishers during the second world war period and it remained as an air strip since then. The runway is currently used by the defence establishment, state government, private companies and VIPs to reach Berhampur and other places in south Odisha. State's second flying training Institute is coming up at Berhampur Airport in Rangeilunda. The Air Traffic Control Tower (MSSR site) and AAI offices are located close to the Airport. Recently efforts are being made by the government to make it a full fledged domestic Airport. This news video on the history and progress of Berhampur Airport is from OTV.

Distance from Rangeilunda Airport- (Berhampur University- 0km, Berhampur city 5km, Gopalpur-On-Sea-5km, Chatrapur-10km , Taratarini Hill Shrine 30km, Taptapani-50km, Chilka- 40km, Bhairabi Temple- 15km).

CM lays foundation stone for Tata Industrial Park and inaugurates STPI in Berhampur

Tata Industrial Park at Gopalpur near Berhampur city 

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of Tata Industrial Park at Gopalpur today. Tata Steel managing Director H.M. Nerukar was also present while laying the foundation. Tata Group will start the project by setting up a Ferrochrome plant and a bar mill as anchor industries for the Industrial Park. The project is likely to be completed in two years time and provide employment opportunity to about 1000 people.

Berhampur city in Orissa gets country's 51st STPI

Bhubaneswar: The Orissa chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, along with the Union minister for Communication and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot, inaugurated the country's 51st Software Technology Park of India (STPI) at Ambapua, on the outskirts of Berhampur city, about 165 km away from here, on August 20.

"The STPI has built an ultra-modern IT infrastructure having fully furnished 10,000 sq ft built up space over an area of 5 acres at a cost of Rs 5 crore to nurture the need of local enterpreneurs and professionals to explore global opportunities in IT and ITES exports," said state IT minister Ramesh Majhi.

Speaking on the occasion,Pilot said that the Centre has provided Rs 292 crore to the Orissa government for IT related initiatives. He said that two IT pilot projects on rural health are now on in Orissa's Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts.

Berhampur STPI is the thrid such centre in Orissa after Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. In July 2005, an MoU was signed between the state government and the STPI for setting up the centre in southern Orissa. The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the project on December 13, 2006.

Newly-formed DIG of Prisons south range office established in Berhampur

DIG of Prisons of the newly-formed south range Shri D.D. Das (centre) is being taken around the Circle Jail on his joining in Berhampur.

Source: The Hindu