Education in Orissa - Former Central Government Neglect of Odisha

Former Central Government Neglect of Odisha

See also Odisha IIT Controversy

Until 2007, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) of the Government of India had set up several premier technical institutes, across the country that produce India's world class talent pool in science, engineering, and management, and contribute strongly to the economic development of the state where they are located as well as the nation. These institutions included the original seven IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, the original five IIMs, the Indian Statistical Institute, several earlier central universities, and a few other smaller institutions, all of which receive direct funding from the center. There were reports of large scale discrimination in setting up these institutions of higher learning against a few states, especially Odisha. It was observed within scholarly circles that Odisha was routinely discriminated against by the Indian government, which had caused the state to lag behind the rest of the nation in terms of infrastructure, poverty reduction, literacy, education, and health until very recently.

Until recently, none of the premier institutions of national importance were located in the state of Odisha. In terms of per capita funding received from the HRD ministry, it was among the bottom-most of all states along with Bihar and Rajasthan, and a few very small states in the north eastern region. The non-allocation of quality educational institutions to the state of Odisha by New Delhi has been interpreted by various quarters, ranging from politicians to Oriya academics living abroad, as proof of discrimination against the state by the HRD ministry. Odisha, which had 3.6% of the population of India, received a minuscule 0.73% of the allocated budget. The inequitable distribution of resources by the central government to the various states was identified in 1991 as a cause of regional disparities. Studies had blamed central government policies above any other factor, as the cause of Odisha's recent backwardness.

There were also early allegations of discrimination in establishing newer institutions, such as the IIESTs, a group of technical institutions planned to be IIT clones. They were set up by upgrading existing NITs and other state funded prominent engineering institutions. Several institutions have been identified by the Indian government for this purpose, but none in Odisha, which had the University College of Engineering at Burla, one of the oldest in India, as well as NIT, Rourkela which ranked higher than four of the five institutions that were selected. It has been alleged that the government had originally picked Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha as one of the locations for an IISER, which was later shifted to Kolkata.

As of 2009, there is a demand for one of the new IIMs to be established in Odisha, on grounds that the state is witnessing large-scale foreign investment, and because until recently, it had been the bottom-most state in Indian central government funded institutions.