Odisha Cabinet approves unitary university status for CET-Bhubaneswar – Times of India

CET, one of the oldest technical institutes in the state will be upgraded as Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR) to provide facilities and opportunities for graduate, post-graduate education, PhD and research in the field of engineering, science and technology including information technology and its application, architecture and management, training, research, development and extension.

A new law — The Odisha University of Technology and Research Act, 2021, will be enacted soon for upgradation of the institute.
Established in 1981 by the state government to meet the growing technical human resource need in the state, the campus is located in an area of more than 100 acres of land at Kalinga Nagar in the city. Though the college was initially established as a constituent college of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), it later affiliated to Biju Patnaik University of Technology.

“The OUTR will serve as a centre for fostering co-operation and interaction between the academic and research community on the one hand and industry on the other,” said chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra after the cabinet meeting.

OUTR will identify and establish linkages including memorandum of understanding for long term relationships with industry bodies and individual companies for creating opportunities for teachers and students to involve in research

The chief secretary said the university shall also provide opportunities for improving employability through entrepreneurial training, specialized skilled training and soft skill requirement by industries.

Official sources said the University Grants Commission has already granted autonomy status to the institute in 2017. Unitary university status was also a long-standing demand of the students.

In another major development, the cabinet also approved upgradation of the Odisha State Wide Area Network (OSWAN) that helps improving governance efficiency through connectivity. OSWAN provides basic information technology backbone which is utilized for carrying data, video and voice traffic facilitating inter-intra-departmental communication and data sharing within the state.

The chief secretary said the improvement is required to cater with the latest technology of data, voice and video transmission. It will facilitate bandwidth at state headquarter, 30 district headquarters and 314 block headquarters for enhancement of bandwidth, load sharing and high availability of connectivity. Around Rs 333 crore will be spent for improvement of the OSWAN.