Anna University will soon have an iTNT hub focusing on emerging technology. The aim is to strengthen research and development in the information technology sector. According to Minister for Information Technology Mano Thangaraj, his department would bring in international players who will share their experience. The move will benefit the university, he said.
The university has handed over almost two floors in the C.V. Raman Science Block, earlier earmarked for classrooms and a few departments.
“Initially, the building was supposed to be occupied by three departments – English, Medical Physics, and Geology. Now, Medical Physics and Geology departments have occupied it. The building was used to house COVID-19 patients during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. As part of smart classrooms, projectors had been installed. They had to be removed to make way for COVID-19 patients,” said a professor.
After COVID patients left, when the university took possession, it discovered that 41 projectors were missing from the room in which they had been stored. The case is still under investigation in Kotturpuram police station.
Meanwhile, work is on to redevelop the floors that the university has handed over. The marbonite floors and partition walls are being dismantled. “We do not know what benefit would accrue from this initiative. Earlier, the same reasoning was given when the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management was established,” the faculty recalled.
No benefit
The university provided space for the centre through an agreement that the Central institution would recruit university’s researchers and share 50% of its research activity.
According to the memorandum of understanding signed between the university and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest on June 21, 2010, the centre was to have a high power research steering committee with nine members headed by the Union Minister and the Vice-Chancellor as one of the members. The V-C was to have been the chairperson of the governing council comprising 21 members and the registrar and two professors would be expert members.
Subsequently, the Vice-Chancellor’s name was removed, said A. Ramachandran, a retired faculty member, who conducted a study on the status of the centre in 2019. As per the agreement, the university should have benefited to the tune of ₹200 crore annually, he said. “Half the revenue generated from environment assessment, certification for coastal regulatory zone should come to the university,” he said.
Instead of using the university’s research facilities, a few more laboratories were set up. “The power of enforcing Coastal Zone Regulations vested with the Institute of Ocean Management and Institute of Remote Sensing were snatched by the NCSCM which led to substantial financial loss to the university. Anna University has been a spectator without realising its command over the NCSCM,” a report on the subject said.
Shrinking space
Faculty point out that the Madras School of Economics that the State government declared as an ‘Institute of Special Importance’ in 2021, also sits on the university’s land. The university is losing ₹3 crore annually due to this, they add. “The MSE has put up a fence and the university people cannot access the space,” a faculty said.
In 2019, the then Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa had initiated legal action against former V-C A. Kalanidhi for assigning land belonging to the university. The university is yet to retrieve the land.
There is yet another proposal to establish a biodiversity hub in the university. “As per the rules, we cannot build vertically as we are close to the airport. We can only expand horizontally. If the university’s lands are taken away in this fashion, how will the university develop,” a senior professor asked.
