By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Central Government will provide funds under 12th Five Year Plan to establish full-fledged facilities at the four Regional Centres of country’s prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication in J&K, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram.
Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Mrs Ambika Soni has said that under the new initiatives taken to position Delhi-based IIMC as an apex institution for providing quality education in the field on Media and entertainment, the endeavour was to establish facilities, curriculum and courses at par with global standards, the minister said while addressing the 43rd Convocation of IIMC here today.
Elaborating the plan, she said a roadmap to initiate the process had already begun wherein classes at the four Regional Centres at J&K, Kerala, Maharashtra and Mizoram would commence from the next academic session at the facilities being provided by the State Governments. For this purpose, under the 12th Plan, funds would be provided to establish the full fledged facilities at the four Regional Centres.
Elaborating on the details of the up-gradation being undertaken at Delhi and Dhenkenal in Orissa, the Minister said that an up-gradation of the One-Year PG Diploma Course to Two-Year Advanced PG Diploma Course would be undertaken along-with seeking equivalence to Masters Degree for the Two-Year PG Diploma Courses from Ministry of Human Resources Development. As a new initiative, introduction of at least two new Two-Year PG Diploma Courses (one each in Development Journalism and Corporate Communication & Media Management) would be undertaken. For the infrastructural development, expansion of the existing buildings at Delhi and Dhenkanal and construction of new buildings for accommodating two batches of students at a time would be undertaken along with procurement of latest technical equipment and filling up all vacancies in the teaching as well as non-teaching category. The Minister added that these initiatives would not only provide quality manpower to the industry, the training imparted would also ensure availability of skills, talent and professionalism with proper grooming at the inception level.
Smt. Soni further said that the growth of the media and entertainment industry had been one of the success stories of the Indian Economy. The growth of the media and entertainment industry was expected to grow provisionally at Rs.652 billion in 2010, culminating to Rs.1091 billion in 2014. The growth is due to the development in regional markets as well as different media formats. This growth, the minister added, could be sustained only if talented and skilled persons added value to the sector through their professional inputs. Hence, capacity building was a major challenge for any Government.
The Minister further added that apart from IIMC, efforts were being made to reposition the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune as a world class Institute by upgrading and modernising its infrastructure and facilities. A Detailed Project Report was being finalised. An outlay of Rs.52 crore has been proposed for this scheme during the 11th Five Year Plan.
At the IIMC convocation, a total number of 259 students were awarded diploma for courses in Hindi & English Journalism, Advertising & PR, Radio & Television and Oriya Journalism. Besides, 44 students of IIMC, Dhenkanal were given diplomas in English Journalism.