NISSAT Manpower Development Program 1986-2000

B N Sarkar
National Information System for Science & Technology
Department of Scientific & Industrial Research
Technology Bhawan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016.
Email: bns@alpha.nic.in

ABSTRACT

Outlines the short-term courses on information science and technology organised in various parts of India with the support of National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT) during 1886 to 2000. NISSAT is a government agency functioning under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.

INTRODUCTION

The education and training of information personnel is one of the thrust areas of the NISSAT. Although, the existing library and information science courses have been undergoing changes to incorporate modern developments in the information field, there is a need to supplement these with continuing education programmes at various levels. In view of the situation, NISSAT has been encouraging and supporting a variety of short-term courses in the area of Information Science and Technology such as Application of computers in library and information centres; Use of personal computers and CDS/ISIS; Total quality management (TQM) in library services; Scientific and technical communication; Scientometrics and bibliometrics; computerised cataloguing; CD-ROM/Online search; Modern information access facilities to business and industry: Common communication format; AACR _ II; IDAMS; Sanjay software package; MIS for library; Internet, HTML, Web design; Marketing of information services and products; Patent information, Copyright, etc. in various parts of the country.

NISSAT has been organizing these courses through different agencies. It fixed the norm and the registration fee for each course based on the duration The courses were of one-, two-, four- and six-week duration depending upon the topics to be covered and the level of the participants to be trained. One-week courses were generally organized through professional bodies engaged in information activities and others through academic bodies and institutions like Documentation Research and Training Centre (DRTC), Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), universities, etc. The four-week courses were mainly conducted by INSDOC and six-week courses by DRTC. These four-week and six-week courses have since been discontinued. The different norms and registration fees fixed by NISSAT at different times is given below (Tables 1-2).:

Table 1: NISSAT Norms (1990)

Duration Financial Support Registratioon Fees

1 Week

Rs. 8000/-

Rs. 500/-

Rs. 650/-*

2 Weeks

Rs. 15000/-

Rs. 1000/-

Rs. 1250/-*

4 Weeks

Rs. 18250/-

Rs. 2000/-

Rs. 2500/-*

6 Weeks

Rs. 24750/-

Rs. 2750/-

Rs. 3000/-*

* With Accommodation

Table 2: NISSAT Norms (1995)

Duration Financial Support Registratioon Fees

1 Week

Rs. 10175/-

Rs. 500/-

Rs. 650/-*

2 Weeks

Rs. 15950/-

Rs. 1000/-

Rs. 1250/-*

3 Weeks

Rs. 22275/-

  .
4 Weeks Rs. 28600/-

Rs. 2000/-

Rs. 2500/-*

6 Weeks

Rs. 40150/-

Rs. 2750/-

Rs. 3000/-*

* With Accommodation

In 1998, NISSAT found that there was a need to revise the norm and terms and conditions for the manpower development program for the following reasons:

  1. Price escalations directly affected organizational costs, printing of materials, stationery, course materials, transport, etc.

  2. Hardware  and online connection charges were  additional  expenditure  for organizing the training courses related to information technology.

  3. Honoraria at a higher rate need to be paid to the resource persons for  the advanced subjects or new subjects of IT in  an organization like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) .

  4. TA/DA need to be paid to the resource persons for organizing training courses in the North-Eastern states and other remote places where experts  are not locally available. For certain new subjects, though selectively, resource persons may have to be brought from abroad.

Considering the aforesaid factors the present norms have been evolved on subject-to-subject basis. The subjects have been categorized into three broad divisions based on the depth of treatment they need (as implied by the duration). The second set of classification is by the type of resource institutions and resource persons necessary to treat a subject. While Type A courses could be handled by middle level experts, the Types B and C courses are to be dealt with senior professionals and institutions of the class of IITs and IIMs. The types of courses according to subjects and durations are given in Table 3.

Table 3: Subject and Duration

Subject

Duration

Types

Application of computers in library and information centres 

10 days

A

Use of personal computers and CDS/ISIS

10 days

A

WINISIS and Advance course on CDS/ISIS

10 days

B

Scientometrics and bibliometrics

5 days

B

IDAMS

5 days

B

Scientific & Technical Communication

5 days

B

Computer cataloguing

5 days

A

Common communication format

5 days

A

AACR - II

5 days

A

Sanjay: Library automation software

5 days

A

Total quality management(TQM)

2/3 days

C

Patent information

1/2 days

C

CD-ROM/Online search

1/2/3 days

C

Modern information access facilities

1/2/3 days

C

Internet, HTML, Web design

1/2/3 days

C

Marketing of information services and products

1/2/3 days

C

The financial norms set for various types of courses are given in Table 4.

Table 4: Financial Norms

Item Type A Types B &C

Honoraria to resource person (Lecture / Hour) 

Rs. 250/-

Rs. 400/-

Course material per course

Rs. 4000/-

Rs. 4000/-

Consumables & Contingencies per course

Rs. 5000/-

Rs. 5000/-

COURSES SUPPORTED

Every year NISSAT supports 10 to 20 courses/workshops through different organizations located at different parts of the country. Since 1986 to 2000, NISSAT has supported 209 short-term courses/workshops on various topics. The year-wise distribution of courses is given in Table 5. The appendix shows the details of the courses supported by NISSAT.

Table 5: Year-wise distribution of courses

Year

Number of
Courses

Year

Number of
Courses

Year

Number of
Courses

1986

05

1991

19

1996

10

1987

10

1992

14

1997

14

1988

09

1993

13

1998

20

1989

17

1994

19

1999

15

1990

16

1995

13

2000

14

The number of candidates trained through these courses is estimated to be around 5000.

In the state-wise distribution of the courses Table 6 shows that the largest number of courses have been organized in Delhi (48), followed by West Bengal (42), Karnataka (37), Maharashtra (28), Uttar Pradesh (12), and Madhya Pradesh (12). The remaining states organized less than 10 courses each.

Table 6: State-wise distribution of courses

State Number of
Courses
State Number of
Courses

Andhra Pradesh

04

Kerala

03

Arunachal Pradesh

01

Madhya Pradesh

12

Assam

05

Maharashtra

28

Bihar

01

Orissa

02

Delhi

48

Punjab

02

Goa

01

Rajasthan

02

Gujarat

03

Tamil Nadu

06

Himachal Pradesh

03

Uttar Pradesh

12

Karnataka

37

West Bengal

42

The reasons for unevern distribution of courses across the country will be clear from Table 7.

Effort has been made to overcome this situation after 1999. We approached different organizations located in different parts of the country for conducting NISSAT-supported courses. The response from new organizations has been encouraging. As a result we could reach new places. We have found that this helped the local participant to attend the NISSAT-supported courses more.

Table 7: State-wise distribution of courses

Organization City

Number of
Courses

Academy of Information Science

Mysore

07

BAIF Development Research Foundation

Pune

02

Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi

01

Bengal Library Association

Kolkata

09

Calcutta Library Network

Kolkata

04

Central Machine Tool Institute

Bangalore

01

Consultancy Development Centre

New Delhi

09

Documentation Research and Training Centre

Bangalore

24

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University

Aurangabad

01

Dr Y S Parmar University

Solan

01

Foundation for Innovation & Technology Transfer

New Delhi

03

Gauhati University

Guwahati

01

Goa University

Goa

01

Himachal Pradesh State Council of Science and Technology

Shimla

01

Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres

Kolkata

35

Indian Institute of Management

Lucknow

02

Indian Institute of Technology

Kharagpur

02

Indian Library Association

Delhi

23

Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre

New Delhi

35

Institute of Environment & Rural Technology

Allahabad

01

Institute of Information Studies

Bangalore

02

Kerala Agricultural University

Trissur

02

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Chennai

01

Madhya Pradesh Consultancy Organization

Bhopal

01

Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology

Bhopal

06

Maharaja Sayajirao University

Baroda

01

National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies

New Delhi

02

Regional Centre for Information & Appropriate Technology Management

Allahabad

04

Society for Information Science

New Delhi

04

Tata Energy Research Institute

New Delhi

02

Tezpur University

Tezpur

01

University of Mysore

Mysore

02

University of Poona

Pune

18

Uttar Pradesh Library Association

Lucknow

03

Wildlife Institute of India

Dehradun

01

Year 2000

In addition to all other regular courses, NISSAT conducted two series of training courses on WINISIS and a series of Patent Information for R&D and Industry. NISSAT announced the courses widely through its official organ Information Today and Tomorrow and sent the brochure to various concerned organizations. This helped the participant to attend from all over the country. NISSAT conducted 14 courses in this year Nine out of fourteen courses are on CDS/ISIS and 2 courses on patent information and the rest on modern IT areas. The list of the courses and their details are given in Appendix. Between 15 and 25 participants are accommodated in a training course where computer is essential. Attempt is made to provide one computer per two participants. With this provision, NISSAT is able to provide training to more than 300 participants in the year 2000. Participants are mostly from different parts of the country. From the list of the participants, we have found that they hailed from places like Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.

The content of the program is mostly designed by NISSAT. Standard course material has been prepared for the Patent Information for R&D and Industry, which is being distributed in all the programs. NISSAT has prepared a brief WINISIS user manual for distribution in training courses. Sometimes, the course content is finalized in consultation with the course organizer. NISSAT helps the organizer to identify local resource persons. If the resource person is not found locally, NISSAT provides TA/DA for the resource person. This way NISSAT found the following benefits:

NISSAT welcomes organization that is interested to organize training courses under the NISSAT's term and condition.

Appendix

LIST OF TRAINING PROGRAMS

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000


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Information Today & Tomorrow, Vol. 20, No. 2, June 2001, p.11-p.21 & p.30
http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt0102/mpd0102.htm