NISER Bhubaneswar, India

On the eve of Prime Minister's visit to Odisha and his plans to
announce the setting up of NIS/IISER in Bubaneswar, Agamee Odisha
welcomed Dr. Manmohan Singh with a sand art by none other than Mr.
Sudarshan Pattanaik, the renowned sand-artist. The event marked many
firsts - the Prime Minister's first time visit to Odisha, Mr
Sudarshan Pattanaik's first sand art in Bhubaneswar which is nearly
75 km. away from the sea beach, and last but the most important the
first victory for Agamee Odisha and the victory of a civil society
movement after a long time to see some impact in terms of
influencing the Central Govt. Agamee Odisha, a civil society
movement group, has been demanding since long to set up an NIS/IISER
in Orissa in accordance with an announcement by the Ministry of HRD
and the President of India in December, 2003. However, Government
of India has been silent on the issue since then and went ahead to
set up IISERS in Kolkata and Pune. This belied the hopes of many
Oriyas. Agamee Odisha took up the cause to fight for it by
organizing student rallies and intellectual rallies throughout
Orissa and in New Delhi. The recent news about the announcement of
setting up the institute in Orissa during the Prime Minister's visit
to the state has brought joys to the people of Orissa. To mark the
occasion, Agamee Odisha celebrated the day as a Victory Day through
a sand art of Dr. Singh by Mr. Sudarshan Pattanaik thanking him for
the decision and urging him to give the institute not less than an
IISER's status.