In 1979 the Electronic Commission
of the Government of India felt that several computer based projects were not
progressing fast enough due to the paucity of trained human resource. The then
Chairman of the Electronics Commission Prof. Biswajit Nag set up a panel to
project the demand for manpower and suggest appropriate educational programs
to meet the requirements of Human Resource.
A minicomputer policy which was in limbo for a long time was just about
to be announced based on the Sondhi committee recommendations which was
expected to allow many private companies to enter computer manufacture. There
was no formal educational program to create a cadre of systems analysts and
application programmers. Systems analysts are expected to have breadth of
knowledge and maturity as their main job requirement is to interview personnel
of various types of organizations and arrive at Systems Requirement Specification (SRS) before embarking on systems design and programming. The committee
felt that a basic B.Sc/B.Com degree would give the students some breadth of
knowledge and maturity. This led to the idea of 3 year post graduate program which the panel decided to name Master of Computer Applications (MCA). This
course was of special relevance to conditions in India and did not mimic any
course in the west. It was the panel’s conviction that the MCA course must have
three components: strong mathematics base, broad general knowledge on the
management structure of organizations including finance, and a strong
grounding in computers as a tool in solving problems. The panel felt that the
course must include programming, systems analysis and design, operating
systems, and basic ideas on architecture of computers. The panel also felt
strongly that at least six months of the course must be spent by the students
in an organization understudying an experienced systems analyst. [1]
Currently Jadavpur University,
Calcutta University, North Bengal University, Burdwan University, Kalyani
University, Kalyani Government Engineering College, Vidyasagar University, NIT
Durgapur are the government institutes offering MCA in West Bengal. Other than these, there
are at least 30 private institutes in West Bengal offering MCA degree under Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad University of Technolgy (Formerly, West Bengal University of Technology)
[2]. Few Institutes such as IIEST Shibpur and NIT Rourkela have discontinued
offering MCA program to focus more on research.
All the Universities or Institutes take students for admission in MCA through JECA. However many private engineering colleges give advertisements in newspapers and in their websites for direct admissions to MCA to fill up the vacant seats after counselling by WBJEE board. Also AICTE has allowed for lateral entry (admission in second year) in MCA course for students with B.Sc computer science or BCA background. Hopefully, this would be implemented from 2017-18.
To take admission in NITs (like NIT Durgapur, NIT Jamshedpur, NIT Trichy, NIT Raipur etc) one needs to appear in NIMCET.
References:
1. 1. Reminiscences of Prof. V. Rajaraman on How the
MCA Programme Started, CSI Communications, September 2014. http://www.csi-india.org/communications/CSIC%20September%202014.pdf
2. 2. List of AICTE approved Institutes for MCA in
West Bengal in 2012-13. http://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/MCA/West%20Bengal_MCA.pdf
