Network Cell : 

Under the scheme Urvarit Maharashtra Vaidhanik Vikas Mahamandal Scheme (उर्वरित महाराष्ट्र वैधानिक विकास महामंडळ ) university received a grant for advanced computing facility. For the utilization of the grant a proposal for installation of a Computer Laboratory with Internet facility was submitted to University authorities. The proposal was prepared by  Dr. S. R. Sawant, Professor in Electronics Department . University administration approved this proposal and some additional grant was made available from University Funds.

Internet Unit was established on March 20, 1999. Dr. G. H. Patil, Professor in Dept. of Mathematics was appointed as the Co-ordinator of Internet Unit.  In order to handle the technical part of this unit Shri. Kalyan Deorukhakar, Lab. Technician, Dept. of Electronics, was given additional charge of this unit.
So far following faculty member and officers worked as the Co-ordinators of this unit:
1.    Prof.(Dr.) G. H. Patil, Dept. of Mathematics       March- 1999 to July 2002
2.    Prof.(Dr.) S.R. Sawant, Dept. of Electronics    July-2002 to July 2005
3.    Prof.(Dr.) R.K. Kamat, Dept. of Electronics    July-2005 to July 2008
4.    Smt. S.S. Kharade, I/c Director, Computer Centre    July 2008 to July 2011
5.    Dr. M. J. Joshi, System Programmer, Computer Centre    July 2011 to December 2020
From January 2021 Shri. Kalyan Deorukhakar, Network Administrator is looking after Internet Unit as Co-ordinator.

Initially the Internet facility was intended for Science Departments. While conducting the survey, it was proposed to extend this facility to all the academic departments on the campus. A Project Report was submitted to the University authorities. After having all approvals and completion of all the procedures like open tenders etc. the project commissioned in July 2000.

In the first phase of this project, all Internet related equipments were installed in the Main Server Room at USIC extension building (At present Dept. of Electronics).  Main Administrative building and other administrative buildings were connected this server room using underground optical fibre cables.
Initial speed of Internet was 64 Kbps only  and used for Internet browsing purpose. As the usage of Internet increased the bandwidth augmented to 128 Mbps and then 2 Mbps. Ministry of Human Resources & Development (MHRD) provided a VSAT facility with 128 Kbps Internet connectivity.
In the year 2002, considering the demand for various Internet services, the Internet Unit was further divided in to three cells viz. Network Cell, Website Cell and Internet Hall.

Network Cell was concerned with installation, upgradation and maintenance of networks in the campus. Shri. Kalyan Deorukhakar, Lab. Technician, Dept. of Electronics, was given additional charge of this cell.

With the advent of time, Examination Section, Finance and Accounts Section etc. were computerised. Networks were established at more places. And upgradation of the network facility established in the year 2000, was essential.

In the year 2008, the server room of Internet Unit, was shifted to Computer Centre, in the Main Administrative building. The Internet connectivity from BSNL also shifted from copper to fibre. 

In the year 2010, under National Knowledge Network (NKN) scheme Internet Connectivity with 1 Gbps bandwidth was available to University.

As of now the campus-wide network established in the year 2000 was on 100Mbps connectivity speed. However, the usage of Internet and its applications flourished day by day. Therefore, the users were not benefitted of the increased Internet capacity.  Mean-while University received grants under DST-PURSE scheme in 2011. Under this grant two significant projects were executed.

The first was a Data Centre. Computerization of various sections like examination, finance etc was working around various servers location at different locations. All the servers were collected at the Data Centre and using advanced technologies like blade server and virtualization platform, all the hardware servers of various projects were migrated to virtualized platform.  Furthermore this facility reduced maintenance overhead of the servers also other equipments like UPS and Air conditioners etc.

The entire network related equipments are now housed in this Data Centre.  

The Data Centre was inaugurated on 18/06/2012 at the auspicious hands of Hon. Shri. Rajesh Tope, Higher and Technical Education Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra and in the presence of Hon. Dr. N.J. Pawar, Vice-Chancellor, Shivaji University. This is the first Data Centre of its kind established in any public university in Maharashtra State. The Data Centre is maintained and updated by Computer Centre under supervision of Smt. S.S. Kharade, I/C Director.

The other important project was laying a single mode fibre cables all over in the campus.  Around 20 Km. of fiber was laid from Distance Education department in the north of campus to Dept. of Technology in the south. Fibre cables all over the campus are terminated at the Data Centre in the Main Administrative Building. This project successfully executed in 2013.

Around 3500+ wired network points are available in various academic departments and administrative sections. Every year the network points are being added as the computerization goes on for academic, research and administration. For maintenance and upgradation of  the campus-wide network, Network Administrator and outsourced network technicians are working under supervision of Co-ordinator of Internet Unit.

www.unishivaji.ac.in is the official website of university. It is hosted in the Data Centre and its daily update and maintenance is outsourced to a local firm.


Website Cell : 
In India, at the beginning of 21st century, the World Wide Web has connected the peoples and communities globally to share information and knowledge in the world on internet. It became a best practice to find a place connected to the Internet, where information can be published and that can be found on the World Wide Web called website.
 
As Internet and websites will be a huge platform for information exchange and dissemination in the field of higher education in the 21st century, universities in maharashtra taken initiatives to have a website. Considering this potential future by the then Vice Chancellor of Shivaji University, Dr. M. G. Takwale taken rapid action. To develop a website for Shivaji University, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Dr. V.B. Jugale, (Professor in Economics), Dr. K. K. Kavalekar (Professor, Political Science), Dr. Jay Samant(Professor, Environment Science), Dr. Ravindra Thakur(Professor, Marathi) and Dr. Jagannath Patil (Assistant Registrar) were appointed as member secretaries. The Vice-Chancellor gave all the necessary approvals on behalf of University Authorities and Management, making it easier for the Committee to carry out its work within the immediate timeframe. All the work of the website was completed within a month after completing all the administrative process including the tender.

On May 20, 2002, the then Revenue Minister of Maharashtra, Hon'ble Shri. Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar launched www.shivajiuniversity.com as the official website of Shivaji University on the Internet. The program was chaired by Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Dr. M. G. Takwale, Hon’ble Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr. V. M. Chavan, I/c. Registrar Dr. S. H. Pawar along with committee members, university students, research students, teachers, officials and staff were present on the occasion. As per the recommendation of the committee, a separate Website Cell was set up to update the daily information on the website of the university and a budget provision of Rs. 1.50 lakh was made. A project assistant was appointed for the day-to-day work from December 2002 and the day-to-day running of the website began.

Information about various activities of the university, workshops, conferences, lectures, results of various examinations, admission process, circulars, etc. were started on the university website. The use of the website in the day-to-day running of the administration gradually increased. At the same time, the changes in the advanced technology in the Internet have underlined the fact that the name .com is not compatible with the field of education. Therefore, in the year 1999, while using the Internet for the first time in the university, use the domain name (website name) registered under the telegram name of the university, “unishivaji”. The name of the official website of Shivaji University has been changed to www.unishivaji.ac.in from 31st July 2003. For some time after, the registration of the name “.com” was attached to the website “.ac.in”.

From the year 2004, the then Vice Chancellor Dr. M. M. Salunkhe's career began to make remarkable and substantial achievements. On 19th October, 2004, Dr. Salunkhe, Vice Chancellor, inaugurated the INTRANET facility for the Academic Departments and Administrative Sections of the University Campus based on the "Paperless Office Concept". The concept of intranet was also demonstrated at a meeting of the Management Council under the direction of the Vice-Chancellor. Information about teachers, teaching staff, and students began to be given on the intranet. Circulars issued by the office, invitation leaflets for events, annual rate agreements and other useful information began to be shared on the intranet. On campus information sharing on intranet became gradually a part of routine administrative work. 

Further Website Cell started attempting for information sharing and automation by using internet and web technology in routine academic and administrative activities. Online Syllabi of various courses (2004), Library's first Online E-Journal access page (2004), Online External Students Registration System (2005), Online Student Feedback System (2005), Shivsandesh's Online e-Bulletin (2005), Meeting Agenda on CD (2005), Syllabus of various courses on CD (2005), Online Entrance Exam Application (2006), Online Full Statement of Marks (2006), Online Convocation Application (2007), Online Registration of Graduates (2010), Online Application System for Study Boards for collecting information about HOD’s of College / University Departments (2010), Online Registration for M.Phil./Ph.D. Entrance Test (2011), Online Registration for Conference Delegates (2011), Online Alumni Registration (2011) etc. were designed, developed, implemented for the first time in the history of the university. Various online softwares (web applications) such as Online Teaching Recruitment Portal (2012) were developed in-house on their own. Overseeing the day-to-day maintenance of the website, the Website Cell began to use technology in the administrative work of the university. The concepts of most of the above initiatives started by the Website Cell are still in use by the university administration today.

In particular, the Online Student Feedback System was successfully implemented for nine consecutive years from 2005 to 2013. The NAAC committee visited in 2009 for second cycle of accreditation had demonstration of Online Student Feedback System. Committee appreciated the feedback mechanism and noted in its report. The then Vice Chancellor Dr. M.M. Salunkhe used the report from the Feedback System during the teachers' CAS (Career Advancement Scheme) process. Dr. Salunkhe's faith in the Feedback System was strengthened as the report of the internal NAAC Committee, the report in the Feedback System and the Vice-Chancellor's own examination came to almost the same conclusion.

Similarly, Online Teaching Recruitment Portal was implemented successfully between 2012 and 2014 as per Vice Chancellor Dr. N.J.Pawar's directives. A total of 288 permanent and seasonal teachers were recruited through 23 advertisements. In June 2012, the government had directed the university to immediately fill the vacancies in the salary grant within six months. The online portal developed by the Website Cell for teacher recruitment made it possible for the university to fill the vacancies in time.

During the period of 2002-2013, University’s website was re-designed thrice viz. 2005, 2011 and 2013 out of which two times it is re-designed with in-house expertise. i.e. 2005 & 2011.  

In order to save time, money and manpower by using technology, various initiatives were taken by the Website Cell. Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor Dr.M. M. Salunkhe (2004-2009), Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor Dr. N. J. Pawar(2010-2015), the then co-ordinators Dr. S.R. Sawant, Dr. R.K. Kamat, Mrs. Kharade, Dr. M.J. Joshi and Dr. P.N. Bhosale, Head of Website, provided valuable guidance. Mr. Amol Ghunake worked for design, development, sever managment and implementation tasks technical and day-to-day administrative work from 2002 to 2013 as the Project Assistant of the Website Cell.

Due to lack of manpower, the website www.unishivaji.ac.in has been outsourced for routine updates since April 2013.
 

Library Internet Hall : 

"The library internet hall was established on a concept line “Internet facility must be available to everybody who comes to the university library” by Dr. M.G. Takwale. (August 2002)"

Although the Internet was introduced in the university in the year 2000, the students and research students have limited access to it, in most of the departments. Therefore, in August 2002, a central laboratory of 40 computers with Internet browsing facility was set up on the third floor of the library. Funds received from the University Grants Commission were utilized for this purpose. On August 3, 2002, Library Internet Hall was inaugurated by Hon. Dr. Arun Nigvekar, Chairman, University Grants Commission, New Delhi, in the presence of Hon. Vice Chancellor Dr. M.G. Takwale, Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr.V. M. Chavan, Dr. A. S. Waingankar, Director B.C.U.D.,  Dr. S.H. Pawar, I/c Registrar,  Smt. S. P. Jadhav, I/c Librarian.

The library's internet hall facility was kept free for the first two years from August 2002 to October 2004 to inculcate the literacy of internet use among teachers, students, research workers and administrative staff. 
In the year 2004, Dr. M.M. Salunkhe assumed the charge as the new Vice Chancellor. At this time Internet awareness was greater than before and there was more demand for Internet browsing facility. Considering the need, Dr. Salunkhe encouraged for the expansion of Internet hall in two phases, in the first phase 50 computers and in the second phase 80 computers and printing facility was made available. 

In the year 2004 a total of 140 computers were built with the facility of lab printing.

However considering the infrastructure cost, maintenance of hardware, space etc. and increasing demand for usage of this facility, it was decided to impose reasonable charges for the facility of library internet. In November 2004, with the approval of the authorities facility was available at minimal charges.
In addition to teachers, students, research workers and staff frequently visited the library internet hall. The hall also used for various workshops, conferences, online examinations, and online student feedback activities. With the facility of 140 computers with Internet and printing facility under one roof attracted the Govt. offices and private firms for conducting their online exams/ similar tasks.  The District Court conducted the recruitment exams. The hall became a source of revenue.

Considering day by day increasing demand the hall was kept open before and after office working hours.  Working time of hall was 7 am to 11 pm. During the extra hours the students under “the Earn and Learn scheme” or the students from Vidyarthi Bhavan were appointed for working in extra hours.  

After 2013,  many departments established their own computer laboratories with Internet facility. University started own WiFi service at selected places. With the advent in time Internet is available on mobiles and at very cheap rate.. Reliance-Jio provided WiFi services free of charge. Under RUSA grant University started own WiFi service. 

Dr.Milind Joshi, Systems Programmer served as a In-Charge of Library Internet Hall from August 2002-December 2020. Whereas, Mr. Amol Ghunake, Project Assistant served for day-to-day functioning, technical assistance and routine administration of Library Internet Hall from December 2002 to August 2013. Website Cell was functioning from Library Internet Hall. 
 

Since 2016, Computer and Internet Facility is  available in almost every department and sections. Under RUSA grant WiFi facility is available for students. Mobile Tower has been installed on the top of Library building. Students are using their laptops or mobile devices to access Internet.  Obviously the turnout at Internet Hall has been drastically reduced. Therefore, the Internet Hall facility finally closed in September 2022.