“Close to 60 percent of India’s 34 million students enrolled in undergraduate degree courses may end up in jobs unrelated to what they study in college or university. That’s nearly 29 million studying subjects irrelevant to their future. Is this not a waste of national resources?”

Binay Panda, professor at JNU, in an essay titled ‘Courses that don’t matter, graduates whom no one wants’ (Times of India, July 15)

“Historically, universities have served as spaces where civilizational questions are posed, where the past is interrogated, and where future possibilities are imagined. To reduce these institutions to sites of ideological policing is to betray their very essence.”

Shelley Walia, former professor at Panjab University, Chandigarh in an essay titled ‘Ideas on trial, critical thinking in retreat’ (The Hindu, July 22) 

“The joy of learning has been replaced by anxiety over rankings, results and relentless performance metrics. Students… are caught in a web that rewards conformity over curiosity, output over understanding and endurance over well-being.”

Justice Sandeep Mehta of the Supreme Court hearing a plea filed by parents of a medical aspirant who died by suicide (July 25)

“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil, they are then, for much of the oil purchased, selling it on the open market for big profits… Because of this, I will be substantially raising the tariff paid by India to USA.”

US President Donald Trump announcing 25 percent trade tariffs on India (August 4)

“The fundamental issue underlying current electoral controversies is the erosion of institutional trust. The ECI’s credibility depends not merely on technical soundness but also on public confidence in its impartiality and transparency. ”

Editorial on the allegations of “criminal fraud” charge levelled against the Election Commission of India by Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi (The Hindu, August 9)