Your cover story ‘Few takers for grudging invitation’ (EW October) has accurately anal-ysed why foreign university managements are not jumping with joy, following the HRD ministry’s ordinance allowing foreign education institutions to establish campuses in India. The slothful bureaucracy, corruption, and archaic rules and regulations are so cumber-some to navigate that the best-intentioned foreign varsities would get cold feet. Moreover the many scams and scandals plaguing the UPA-II government have dented India’s image in the global community. Foreign universities — the global Top 400 in particular — have built prestigious reputations over several decades and wouldn’t want to risk losing them over an Indian misadventure. If the government is serious about its foreign institutions initiative, it must first liberalise the higher education regulatory system, set out acceptable conditions and establish a single-window clearance cell. These measures will infuse confidence in foreign univer-sities. An ordinance full of dire warnings won’t persuade them to invest in India. Deepak Sharma Delhi Wrong target The dress code for university students proposed by the Tamil Nadu government is ridiculous (Education News ‘Trivial pursuits’, EW October). Students in colleges and universities are adults and perfectly capable of making choices about their attire; imposition of a dress code is unnecessary interference and violation of their personal freedoms. At a time when the higher education system in the country is at its nadir, academics, politicians and policy makers are wasting time in this absurd debate instead of contemporising syllabuses and pedagogies, which should be their priorities. I agree with the author that in Tamil Nadu, the talibanisation of college campuses is being prompted by “socially backward politicians-turned educationists” who have appointed themselves guardians of public morality. Curiously these people have nothing to say about the more than “indecent” — in fact obscene — attire of Tamil film heroines who caper about in clothes leaving noth-ing to the imagination. If these arbiters of public morality want to seriously curb gender crimes and safeguard Indian culture and society, they should target the Tamil film industry which portrays women as objects of lust and promotes molestation and sexual crimes. Sujata Ramaswamy Chennai Invaluable contributions Congratulations for organising the EW India School Rankings Awards Nite 2013 in Delhi (Pictorial Essay, EW October). It’s a wonderful initiative to acknowledge and honour the excellent work being done by schools and educationists across the country. I was especially impressed by your lifetime achievement in education leadership award recipients — Sumer Singh, Augustine and Grace Pinto, and Achyuta Samanta. Their citations reveal the invaluable contributions they have made towards quality school and higher education in the country. Indeed these people are the true heroes of Indian education. Keep up the good work! Ramakant Deshpande Mumbai Surprising scores In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2013 (EW September), Delhi Public School (DPS), Bokaro Steel City, has been ranked #3 in the state of Jharkhand and #109 nationally. This is indeed very surprising as our school has been ranked all-India #1 on the parameter of ‘academic reputation’ for the…
