The annual EducationWorld Grand Jury India Higher Education Rankings were introduced in 2019 to acknowledge and felicitate higher education institutions (HEIs) — especially newly-promoted, low-profile HEIs. Special juries of knowledgeable educationists are constituted to recommend conferment of the EW Grand Jury Awards upon higher ed institutions implementing best practices. To select progressive higher education institutions across the country, we invited nominations from educationists, individuals and higher ed institutions themselves supported by evidence of best practices in 14 categories including extraordinary leadership, campus design excellence, best academia-industry alliance, new-age study programmes leader among others. Evidence-supported nominations were received from 610 higher education institutions countrywide. To assess the evidence and rank nominated institutions in each category, this year’s Grand Jury comprised eminent educationists Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, former professor of education, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, Mehul D. Mehta, chairman MDM Group, start-up mentor and investor, Deepakkumar Mukadam, former chancellor’s nominee on the management council of University of Mumbai and founder, Academistan, an online faculty networking platform. The Grand Jury duly assessed the nominations and supportive evidence and ranked Top 10 HEIs in each category. Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Champion Institutions which promote admission of students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, cultures and nationalities, provide all students equal opportunities and ensure their participation in all activities regardless of culture, language, gender, economic background or disability. Excellence in Academic Achievement This award celebrates higher ed institutions which demonstrate outstanding academic performance in the academic year 2023-24, research output, teaching quality, learning assesment and innovative teaching-learning initiatives. Enabling Start-Up Culture Institutions which encourage an entrepreneurial ecosystem and start-up culture that highly values student ideation, problem solving, risk taking, and innovation and supports on-campus incubation of student businesses. International Outreach Leader HEIs that forge partnerships and collaborations with reputed academic institutions across the globe to expand student experiences, promote free exchange of ideas, faculty and student growth, breakthroughs in knowledge and research, and build enduring bonds between institutions and nations. Excellence in Skill Development Education Higher education institutions providing new-age career oriented skill development and education programmes. Emerging Study Programmes Pioneer Higher education institutions pioneering the introduction of new-age and futuristic industry-aligned study programmes. Exemplary Leadership These awards acknowledge extraordinary education leaders from among low-profile and newly emergent private higher education institutions. Top Performing University of the Year A university which demonstrates exceptional performance in the academic year 2023-24 in terms of academic outcomes, research, faculty development programmes, social engagement and innovative initiatives. Campus Planning and Design Excellence Attractive and conducive campuses providing contemporary enabling infrastructure which stimulates students to learn joyfully and give their best, are awarded in this category. Exceptional Community Impact Awarded to institutions which have meaningfully engaged with communities, at local or national level, to effect positive socio-economic change with lasting impact. Outstanding Achievement in Professional Education Institutions providing globally benchmarked professional study programmes such as event management, fashion design and mass communication among others. Exemplary Researcher of the Year This award recognises higher education research institutions for innovative R&D which…
Reports of widespread cheating, favouritism and swindles in NEET-UG 2024 have generated the first storm of the new Parliament convened on June 24. That’s bad news for the weakened BJP/NDA 3.0 government, and especially for re-inducted Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan – writes Summiya Yasmeen With evidence emerging on a daily basis that there was widespread cheating and bribery in the NEET-UG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance-Test-Undergraduate) 2024 examination written by 2.4 million school-leavers aspiring for admission into medical colleges countrywide, the newly sworn-in BJP/Modi government at the Centre has got off to a shaky start. Coincidently results of NEET-UG — a centralised national exam for aspirant medical practitioners introduced in 2016 — were announced on the very day (June 4) that General Election 2024 results were declared by the Election Commission of India. In the recently concluded General Election, upending all expectation and opinion poll forecasts, the ruling BJP was cut to size with its 303 seats in the Lok Sabha reduced to 240. Although together with its NDA (National Democratic Alliance) allies it bagged 293 seats in the 543-strong Lok Sabha, the BJP with prime minister Narendra Modi at the helm has formed the BJP/NDA 3.0 government at the Centre, reports of widespread cheating, question paper leaks and swindles in NEET-UG 2024 have generated the first storm of the new Parliament convened on June 24. That’s bad news for the weakened BJP/NDA government and especially for Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has been re-inducted into Shastri Bhavan, Delhi. The embarrassment suffered by the new BJP/NDA government at the Centre is likely to be serious because the decision to replace medical college entrance exams hitherto administered by state governments with a common national exam — (NEET-UG) — for admission into all 706 medical colleges countrywide was of the BJP/NDA 2.0 government in 2016. The rationale of NEET-UG advanced at the time — endorsed by the Supreme Court — was that it saves students the expense, time and inconvenience of having to write multiple entrance exams of state governments in the hope of bagging a prized seat in a highly-subsidised government-promoted medical college. In 2017, a National Testing Agency (NTA) was established to conduct NEET-UG and several other national entrance exams including IIT-JEE, UGC-NET among others. However according to some educationists, NTA was established hurriedly without due care and diligence to create well-paid “jobs for the boys”, i.e, ideologically aligned party sympathisers. This is substantiated by NTA suffering embarrassment ab initio for glitches while conducting national examinations written by thousands of students clamouring for admission into the country’s much-too-few acceptable quality higher education institutions. In NEET-UG 2020 it incorrectly declared a student in Madhya Pradesh had scored only 6 marks in the exam, an egregious error that drove her to suicide. Later, NTA issued a clarification that she had scored 590, provoking a huge public outcry. In 2022, NTA was widely criticised for mismanagement of the IIT-JEE (Main) 2022 examination during which “technical issues” resulted in abnormally low scores for many students.…
(Dr. Larry Arnn is President, Hillsdale College, USA. [email protected]) Do you ever watch dog trials? I find them fascinating. Dogs herd sheep, run over obstacles, catch frisbees, and seek by scent and sight. They exhaust themselves in these contests. They do it joyfully. It is a fulfillment of their nature. Students too face numerous trials. The most intense are examinations that come at the end of each year and, the worst (or best), just before graduation. In America and India, these are high stakes trials. They can have lasting impact on lives and careers. Working in a college, I often witness students confronting these trials. They prompt me to think of the dog trials I like to watch. Yet students don’t seem to be having as much fun as dogs. I believe the difference is in the nature of the two species. Dogs have a nature, as do all beings. Running and jumping, seeking and fetching fulfills that nature. They love to do it. Humans have a nature too: it is to learn and gather knowledge. We can find our highest joy in them. Of course, we do not have to learn and grow. We are free to choose among many interests and pursuits, and we can give them the wrong priority. Relaxation instead of work; watching TV instead of reading; playing video games instead of solving equations. There is nothing wrong with any of these choices, but TV and video games will ruin you if you give them highest priority. Coming back to summative examinations, these human dog trials are usually not enjoyable even if they are necessary. Let me suggest two ways to make them more enjoyable and successful. The first is to reduce focus on the immediate outcome, the score you will get. I’m aware that exam scores are important, but they don’t guarantee success. Focus instead on the work of learning. If you do it with discipline, you will inevitably get high scores. Get plenty of rest. Eliminate distractions. Focus. Give your best hours to the most important tasks. Pursue them intensely. These practices are ways to master yourself in every activity. They will make you a person of moral virtue. That is half of happiness. The second recommendation is to focus about the ultimate outcome which is not to pass a test, but to learn. History, literature, physics, mathematics and chemistry are wonderful, valuable to everyone. Your goal should be to make your knowledge of them last. Master key concepts and the knowledge they contain. This will make you a learned person, a person of intellectual virtue. That is the other half of happiness. Trials are more important to humans than to dogs. For us they are occasions to grow morally and intellectually. You can become a knowledgeable and happy person if you learn to accept challenges as opportunities to grow. And you might be admitted to IIT — or Hillsdale. Also read: LETTER FROM AMERICA: In praise of charter schools
A blindspot of learned economists and pundits who discuss, debate and analyse the Union — and to a much lesser extent state government — budgets, is the substantial expense incurred by government under the head ‘establishment expenses’. In EducationWorld where thrift is venerated as a virtue, we have been repeatedly whistle-blowing about enormous amounts often exceeding 20 percent of total government revenue, being routinely expended under this amorphous head. With each passing day, evidence is emerging of unbridled spending buried under establishment expenses by government ministers and officials. Lavish expenditure by government leaders by way of fully furbished and protected airplanes and motor cars for the prime minster, a private airline for ministers who commute in motorized cavalcades and serve the people from imposing manors, are funded by unquestioned provision made for establishment expenses in the Union and state government budgets. Recently, a Rs.500 crore Xanadu-style seaside palace constructed by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S.R Jagan Mohan Reddy in Visakapatnam has been hitting the headlines. A few months ago a competitively ornate palace of ousted Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Hyderabad, and a grand Sheesh Mahal built for Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal were in the media glare. Government balance sheets are subject to audit by the grandiosely titled Comptroller & Auditor General of India. Yet apart from the time when the CAG computed a humongous ‘notional loss’ of Rs.1.8 lakh crore in the coal auction scam of 2009, little is heard from his august office. Curiously governments encounter little difficulty in funding palaces, perks and extravagances of the neta-babu brotherhood. However, they experience severe financial constraints when it comes to funding modernization of the country’s dilapidated, dysfunctional government schools and primary health centres. On this glaring paradox, learned economists and telly talking heads are strangely silent.
General Election 2024 was marked by several extraordinary twists and turns and ups and downs. But surely the sweetest outcome is cutting to size Prime Minister Modi who had begun to believe that he had been divinely commissioned to rule the republic. For the first time since 2014 he has to depend upon hitherto neglected allied parties to remain in power. A second sweet outcome was the right royal defeat of Union minister of women and child development Smriti Irani, in Amethi where last time round (2019) she ousted Rahul Gandhi from his family’s pocket borough. And a third was the defeat of incumbent BJP MP from the Faizabad constituency in which the Ram Mandir was inaugurated with great fanfare on January 22. The calculus of the BJP top brass was that building the grand Ram Mandir on the ruins of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya would prove to be a trump card in General Election 2024. However a low-caste Dalit candidate of the Samajwadi Party who is unlikely to be granted entry into the grand new Ram Mandir by its powerful Brahmin priests who famously declined to permit President Murmu to participate in the inauguration ceremony starring PM Modi, trounced the two-term BJP candidate. Not that this is entirely good news. Nehruvian socialism which ruined the high-potential Indian economy for over half a century after independence, may bloom again. According to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, wealth and job creators and highest tax papyers (Ambani and Adani) are enemies of the people. Taxes and national savings should be canalized into white elephant public sector enterprises to be squandered by business -illiterate babus. If this resurrected star of the Nehru-Indira dynasty throws a spanner in the works, India will be back to square one. Therefore your editor’s schadenfreude about the mighty being cut to size is tempered by déjà vu fear. Also read: General election 2024: Why BJP lost ground
-Autar Nehru (Delhi) Amit Saxena is CEO of the education vertical of the Delhi-based Sparsh Group, a widely diversified business conglomerate with interests in polyester films, packaging, hospitality, and renewable energy. The group currently runs four K-12 schools in Delhi-NCR — Sparsh Global and JP International schools in Greater Noida, Swarnprastha Public in Sonipat and Glory Public schools in New Delhi. Moreover, the group has promoted and manages three higher ed institutions (HEIs) — Indore Institute of Science & Technology, Indore Institute of Management & Research, and Indore Institute of Pharmacy. Aggregate enrolment: 8,000 students mentored by 700 faculty. Newspeg. Sparsh Global Business School, Greater Noida is all set to admit its first batch of 60 graduate students into its two-year postgrad diploma programme. History. An alum of Rohilkhand University and business management postgrad of IMS Ghaziabad, Saxena began his career in marketing with the US-based Columbia Broadcasting Service, followed with stints in Business Press and Gadgil Western Group. In 1997, he signed up with the (now defunct) Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), where during a 17-year stint he gained valuable experience in managing education institutions. In 2015, he was hand-picked and selected by Roshan Agarwal, chairman of the Sparsh Group, to lead their foray into education. Since then, Saxena has spearheaded the group’s entry into K-12 and higher education through a mix of acquisitions and promotion of greenfield institutions. “In the first phase, from 2015-17, we adopted the ‘Edupreneurship through Acquisition’ model, and acquired JP International, Swarnprastha Public and Glory Public schools in Delhi NCR followed by HEIs in Indore. Since then, we have been engaged in infrastructure upgradation and faculty training to transform these schools and colleges into high quality, globally benchmarked institutions,” says Saxena, conferred an honoris causa doctorate in business administration by Maryland State University, USA, earlier this year. Soon after the Covid pandemic restrictions were eased, the group launched two greenfield projects — Sparsh Global School and the Sparsh Global B-school — both in Greater Noida. Direct talk. “Our entry into education was driven by the awareness of our chairman Roshan Agarwal that India needs new-age curriculums, pedagogies and practices. Therefore after revamping and upgrading our acquired schools, to attain the lofty goals of Viksit Bharat and $30 trillion GDP set by prime minister Narendra Modi, in 2023 we launched the K-12 Sparsh Global School affiliated with Cambridge International, UK, and earlier this year, Sparsh Global Business School. Public response to both these greenfield institutions is very encouraging. Sparsh Global School with its 21st century curriculum integrating STEM, entrepreneurship and social/emotional learning has attracted over 1,000 students. And the Sparsh B-School which will begin operations in July-August is all set to admit its first batch of 60 graduate students. Currently, we are engaged in fulfilling the regulatory norms and obtaining necessary clearances to administer all our schools and HEIs under the Sparsh umbrella brand by the end of the current academic year,” says Saxena. Future plans. With all seven education institutions of the…
One of the highlights of General Election 2024 is blanket of silence over the wide off the mark prediction of the media — especially telly talking heads — on the outcome. Every TV news channel had predicted that the BJP would cross its 2019 Lok Sabha tally of 303 seats and that the 40-party National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the standard bearer, would bag 390 (out of a total 543) seats with several channels endorsing Prime Minister Modi’s boast that the Modi Sarkar would cross 400. On June 4 when the votes were counted, BJP won 240 seats and the NDA 293, just crossing the majority 272 threshold. How could all TV channels many of whom had elaborately dressed up their studios and summoned expert psephologists to conduct exit polls, have got it so wrong? The cardinal error of their over-paid anchors and market research experts nurtured on rote learning and blind imitation of Western television news channels, is to assume that voters emerging from polling booths tell the truth about vote casting. Well aware of the huge powers and proclivity of government, i.e, the ruling party, to victimize those against it, most electors tend to choose discretion over valour and profess to have endorsed the ruling party candidate. Although upper middle class voters aware of their constitutional rights may be inclined to reveal political preferences, the vast majority of the citizenry is only too well-aware of the vindictiveness and insolence of office of government lackeys and local mafia dons who may well target voters who come on record about their voting preferences. In the circumstances, it would be advisable for pollsters and media personnel to pose indirect questions relating to burning issues such as inflation, unemployment, communalism etc, and draw inferences for and against the ruling party. Simultaneously, television anchors also need to curb their enthusiasm for reporting what their industrialist masters — for whom stability and continuity of government is high priority — wish to hear. Not without cause have screen news channels earned the description of godi media. Also read: Elections must reflect will of all people
Nikhil Pingle is Chief of Strategy & Research at the Mumbai-based Magic Bus India Foundation As technologies evolve and economic landscapes shift, the old paradigm of skills acquired in college and university guaranteeing secure lifetime employment has become outdated In this era where career paths are redrawn overnight and new skills become prerequisites almost instantly, embracing a culture of lifelong learning is no longer optional; it’s critical for professional survival and long-term success. As technologies evolve and economic landscapes shift, the old paradigm of skills acquired in college and university would secure a lifetime career has become outdated. The reality is that career pathways are no longer predictable. For instance, it was once common for a commerce graduate to join a company as a junior accountant and retire as head of finance. Such linear career trajectories are becoming increasingly rare. Moreover, the job market is under significant pressure, with an estimated 12 million young people joining the workforce each year while the number of new jobs created is estimated at 4.5 million. This imbalance underscores the necessity of continuous learning and skills acquisition to remain competitive in a rapidly changing job marketplace. These days, career and professional success is not just about keeping up; it requires seizing opportunities in a future dominated by inevitable and constant change. The industrial revolution of the 18th century until mid-20th century required basic literacy and numeracy as the workforce transitioned from agrarian to the industrial age. As the 20th century progressed, the growth of formal education paralleled expansion of the economy necessitating a shift towards acquisition of technical and managerial skills to navigate the complexities of an industrialised world. The value placed on higher education escalated, reflecting the changing dynamics of work and society. By the late 20th to early 21st centuries, the rise of ICT (information communication technologies) and globalisation of commerce mandated acquisition of new skill-sets of employability — IT proficiency, soft skills, and understanding of global markets. This era also marked a significant pivot towards skills of adaptability and cross-cultural communication. Today, we find ourselves in a new landscape of radical disruptions in industry because of the march of technology complicated by climate change damage limitation. Government, historically one of the largest employers of any country, has also experienced dramatic transformations due to technology enablement. These changes have prompted demand for professionals with special skillsets. Application of digital and green skills to a wide range of unprecedented situations demands critical thinking and creative solutions. For instance, the rise of renewable energy industries requires engineers skilled in green technologies; data analysts need to interpret mountains of information to ideate sustainable practices. Cybersecurity experts must protect vast quantities of digital information and public administrators must leverage technology to improve governance and public services. Adaptability, innovation and continuous education have become essential for professionals to thrive in this rapidly evolving environment. This necessary transformation from aspiration into action mandates new success habits. Regular reading of industry publications, books, and reputable online resources, setting clear…
-Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) Kolkata-based entrepreneur Manish Mohta is founder-director of edtech company Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd (LSPL, estb.2019, headcount: 125) — a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kolkata-based Mohta Group of companies with interests in steel, power, copper, chemicals, and plastics (annual turnover: Rs.300 crore). Promoted five years ago, LSPL offers student assessment and online exams services to higher education institutions and school exam boards. Its proprietorial range of products — UCanManage, UCanApply, UCanAssess, UCanEvaluate, UCanLearn, UCanSecure, and Smart Exam — enable smoother provision of a variety of assessment services including question bank management, exam venue audits, and proctoring services to education institutions. Over the past six years, LSPL has signed up 50 Central government and private universities (Jamia Millia Islamia, Banaras Hindu University, Graphic Era etc), six examination agencies (Public Service Commission of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal), six technical education boards (State Board of Technical Education, Bihar) and four school boards across 25 states and Union territories as clients. Newspeg. Last December (2023), LSPL integrated generative AI into its exam solutions to smooth the educational services provided for institutions and students. History. An alum of Delhi School of Engineering, and a business management graduate of the top-ranked Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, Mohta began his career with the blue-chip Asian Paints followed by a decade long stint at Salasar Steel & Power before going solo and promoting LSPL in 2019. Direct talk. “Learning Spiral was promoted with the objective of providing services and solutions to enable education institutions improve assessment and examination processes. All our services are powered by Amazon Web Services — the world’s most reliable cloud services provider engaged even by FaceBook and Twitter. Extensive domain expertise and valuable insights from academics of India’s leading universities have helped us develop and perfect our products. Our high-powered technical team ensures that our products not only draw on extensive academic knowledge, they also remain adaptable and highly responsive to user needs,” says Mohta. Future plans. Encouraged by the public response to LSPL’s proprietorial products and services, Mohta has dynamic expansion plans for the company. “We intend to work with like-minded partners to broaden our market, capitalise on new opportunities, and introduce our innovative solutions to larger audiences in South-east Asia, MENA and European countries,” he says. Fair winds!
-Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru) Dr. Suneel Thummala is founder-director of the newly promoted greenfield The School of Raya (TSOR, estb.2023), Bengaluru. Sited on a nine-acre campus in Dasanayakanahalli, a suburb of the garden city, TSOR, distinguished by its unique architecture of six circular buildings with green terraces and large classroom windows, is a candidate school of the Geneva/Hague-based International Baccalaureate (IB) examination board. Newspeg. In August, this co-ed international day school is all set to welcome its first cohort of 50 primary (classes I-VIII) children mentored by 35 highly qualified teachers. History. A polymath alum of Bengaluru’s Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University (USA) and top-ranked Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Dr. Thummala worked in advanced medical research in Virginia Commonwealth University, prior to his return to India in 2017 to serve as a trustee-manager of the family-promoted Bengaluru-based Indian Academy Group of institutions. The Indian Academy Group comprises five colleges (pre-university, undergrad and postgrad) with an enrolment of 5,000 students. Two years later, Thummala started ideating, designing and eventually promoted TSOR “where education transcends the ordinary, inviting students to embrace a transformative journey like no other”. TSOR’s USP (unique sales proposition) is its “artistically packaged” environment-friendly campus which includes India’s only skatepark within a school, a 55 ft. high climbing wall with two speed lanes, a FIFA approved football ground, 200m oval athletics track among other outdoor sports facilities. A 25,000 sq.ft indoor sports complex provides facilities for basketball, badminton, swimming, squash, combat sports and strength training, supplemented with sufficient seating capacity to host national-level sports competitions. Direct talk. “Raya means ‘flow’ in the ancient Pali language, reflecting the school’s philosophy of helping students achieve a state of flow to attain maximum potential, productivity, and satisfaction. This concept is deeply embedded in the school’s ethos and visibly reflected in our physical structure and design. The purpose behind TSOR’s unique architecture and IB-enabled curriculum is to nurture young minds and inspire mindful living by integrating nature with concrete. Our circular design language replaces the corridors and boxes of conventional schools with winding pathways, ramps, courtyards and greenery. The objective is to transform school education into an engaging journey of discovery and experiential learning,” explains Thummala. Future plans. With construction of TSOR’s nine-acre green campus — with maximum capacity capped at 750 children — 80 percent complete, Thummala’s next objective is to implement this avant-garde school’s ambitious teaching-learning blueprint. “Achieving this will require dedicated effort, passion, and persistence. We intend to ensure that the learning experience of our students is our best advertisement by transforming the TSOR dream into reality and providing an exceptional educational experience for our young learners,” says Thummala. God speed!
Renowned nationwide for ideating and establishing high-quality townships, office complexes and residential buildings, House of Hiranandani has invested its considerable expertise in constructing the school’s scenic campus overlooking Muttukadu Lake Shivani Chaturvedi The Hiranandani Upscale School (HUS, estb.2011) is sited on a three-acre campus in the House of Hiranandani’s integrated township in the southern metropolis of Chennai (pop.12 million). This K-12 co-ed day school offering the PYP (primary years programme), MYP (middle years programme) and IBDP (diploma) programmes of IB, Geneva, was promoted by Mr. Surendra Hiranandani, Chairman and Managing Director of House of Hiranandani which has interests in real estate countrywide. Over the past 13 years since it was established, HUS has steadily acquired a good reputation for providing student-centric, holistic primary-secondary education to its 402 students mentored by 88 well-qualified teachers. Ranked among Chennai’s Top 15 co-ed day schools in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2023-24, HUS was conferred the SDG Hero award in 2023 and the ARC EdTech award for incorporating UN Sustainable Development Goals into its curriculum. “In HUS, we provide our students with an inclusive learning environment after identifying their needs to enable them to reach their potential under our renowned IB continuum programmes. Our goal is to nurture well-rounded, ethical, empathetic, culturally aware, physically fit and academically bright global citizens ready to confront the challenges of the future,” says Sivakumar Srinivasan, director of HUS. An alum of Madras and Bharathidasan universities with leadership certification from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Srinivasan imported over two decades of teaching and admin experience in top-ranked international schools (The International School, Bangalore, Indus International School, Pune) when he was appointed director of HUS in 2022. Renowned nationwide for ideating and establishing high quality townships, office complexes and residential buildings in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, House of Hiranandani has invested its considerable expertise in construction, landscaping and equipping HUS’ three-acre scenic campus overlooking Muttukadu Lake. The school’s academic building houses 55 spacious and well-ventilated Smart classrooms equipped with LCD projectors. Students have access to two state-of-the-art ICT (information communication technologies) laboratories supplemented with discrete physics, chemistry and biology labs. Moreover the school has two separate libraries for primary and middle years students with an aggregate 10,000 print volumes and 40 journal subscriptions, and access to a wide range of e-learning resources. A Special Education Needs (SEN) department staffed with special educators provides personalised support to students with learning disabilities. Equally impressive is the school’s sports infrastructure which includes a large cricket ground, dedicated football field, and synthetic courts for basketball and volleyball. The spirit of competitive sportsmanship is encouraged with children motivated to compete in inter and intra-school competitions. The HUS management prides itself for having readily adopted and integrated latest technology advances into its teaching-learning and management operations. “Integration of advanced technologies into institutional operations enriches children’s educational experiences at HUS. Remedial education, psychological counseling and medical care are accorded high importance to ensure the mental and emotional well-being of students. We are also very aware that…
Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru) Team Think — comprising Mukkabir Rahman, a class XII student of Pragya Academy, Ankush Yadav, a student of IIT-Kanpur, and Varsha K.J, a student pursuing chartered accountancy, all from Assam’s Golaghat district — was adjudged a winner of Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) 2023, a CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative of Samsung (India). Their innovation ‘Kavach’ (shield in Hindi), a lightweight, affordable and wearable cooling device that prevents people from experiencing extreme heat or cold, was adjudged one of three winner inventions. At a grand finale staged in New Delhi last October, the Top 3 teams received grants of Rs.1.5 crore each. Samsung’s national innovation competition attracted participation from more than 70,000 students in the 16-22 years age group. They showcased their inventions to solve extant global problems in the Education & Learning, Environment & Sustainability, Health & Wellness and Diversity & Inclusion categories. The Top 10 teams qualified for the grand finale after six months of rigorous training and mentoring by experts from Samsung and knowledge partner Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), a unit of IIT-Delhi. Team Think attributes its success to Samsung and IIT-Delhi faculty mentoring. “Early exposure to industry leaders and tech innovators helped to build an innovation mindset. Participation in SFT 2023 has provided us with a valuable head start for taking our project forward,” says Team Think spokesperson Ankush Yadav. Kavach was inspired by the World Bank’s Climate Investment Opportunities in India’s Cooling Sector Report 2022. It warned that India could face unbearable heat waves challenging human survival if it misses UN Sustainable Development Goals targets. “Kavach is a vest engineered to regulate body temperature, ensuring prolonged comfort in hot and cold environments. By utilising advanced semiconductor technology, our product eliminates limitations of traditional cooling and heating,” explains Mukkabir. Team Think has ambitious plans for the future. “We intend to commercialise kavach to enable affordable cooling and address the needs of the millions obliged to toil in extreme climatic conditions without adequate protection. Beyond this initiative, our intention is to establish our own innovation hub,” says Varsha. Urgently required to end India’s prolonged inventions drought (see https://www.educationworld.in/indias-prolonged-inventions-drought/).
According to Paris-based economist Thomas Piketty, income inequality in India is so great that it warrants introduction of wealth and inheritance taxes on the top 10 percent of the country’s rich. Evidently, Piketty is not sufficiently informed about the profusion of taxes already imposed upon every citizen of India, starting with the middle class which is only relatively wealthy. The threshold for payment of income tax is perhaps the lowest worldwide with every citizen earning an annual income exceeding Rs.3 lakh ($3,507) per year obliged to pay tax to the Central government under this head. Yet because of hare-brained Soviet-inspired socialism adopted as national ideology in the immediate aftermath of independence, the annual incomes of the general populace are so low that a mere 3 percent of the population pays income tax. Most of the revenue resources of the Central and state governments accrue by way of indirect taxes which are payable by all citizens. Of them, the major taxes are excise and sales tax recently codified into GST (Goods and Services Tax) payable in various ‘slabs’ ranging from 5-28 percent on all goods and services bought and sold countrywide. In the latest Union Budget 2024-25, the excise tax revenue of the Union government was Rs.3.18 lakh crore and Rs.10.67 lakh crore by way of GST. These two indirect taxes contribute 46 percent of the total revenue (Rs.30 lakh crore) of the Government of India, more than progressive direct taxes (36 percent). Moreover, there is a plethora of other indirect taxes payable by the citizenry on highways, airports, bridges, state government levies on property, petroleum, tobacco, and liquor. To all this, add the ‘tax’ that government officials levy on every citizen-officialdom interaction. Therefore, the solution isn’t to raise tax rates for wealth and jobs creators because over-taxation is disincentivizing, prompts tax evasion and capital flight. In the circumstances, it might be in the greater national interest to leave a larger share of income in the hands of businessmen and citizens for saving and investment. It’s also pertinent to bear in mind that what governments don’t spend on themselves and on official pomp and grandeur, they invest in white elephant public sector enterprises that seldom yield returns, or in development projects in which high salaries and perks of officials leaves precious little for project implementation. That’s why huge cost over-runs are normative in government development projects. Therefore, it makes much better sense to leave more money in the hands of businessmen and entrepreneurs to save, invest, prosper and pay greater taxes even as marginal tax rates remain stable. While Piketty & Co’s intent to reduce income and wealth inequality is laudable, they have not factored government inefficiency, inertia and corruption into their tax-and-spend model.
“It’s like they don’t trust us,” says Eva King, a 14-year-old pupil at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, DC. Deal’s administration has banned mobile phones during the entire school day. Pupils must store their devices inside Yondr pouches — grey padded cases that supposedly can be opened only with a special tool. Adults unlock the pouches with special magnets as pupils leave for the day. Unsurprisingly, pupils have hacked the system. (“What do you expect?” Eva says. “We’re middle-schoolers.”) The girls recite a list of workarounds. Those magnets have become hot commodities, and a few have gone missing. Pupils have been seen banging pouches open in toilets. Debates about teenagers’ access to phones and their use in schools have heated up lately. Some state legislatures in America are passing laws to stop phones from being used in classrooms, without banning them from schools altogether. A popular book published in March, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, has drawn fresh attention to evidence that social media, mostly accessed through smartphones, may be to blame for a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and self-harm among young people today. Some researchers are unconvinced that phones are causing mental illness. Although America and Britain have reported a rise in problems as social-media use has surged, not all rich countries have had similarly correlated increases. “Adolescence is influenced by multiple things (sic),” says Margarita Panayiotou, a researcher at the University of Manchester. “It would be unrealistic to expect that one thing — social media — is driving adolescent mental health.” Most parents want their children to have phones available at school. In February, the National Parents’ Union, an advocacy group, polled 1,506 public-school parents and found that a majority think that pupils should be allowed to use phones during free time. Larry McEwen, a parent at Deal and the school’s basketball coach, agrees. He believes pupils should have phones for emergencies. He and Eva King cited a lockdown last year at a nearby school because of a gun scare. That was when having phones came in handy. Yet the devices are plainly disruptive. Pupils can receive more than 50 notifications during a school day, according to a study of 203 children by Common Sense Media, a non-profit group based in San Francisco. Teachers complain that pupils watch YouTube and use other apps in class. Phones can be instruments of bullying, and pupils have been secretly videographed while using toilets or undressing in locker rooms. These days, the notorious schoolyard fight can be organised by phone. It is also clear that mobile phones can undermine learning. Several studies have found that their use decreases concentration in school, and the phones don’t only affect the user. “There’s a second-hand-smoke effect,” says Sabine Polak, a founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, another advocacy group. New state laws seek to enforce phone-free classrooms while keeping pupils and parents connected. Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a law last year that bans the use of mobile phones by pupils in…
Two hundred days into the invasion of Gaza by Israel, not a single university is left standing. At least 95 university professors and 5,000 students are reported to have been killed, while more than 500,000 children have been out of school for over seven months. “Everything was beautiful before October 7,” laments Besan Emad, an English translation student at Gaza University trapped in Rafah, the southern city that, at the time of writing (May 22), was one of the last parts of the Gaza Strip outside the control of the Israeli military. “We could find everything easily. We had AI we could use. But today we have no internet, no resources and no university.” In the short term, the focus for Palestinian civilians fleeing Israeli attacks is survival. “The situation in Rafah is very bad… Israeli occupation has destroyed everything — hospital, schools, universities,” says Emad. Yet, even in the face of a strategy branded “educide” — an attempt to extinguish breeding grounds for intellectual thought and liberty of expression within Palestine, as part of the retaliation against Hamas’ October 7 attacks — efforts to preserve higher education in Gaza and the West Bank might offer an unlikely symbol of hope. Ms Emad is one of a growing number of Palestinian students attempting to continue their studies in the harshest of conditions through online learning, accessing tutoring offered by global scholars when she is able to get online. Marah Shaqalaih is another Palestinian student accessing online courses, with hers offered by universities in the West Bank. The daughter of a former engineering lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza, her own institution, Al-Azhar University of Gaza, was destroyed by the Israeli military. “We started (the academic year) and only two weeks in, the war began. I was with my patients and (was) talking to them, and now I do not know what happened to them,” she says. The Israeli army claims that it found Hamas explosives and rocket parts at Al-Azhar, as well as part of a tunnel network. But the university, which was one of the biggest universities in the Gaza Strip with about 15,000 undergraduates, has no affiliation to Hamas, Ms Shaqalaih insists. Most university professors in Gaza haven’t received their salary since November, with many institutions telling their staff to seek other jobs. Fabio Carbone, a senior lecturer in tourism management at the University of Northampton, who has been working to recruit academic tutors for university students from Gaza, says no international organisation would give money to universities in the strip because of their perceived ties to Hamas, “and the politics have nothing to do with academia any more… the victims in this are the students”, he says. Beyond the destruction in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank has also worsened drastically since October 7. The number of checkpoints and searches by Israeli soldiers has increased significantly, and all the universities switched initially to online teaching in a bid to protect students. Samia Al-Botmeh, an assistant…
Prime Ministerial Decision-making in India Neerja Chowdhury ALEPH BOOK COMPANY Rs. 999 Pages 578 In her study of six India prime ministers, this renowned journalist begins with Indira Gandhi until Manmohan Singh, skipping short tenure PMs In her study of India prime ministers renowned journalist Neerja Chowdhury begins with Indira Gandhi and six prime ministers until Manmohan Singh. Notably, she skips five short-tenured prime ministers, despite their regimes having significantly altered Indian politics, as well as the process of prime ministerial decision-making. Yet, she presents an authentic and candid account of complex decisions taken by each of the six chosen PMs — post-resurrection (Indira Gandhi), Shah Bano (Rajiv Gandhi), post-Mandal (V.P. Singh), post-demolition of the Babri Masjid (P.V. Narasimha Rao), testing nuclear devices (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and Indo-US civil nuclear deal (Manmohan Singh). Beginning with a well-analysed 19-page introduction, raising and underlining crucial issues and processes relating to the office of prime minister, Chowdhury quotes powerful orator Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ‘The higher you go, the more lonely you are.’ This sets the tone of the analysis that depicts prime ministers as mere mortals, attempting to survive amidst competing pressures, striving to triumph politically. In the process, despite a short tenure V.P. Singh changed the politics of the country for all time to come. And she rightly bemoans the current fashion of rubbishing Nehru. Her contextualisation of the office of prime minister linked to a host of institutions is apt. So, if the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is created, not only does the cabinet system decline ceding to the prime ministerial system, the cabinet secretariat that has constitutional sanction also declines relative to the PMO. Chowdhury also underlines the different ways in which the PMO functions. Her analysis also clears recent motivated narratives that Nehru created the PMO to function in an autocratic fashion. Rightly, as Pai Panandiker-Mehra’s (1996) study of cabinet government highlighted, Shastri created a small PMO to help him with L.K. Jha as secretary. This was expanded by Indira Gandhi, who revived and expanded it after Morarji Desai had limited its expanse and worked through the cabinet secretariat. Indira Gandhi’s politics of neutralising the Syndicate is well-captured in this narrative. Despite her claim that she did not believe in any ‘ism’, she espoused socialism — the result was centre-staging the slogan, garibi hatao, in 1971. The 1975 judgment of Justice JML Sinha on the election petition of Raj Narain declaring her election null and void and unseating her from Parliament in June 1975, prompted her to declare a national Emergency on June 25, 1975. But while flagging the role of Sanjay Gandhi, Chowdhury rushes through this section. Her decision to call a General Election in 1977, knowing fully well that she could lose despite assurances of the IB, and her resurrection between 1977 and 1980 were amazing acts of courage. Rajiv Gandhi took over as the prime minister following his mother’s assassination, with President Giani Zail Singh’s backing. Beginning with immense goodwill and the clean slate of a…
Being Muslim in Hindu India: A Critical View Zia Us Salam Harper Collins India Rs. 599 Pages 310 Starting with the sentence ‘To be a Muslim is to be an orphan’, several polemical essays are peppered with contentions and arguments backed by hard data The very first sentence of the ‘Preface’ in the book under review is crafted to grab readers by the scruff of their necks —“To be a Muslim is to be an orphan”— and then keep them glued to each page. These polemical essays are furiously peppered with contentions, declamations and arguments, backed up by data that’s hard to ignore. For instance, the piece titled ‘Reconstituting Constituencies’ in the opening segment refers to the Sachar Committee’s observation that Muslims lag behind all communities including the schedule castes on parameters of political representation, education, employment, health, etc. The glaring contradiction therefore of reserving seats for candidates from schedule caste communities in areas with a high percentage of Muslim population is curious, to say the least. Salam argues that such systematic reservation of seats for other communities in areas where Muslim candidates would have a realistic chance of winning has translated into minuscule representation for the community in elected bodies. The issue may be remedied by a Delimitation Commission recommended by the Sachar Committee, and ensure a representative number of Muslims get elected to all democratic institutions. Nonetheless, the author notes, it is revealing that the issue has not been addressed by political leaders when in office. A few more examples may help get a sense of the fears and faults around discrimination discussed in this book. Lynching the “Other”’ is a dark and relentless indictment of hate crimes that have targeted Muslims: a lynching in Dadri, a beheading in Rajsamand, an attack in Delhi, another in Pune. These were all ordinary Indians — a man in his house, a labourer looking for work, a hawker on a street, an IT professional — who were attacked and killed in acts of cruelty beyond belief. Salam records the accompanying celebration of the perpetrators as brave heroes and role models, in one case being draped by the national tricolour in violation of the Flag Code of India, 2002, with dismay. ‘The Politics of Love Jihad and ghar wapasi’ in Section III, traces the energy and fantasy expended on a conspiracy theory of Muslim men tricking gullible Hindu women into falling in love with them. Simultaneously, there’s the belief that converting Muslims back to Hinduism — the claim being that they were all Hindus “at one time” and hence must be returned home or ghar wapasi — is equated with ‘restoring’ masculinity and increasing the numerical strength of the majority community. The words of legislators, public figures and firebrand leaders, Salam contends, invoke male ‘prowess’ on the one hand and licentious behaviour on the other — all built around the idea of a woman as a ‘baby-producing machine’ with no control over her mind or body. In an interesting essay ‘Shaheen Bagh…
The surprise result of general Election 2024 in which the ruling BJP which had set itself a target of 400 seats of the total 543 in the 18th Lok Sabha won a mere 240 and for the first time since 2014 has to rely on its NDA (National Democratic Alliance) allies to form a government at the Centre, has attracted widespread comment and analyses. Yet most political pundits who have presented learned analyses have focused on parts of the whole without quite being able to see the big picture. In his seminal book Thinking Fast and Slow (2002), Nobel Prize winner behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman stresses the importance of System 1 and System 2 decision making. S1 decisions need to be made quickly, perhaps instinctively, as in anticipation of a car driving accident. S2 decisions that may have widespread consequences have to be made deliberatively, after careful reflection, explains Dr. Kahneman. Evidently, neither the prime minister nor any of his inner circle of advisors are aware of this vital distinction. Therefore, several important initiatives of the Modi administration — sudden demonetisation of 80 percent of the currency in circulation (2016); the Covid-19 lockdown of the economy, with four hours public notice (2020); speedy implementation of GST (2017); enactment of the three farm reform Bills (2020) and fast-track construction of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya (2024) — all S2 decisions that required deliberation, debate and consultation, were made with the speed and urgency of S1 decisions. Not a few media pundits tend to approve of bold, speedy decision making as a virtue contrasting it with ‘analysis paralysis.’ But it’s now clear that peremptory demonetisation was a big mistake which severely damaged MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) that employ 80 percent of the country’s industrial workforce. MSMEs were further damaged by hasty introduction of the complicated national GST (goods and services) tax which has also become a huge source of illegal gratification for venal bureaucrats. The consequential slowdown of MSMEs is a major cause of rising youth unemployment and inflation, which badly hurt the BJP in General Election 2024. Likewise, the farm reforms legislation which was well-conceived and in the national interest, was enacted with unwarranted haste without debate and inflicted big damage in rural India, fuelling food inflation. Similarly, construction of the Ram Temple was completed without consideration of the property rights of farmers and shopkeepers in Ayodhya. The prime minister also overplayed his hand by reverting to demonise the country’s 230 million-strong Muslim minority. It’s time he became aware that in 21st century India, defined by large-scale internal migration, the electorate has become accustomed to — and increasingly dependent upon — ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities. The citizenry needs peace and stability to get on with their lives and businesses. If the BJP has been voted back in New Delhi, it’s because of the obsolescence of the Congress party, whose leadership still believes in destroying wealth creators and reinstating moribund Nehruvian socialism. Also read: Elections must reflect will…
Nasrin Modak Siddiqui (Mumbai) Mumbai-based Rayaan Naveed Siddiqui (13) is the newly crowned Spell Master of India. In the final round of the national season XIII SBI Life Spell Bee 2024 hosted by popular actress-anchor Mandira Bedi in Mumbai on March 10, this talented teen bested 75 spelling whiz kids who made the final round of the national competition. Over 150,000 students from 350 schools in 30 cities participated in SBI Life Spell Bee 2024. As winner, Rayaan bagged Rs.1 lakh in cash and an all-expenses paid trip to Disneyland, Hong Kong. The Life Spell Bee National English language spelling competition (estb.2011) is an initiative of the Mumbai-based SBI Life Insurance and Radio Mirchi, a network of 76 FM radio stations. “I am delighted that my hard work of poring over guidebooks and dictionaries has paid off. I am very grateful to my parents, my little sister Myra and school for constantly encouraging me,” says this gritty class IX student of the CISCE-affiliated Bombay Scottish School, Mahim, and elder of two children of banker Naveed Siddiqui and homemaker Sujata. Rayaan’s interest in expanding his vocabulary and etymology dates back to the time when he registered for his first SBI Life Spelling Bee competition in school at age six. Although he was routinely selected to participate in the SBI Life Spelling Bee competition every year, he failed to win. “Nevertheless intra school competitions developed my self-confidence and capability to manage stage pressure. Moreover, I am an avid reader blessed with a good memory. Whenever I come across a new word, I make a mental note of its spelling. I analyse the word phonetically and try to connect it with etymology,” he adds. Ironically Rayaan’s favourite subject is math, “I prefer to spend my time solving math problems.” Looking ahead, Rayaan wishes to intensify his participation in spelling competitions which he believes will boost his grades in the board exams. “Although I love reading and English literature, after completing my Plus Two, my goal is to enrol in a top-ranked university abroad to study science,” says this young polymath. Go Boy!
This vintage university’s alumni include five Nobel Laureates, over 100 Rhodes Scholars, Australia’s first woman prime minister and first woman Supreme Court judge Reshma Ravishanker Founded in 1874, the University of Adelaide (UoA) is the sixth continent’s third oldest university. Currently celebrating its 150th anniversary, the publicly-funded UoA is ranked among the world’s top one percent by highly-reputed international ranking agencies — #89 in the QS World Rankings 2024, #74 in US News & World Report’s Best Global Universities Rankings 2023, and #111 in the THE World University Rankings 2024. Moreover, the varsity’s research outcomes are rated “above or well above world standard” by the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research Australia Program. In 2023, Adelaide U reported an impressive $231.8 million (Rs.1,937 crore) research income. Sprawled across three campuses in Adelaide (and one in Melbourne), the university offers 148 undergraduate and 87 postgraduate programmes to 22,700 students including 6,800 international students from 100 countries worldwide. It’s pertinent to note that UoA’s second largest cohort (after China) of foreign students is from India. This vintage Oz varsity has schooled a string of illustrious alumni including five Nobel Laureates, over 100 Rhodes Scholars, Australia’s first woman prime minister Julia Gillard, Supreme Court judge Roma Mitchell, poet and classicist, Adenan Satem, and astronaut Andy Thomas, among others. Adelaide. The cosmopolitan capital of South Australia, Adelaide (pop.1.4 million) is a superbly well-planned city of wide streets and boulevards, neat public squares, parklands and a mixture of historic and modern buildings. The economic, cultural, political and social epicentre of the state, this coastal city is ranked #12 worldwide in The Economist’s Global Liveability Index 2022, and offers excellent social and recreational opportunities including cinemas and theatres, museums, art galleries, music, shopping, sailing and windsurfing on its 60-km long coastline, hiking excursions and exploration of wineries on peripheries of the city. Public transport infrastructure within the city is excellent, convenient and inexpensive and the climate is Mediterranean with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Average temperature varies between 25oC-35oC in summer and 10oC-15oC in winter. Campus facilities. UoA hosts four campuses — North Terrace, Roseworthy, Waite and Melbourne. The main North Terrace campus is sited in the heart of Adelaide, within walking distance of the Art Gallery of South Australia and State Library of South Australia, and offers a mix of historical and contemporary architecture combining old sandstone buildings with state-of-the-art teaching, learning and research facilities. This campus is the hub of undergrad studies and research centres. The Waite campus is sited within a seven kilometre radius from North Terrace and hosts the university’s Urrbrae House Historic Precinct, Waite Arboretum, Waite Conservation Reserve and Waite Research Institute. This campus is Oz’s pre-eminent plant and agricultural science research hub providing high quality research facilities for farming systems, viticulture and oenology, food science and nutrition. The Roseworthy campus, sited 50 km from Adelaide, hosts South Australia’s sole veterinary school and also focuses on research in drylands agriculture. Further afield in the state of Victoria, the Melbourne…
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has begun his second innings in Shastri Bhavan, Delhi, at an inflection point in national development when a broad consensus has emerged that top priority has to be accorded to real education and skilling of the world’s largest population of children and youth writes Dilip Thakore The re-appointment of Dharmendra Pradhan who led the ruling BJP’s legislative election 2024 campaign in the state of Odisha (pop.48 million) and famously ended the uninterrupted 24-year rule of the BJD (Biju Janata Dal) and Cambridge (UK)-educated Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the eastern seaboard state, as Union Minister for Education doesn’t come as a surprise. An anthropology postgrad of Utkal University and ABVP activist student leader in his younger days, Pradhan is described as “the longest serving Union minister of petroleum and natural gas in the history of independent India” (2014-19) in his Wiki profile, and is widely credited for master-minding the BJP/NDA 2.0 government’s Ujjwala scheme under which 8 million LPG (liquid petroleum gas cylinders) for home cooking were distributed to women in targeted BPL (below poverty line) households. This initiative reportedly played a significant role in the BJP/NDA being returned to power in General Election 2019. The very next year after the disastrous incumbency of Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal — a failed Hindi language pulp fiction novelist — and immediately after the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 based on the Dr. K. Kasturirangan Commiteee Report that recommended radical restructuring of Indian education from pre-school to universities was approved by the Union Cabinet in July, Pradhan was promoted to the office of Union minister for education, skill development and entrepreneurship. Welcoming Pradhan’s appointment as education minister in a detailed cover story (September 2020), your editor noted that he was confronted with the challenge of scaling two mountain peaks simultaneously — repairing huge damage suffered by the education system during 60 weeks of Covid pandemic lockdown, and implementing NEP 2020. “Pradhan’s promotion to the Union education ministry is likely to prove an arduous mission for this relatively young (52) and energetic minister who earned plaudits in his capacity as junior minister of entrepreneurship and skills development (2017-2019). For the simple reason that human capital development, and particularly modernisation of India’s moribund education system, has never been a priority of the BJP and especially of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the shadowy ideological and cultural mentor organisation of the party,” we wrote four years ago (see see https://www.educationworld.in/can-this-man-revive-indias-shattered-education-system/). Nevertheless even if the issue of whether India’s children, especially the 52 percent in the country’s 1.1 million government schools, have recovered the severe learning loss of the Covid pandemic is shrouded in mystery — a 2023 ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) of the highly-respected independent Pratham Education Foundation which field tested 34,375 teens in the 14-18 age group, reveals that 25 percent cannot read a class II level textbook fluently in their regional language and more than half struggle with division (3-digit by 1-digit) problems — there is a…
Education leaders have described Finnish government plans to charge full-cost tuition fees to students from outside the European Union as “paradoxical”, as the country hopes to significantly increase its international student intake. At present, Helsinki subsidises the higher education of students from outside the EU or the European Economic Area (EEA), although some universities already charge full-cost fees. In early June, the Ministry of Education and Culture set out proposed amendments to Finland’s Universities Act and its Universities of Applied Science Act, which would result in students from non-EU and non-EEA countries required to pay the full cost of their tuition if it is taught in a language other than Finnish or Swedish. “Charging fees for tuition at full cost aims to improve the finances of higher education institutions and to encourage foreigners studying in Finland to remain in the country,” Sari Multala, the minister of science and culture, said in a statement. Students from outside the EU or the EEA would also be required to pay application fees, a move the ministry says is aimed at reducing “injudicious and low-quality applications”. When news of the government plans first circulated last year, a coalition of academic and professional unions described them “a disaster” in terms of Finland’s long-term plans to make higher education in the country more international. Previously, the Finnish government established a goal of attracting 15,000 international students by 2030, in an effort to reduce workplace shortages and rebalance an ageing population. “Because Finland needs foreigners, it’s a bit paradoxical to make it less attractive for them to come,” Kai Nordlund, vice-rector at the University of Helsinki, told Times Higher Education. “Many of those who came here because of low tuition fees have stayed in the country and are contributing to national development.” The impact of the amendments differs among universities depending on their current practices. “Some universities provide a very high fraction of scholarships, which means that their income from tuition fees has been very low. Others, like our university, have collected fairly high tuition fees and given fewer scholarships,” he explains. “For these universities, the difference made by the new law will be small, because they’ve more or less been at this level of recovering the cost of the education already,” says Nordlund. Harri Halva, senior marketing specialist for the Finnish National Agency for Education’s ‘Study in Finland’ scheme, shares a similar perspective. “Moving to full tuition fees, we might experience a drop in certain areas. But overall we expect to continue on the steadily increasing trend line of international higher education students,” he says. “Having said that, we have to put more effort into our value proposal and convince our target audience that Finland as a well-functioning Nordic society is worth the investment,” he adds.
On June 7, millions of young people wrote the world’s largest academic test. China’s university-entrance exam, known as the gaokao, is punishingly difficult. Students spend endless hours cramming for it. But it is also widely accepted as meritocratic. Work hard, score well and, no matter what your social background, you will get into a good college. Yet the test is administered in ways that don’t seem so meritocratic. Local governments are allowed to produce their own versions of gaokao, with different questions and scoring methods. Students in elite cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, enjoy an easier route into local universities, which include some of the country’s finest. The maximum possible score on the gaokao can change from year to year and may vary according to province, but it is usually 750. Most provinces award extra points (ranging from 5-20) to certain groups, such as military veterans and Chinese who return from overseas. Until recently, some provinces showered points on students who exhibited “ideological and political correctness” or had “significant social influence”. But such arbitrary criteria led to corruption and calls by the Central government to phase them out. Unsurprisingly, the extra-points system has bred resentment among those who receive no help with their scores. Lately their ire has been directed at members of minority groups, who have long been awarded grace marks simply on the basis of their ethnicity. The policy, begun long ago, aims to assimilate minorities into the dominant Han culture. But some Han, who make up over 90 percent of the mainland’s population, wonder why communities that nationalists often paint as disloyal and ungrateful, should receive such an advantage. The state itself has backed away from the policy in recent years. In 2014, the Central government indicated a desire for it to be re-evaluated. Since then, a number of provinces — such as Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanxi — have stopped giving extra points to minority students. Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has promoted the idea of a single Chinese identity, an effort that has involved trampling on the freedoms of minority groups and abolishing affirmative-action policies. But the authorities justify the latest moves as a way to improve “exam equality” and prevent cheating in the admissions process. Officials also claim that the schools in regions with big minority populations have improved so much that the bonuses are no longer needed to even things out. This is questionable. Students from minority groups still lag behind their Han peers. And if the government were so concerned about fairness, it would do away with other extra-point schemes, such as one targeting Taiwanese students in the attempt to lure them to mainland universities. But none of this is likely to make young Han cramming for the gaokao feel any less anxious.
Universal Ai-RDS joint venture Mumbai, June 4. Universal AI University, which bills itself as India’s first artificial intelligence university, signed an agreement with French design school Rubika to establish a Rubika Design School (RDS) on its Karjat campus. Rubika is a globally reputed French design school with campuses in France, Canada and Reunion Island. RDS will offer a four-year Bachelor of Design (B.Des), and integrated five-year Master of Design (M.Des) programmes in Transportation Design, Product Design, UX/UI Design, Animation, Video Games Art and Video Games Design. Under this joint initiative, RDS will provide its curriculum, pedagogy and share its world-class faculty with Universal Ai. The university’s students will also be able to access the state-of-the-art studio of RDS in Pune, India. “This partnership with RDS will provide exhilarating design careers to our students, with access to the best teaching-learning techniques worldwide, here in India. I believe there is a massive design talent shortage worldwide and Universal Ai graduates will be able to make a mark around the world,” observed Prof. Tarundeep Anand, Chancellor, Universal Ai University, speaking on the occasion. Tata Tech InnoVent hackathon Bengaluru, June 18. Tata Technologies launched the second edition of the Tata Technologies InnoVent hackathon in collaboration with Microsoft and Tata Motors. The objective of this initiative is to provide engineering students a platform to showcase their creativity and innovations to address challenges confronting the manufacturing industry. This year’s hackathon focuses on Generative AI-enabled innovations that deliver value across the product development value chain, including product engineering, manufacturing, and customer experience. Under this tripartite initiative, Tata Technologies will provide shortlisted project team/s with the tools and technologies required to develop scalable innovations with subject matter experts (SMEs) from the company mentoring them for project scaling. Microsoft will offer topper team/s complimentary access to Azure resources and project mentoring through the Azure community, and Tata Motors will define real-world manufacturing challenges and support the commercialisation of top projects. The hackathon is open to third and fourth year engineering students across India. The evaluation process will comprise three stages: initial review, virtual proof of concept (PoC) presentations, and final demonstrations. The top three winning teams will receive cash prizes of Rs.4.5 lakh with paid internship opportunities at Tata Technologies. The last date for project submission is July 31. For further details visit: https://www.tatatechnologies.com/innovent/. Pearl Academy-Tech Mahindra CoE Bengaluru, June 10. Pearl Academy and Tech Mahindra signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on the academy’s Bengaluru campus. The CoE will spearhead R&D in next-gen technologies, including artificial intelligence, generative AI (GenAI), augmented reality/virtual reality, robotics and Metaverse. Moreover, Pearl Academy students will have the opportunity to work on intellectual property ideated within Tech Mahindra’s Makers Lab, the company’s research and development division. “We will integrate AI and advanced technologies into the students’ curriculum to foster a tech-forward learning environment. This collaboration reflects our commitment to shaping future leaders and propelling the next wave of technological progress,” said Nikhil Malhotra, Global Head of…
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) Despite Tamil Nadu having been ruled by anti-upper caste political parties for almost half a century, caste-based atrocities against Dalits — the lowest caste in the iniquitous Hindu varna system — have been on the rise in the state, particularly in primary-secondary schools. This paradox highlights the complex and deep-rooted caste prejudice in the state, despite efforts of successive administrations to eradicate it. The ruling DMK party founded by CN Annadurai and later led by M. Karunanidhi, and currently his son M.K. Stalin has been consistently campaigning against religious orthodoxy, and promoting rationalism, social justice, and even atheism. DMK claims to have legislated several affirmative action laws to reduce social iniquities and provide scholarships to Dalit students. However, the spate of atrocities against Dalits indicates that legal and policy measures are insufficient to eradicate caste prejudices deeply embedded in social practices and mindsets. On August 9 (2023), unprovoked violence against a Dalit student and his sister by classmates from an intermediate dominant caste in Nanguneri, Tirunelveli district, highlighted the persistence of caste violence at the grassroots level. This incident spurred new calls for more comprehensive education reforms, and societal intervention to uproot casteism in Tamil society. Chennai-based educationists and social reform activists are unanimous that caste consciousness and bigotry need to be addressed and uprooted in K-12 education to eradicate caste discrimination in society more effectively. They argue for more content highlighting injustices of the caste system in school curricula. At a seminar organised by the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) on May 27, a resolution was passed to include lessons on promoting equality and fraternity to combat caste discrimination in education institutions. Speakers called for educating students about the historical and social contexts of caste discrimination to create empathy and awareness, encourage critical thinking about social injustices and promote constitutional and ethical values. “It is not enough to include chapters in textbooks. School curricula should be designed to eliminate caste discrimination by multiplying content highlighting the iniquities of entrenched casteism. Academic bodies should re-cast syllabuses and assessment practices,” says Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of SPCSS-TN. On June 18, a one-man committee headed by Justice K. Chandru, a retired Madras high court judge, submitted a report to chief minister M.K. Stalin and school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi. In the 610-page report, Justice Chandru called upon the state government to issue a directive to all schools statewide to prohibit students from wearing coloured wristbands, rings, or forehead marks indicative of caste. “Despite these efforts, the entrenched nature of caste discrimination in society poses significant challenges,” says Dr. Sakthi Rekha, an educationist and social activist. “Incidents of caste violence and discrimination within schools reflect broader societal attitudes and behaviour emanating from beyond the education system. The persistence of caste-based atrocities highlights the need for multi-faceted initiatives that combine policy reforms with broader societal change.” Against this backdrop, the Centre for Social Justice and Equity, funded by the Tamil Nadu government and based at the…
Himachal Pradesh Show-cause notices Shimla, June 25. The state’s education ministry is set to issue show-cause notices to teachers of schools affiliated with the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education in which the pass percentage of class X students has fallen below 25. “The notices solicit explanation from teachers regarding unsatisfactory academic outcomes. A thorough examination of the class X board results across affiliated schools has revealed that 116 institutions reported pass rates lower than 25 percent, with 30 schools recording an alarming zero percent pass rate,” said Ashish Kohli, Director of Elementary Education, addressing a press conference. The issuing of notices will commence promptly, he added. Meanwhile the education ministry has initiated the process of recruiting 1,122 Junior Basic Training and 1,027 Trained Graduate Teachers who will undergo a comprehensive 15-day induction training program in District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) centres to familiarise them thoroughly with the prescribed syllabus and pedagogies, said Kohli. Tamil Nadu First AI degree program Chennai, June 11. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras has launched the country’s first Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics B.Tech degree programme starting in the current academic year (2024-25). The first batch of 50 students for this programme will become eligible through the IIT-JEE selection process. The study programme will be administered by IIT-M’s Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, funded by an endowment of Rs.110 crore by Sunil Wadhwani, an alum and co-founder of IT multinationals IGATE and Mastech Digital. “The programme aims to cultivate expertise in data science and offers a panoramic view of its applications across industries,” said IIT-Madras Director V. Kamakoti, addressing a media conference. Arunachal Pradesh Cell phone suicide Itanagar, June 26 A class X student allegedly took his own life a day after being asked to leave school for using a mobile phone on campus. The body of 15-year-old Chirang Kri was found hanging from a tree near his school in Anjaw district. Chirang’s family filed a complaint against the principal and hostel warden at Hayuliang police station, demanding an investigation into the circumstances of his death. Briefing the media, Superintendent of Police Rike Kamsi said that Chirang, who lived in the school hostel, was caught using a mobile phone on campus, which is prohibited by school rules. Therefore, the school management had asked his father to withdraw him from the institution. Following a meeting with the school management, Chirang was granted permission to continue his studies. However on June 23, Chirang went missing. His body was found the next day. A suicide note in his pocket apologised for using the mobile phone and asked for forgiveness. The school’s principal T.M. Sathian, described the incident as “very unfortunate” and clarified that Chirang had been granted pardon and allowed to continue his studies in school. Therefore, the reason for Chirang’s extreme reaction remains unknown. Assam New IIM approved Guwahati, June 2. The Centre has approved establishment of a greenfield Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Marabhita, Kamrup district near Guwahati. Addressing…
“Young India wants jobs more than temples… For most of us, a good education was the passport out of poverty into the middle or affluent class. Now, a young person with a college degree is NINE times as likely to be unemployed as her illiterate counterpart, according to an ILO report. This indicates both the quality of degrees as well as the low-end nature of work that is available.” Ravi Venkatesan, co-founder, Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship on solving India’s unemployment problem (Times of India, June 9) “Programmes like Atal Tinkering Labs, Start-up India and Stand-up India have helped improve the capacity of youth of the country. It is due to these efforts that today India has become the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world… Earlier, students who studied in Indian languages faced an unfair situation. With the implementation of the new National Education Policy, my government has been able to remove this injustice. Now students can take up engineering courses in Indian languages.” President Droupadi Murmu in her joint address to the 18th Lok Sabha (PTI, June 27) “It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggling to recall words and facts. His inability to land an argument against a weak opponent was dispiriting.” Editorial on President Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate with Donald Trump (The Economist, July 4) “In the 2024 summer triumph, all that Labour leader Keir Starmer has had to do is be banal, avoid the curse of a self-goal, and accuse Sunak of being out of touch, which has the merit of being true. Rishi Sunak is out of line, out of reach, out of depth, out of ideas, and by the end of this week will be out of time.” M.J. Akbar, author-columnist, on the British elections in which Rishi Sunak-led Conservatives lost (Open, July 5)
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) The political storm generated in Parliament in Delhi by the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) scam, in which as many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, and over 1,500 were awarded booster “grace marks”, has come as a fortuitous opportunity for Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and chief minister Mamata Banerjee to strike back at the BJP. Banerjee and TMC have been vocal critics of the centralisation of education, including the imposition of national exams such as NEET. Therefore, the NEET-UG scandal, which led to the peremptory cancellation of NEET-PG and UGC-NET, has provided her an opportunity to build a strong narrative of spreading discontent with the education policies and initiatives of the BJP/NDA government at the Centre. On June 24, Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to abolish NEET-UG and revert to the system of states conducting their own medical college entrance exams. “The decentralised system was later changed to a unitary and centralised system of examination (NEET) so as to take complete control of admissions in the country to medical courses without any involvement of state governments. This is completely unacceptable and violates the true spirit of the federal structure of the country. Further, the present system has led to massive corruption which benefits only the rich who can afford to pay (for coaching classes), while meritorious students belonging to the poor and middle class suffer and are the biggest victims,” said the missive from Banerjee to the PM. She also added that states spend over Rs.50 lakh per doctor towards education and internship, which is why states “should be given freedom to select medical students through joint entrance examination”. This year, 1.02 lakh students from West Bengal wrote NEET-UG 2024 of whom 59,053 passed with three scoring the maximum possible 720 marks. It is pertinent to note that students from West Bengal, which hosts 34 medical colleges, have always excelled in medical entrance exams. In a state where unemployment is rife — a major problem inherited by Banerjee who routed the Left Front in the historic state legislative election of 2011 — the desperation of school-leavers to succeed in exams such as NEET, which provides entry into employment with an average salary of Rs.50,000-60,000 per month, is intense. Unsurprisingly, 150,000-200,000 school-leavers from Bengal write NEET-UG exam every year. However, with centrally conducted NEET-UG having transformed into the sole medical entrance exam since 2017, students of Bengali-medium schools have been at a disadvantage in terms of English fluency and differences of syllabus. The test prep fees demanded by coaching schools of Rs.2-3 lakh per year is exorbitant for most Bengali medium school students who tend to be from underprivileged backgrounds. Therefore in January, the TMC government introduced Yogyashree, a comprehensive social welfare scheme in which 50 test prep centres across the state started providing free NEET-UG and IIT-Mains training for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students. This initiative has proved a great success. In its first year of launch, 75 Yogyasree…
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) After the national education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandated reconfiguration of the 10+2 primary-secondary schooling system into a new 5+3+3+4 continuum formally integrating early childhood care and education (ECCE) into elementary education, several states across the country have begun the process of integrating three years of early childhood education by introducing kindergarten sections in composite primary/secondary government schools and/or upgrading anganwadis — Central/state government-promoted nutritional centres for newborns and lactating mothers — into pre-primary schools. In the southern state of Karnataka (pop.69 million), an initiative to upgrade 20,000 (of a total 62,580) anganwadis into pre-primaries to make them ‘NEP compliant’ was announced by the state’s BJP government in 2022. A year later, a new Congress government was voted into power in the legislative assembly election of May 2023. Fortunately, although it has rejected and scrapped statewide implementation of NEP 2020 legislated by the BJP government at the Centre, it has continued to upgrade the state’s anganwadis. Indeed, according to some ECCE educators, the state’s Congress government has ventured beyond upgrading anganwadis, and permitted 262 composite government schools to start kindergarten sections (LKG and UKG) in 2023-24. With these KG sections running successfully, on June 11, the state’s education ministry issued an order to start pre-primary/KG classes in an additional 1,008 government primary schools in the Kalyana Karnataka region (educationally backward districts of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Yadgir, Ballari, Vijayanagara, and Koppal) and 578 schools in other districts. However, this latest government initiative has riled the state’s 69,000 anganwadi workers who fear loss of employment. They apprehend that parents will enrol youngest children for pre-primary classes in government schools rather than in anganwadis. Simultaneously, this initiative of the state government has escalated simmering tension between the education ministry and the women and child development (WCD) ministry as government schools fall under the former’s jurisdiction and anganwadis under WCD. Reacting, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered chief secretary LK Atheeq to initiate parleys between the two ministries and arrive at a workable solution. On June 24, a meeting was called by the chief minister between Madhu Bangarappa, minister for school education and literacy, and Laxmi Hebbalkar, minister of WCD. After these parleys, the CM’s office announced that the education ministry has been directed not to start any new pre-primaries in government schools beyond the already sanctioned 2,786, and that a committee of experts will soon be constituted to chalk out a plan to upgrade the state’s anganwadis to deliver equivalent quality early years education. But the challenge of transforming anganwadis into pre-primaries is that the overwhelming majority of anganwadi workers are class X secondary school-leavers with no formal training in early childhood education. “Anganwadis were promoted under the Centre’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in 1976 and entrusted with five responsibilities — immunisation of children, provision of nutrition, provision of health checkups, health/nutrition education and pre-primary education. Until NEP 2020 was legislated, no government emphasised the education function of anganwadis. Now they want anganwadi workers to transform overnight into early childhood teachers…
Autar Nehru (Delhi) National council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the country’s largest publisher of K-12 textbooks, is again in the throes of a controversy following its “rationalisation-cum-revision” of class XII social science (history) textbooks, widely prescribed by schools countrywide including 29,662 upscale schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE), India’s largest schools national exams board. NCERT and CBSE are purportedly autonomous subsidiaries of the Union education ministry. The rationale of the recent revision of class VII-XII textbooks is the world’s most prolonged closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-21) and learning loss experienced by school-going children. This necessitated pruning of syllabuses and curriculums by NCERT to reduce student stress. However, the selection of deleted content has generated controversy since the first revised textbooks were published in 2022. Critics, including authors of the textbooks, charged NCERT with hasty deletions with many contending that selected chapters were rewritten to suit the political and ideological propaganda of the ruling BJP. For instance, Darwin’s theory of evolution which posits that human beings are descended from apes — anathema to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor organization of the BJP — was dropped from science textbooks in 2023, prompting 1,800 scientists and educators to sign a protest petition. This time round, the revised edition of the class XII political science textbook has evoked sharp reactions from several educators and authors who allege that selective portions have been omitted and/or edited to suit the political agenda of the BJP. In the revised political science textbook released by NCERT in mid-June, the Babri Masjid is not mentioned by name (“three-domed structure”) and all references to BJP chieftain LK Advani’s rath yatra from Somnath (Gujarat) to Ayodhya; vandalisation of Babri Masjid by RSS/BJP kar sevaks; communal violence after destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992, and imposition of President’s Rule in BJP-ruled states have been omitted. Reacting on June 16, Prof. Dinesh Saklani, director of NCERT and a historian himself, justified the changes saying that the deletions were necessary as NCERT wants “to create positive citizens, not violent and depressed individuals.” “Hatred, violence are not subjects of teaching in school and shouldn’t be the focus of textbooks,” he explained. This chopping and changing of textbooks has outraged well-known public intellectuals Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav, who were chief advisors to the pre-Covid class IX-XII political science textbooks. In a letter to NCERT (June 17), they requested Prof. Saklani to delete their names from the textbooks. “Both of us don’t want NCERT to hide behind our names to pass on to students such textbooks of political science that we find politically biased, academically indefensible and pedagogically dysfunctional… The new editions of these books that have been published with our names should be withdrawn from the market forthwith… If NCERT fails to take immediate corrective action, we may be forced to take legal recourse,” wrote the duo. However, all political parties tend to rewrite history. When the Congress government established NCERT in 1961,…
Brilliant summary Your cover story ‘Bright future for private school education’ (EW June) is a brilliant summary and interpretation of the well-researched State of India K-12: Resilience Amidst Uncertainties Report 2024 published by LoEstro Advisors. Contrary to assertions of status quo Left-liberals paralysed by inertia and ideological baggage, the growing internationalisation of school education is good news for India’s K-12 education system, especially for its burgeoning middle-class which nurtures dreams of providing their children world-class education. New pedagogies and curriculums and increased technology usage are certain to filter down to moribund government schools and improve teacher skills and students’ learning outcomes across the spectrum. Eshwar Rawat Dehradun Commendable initiative Your Special Report on the EW-BSAI Education Leadership Retreat 2024 (EW June) was absorbing. I couldn’t agree more with EW editor Dilip Thakore that if our children and youth are to be trained to become competent and capable leaders, education leaders themselves need to upgrade and develop their leadership skills. Although the national boards CBSE and CISCE conduct workshops for teachers, there are not enough forums for school leaders to level up their leadership skills. Congratulations for launching a commendable initiative. Shehzad Khan Noida Private education bias I am a regular reader of your magazine. Your latest (June) cover story waxes eloquent about private K-12 education. I suggest you also write a cover story questioning private schools’ exorbitant fee hikes, the cuts the management takes from preferred textbook publishers, uniform suppliers, among other rackets. It is sad that even government schools of repute, of which I am a product, rarely make it to the pages of EducationWorld. Kamya Jain Bengaluru Tuition fees of Indian private schools are minuscule compared with private schools overseas. Jettison your subsidies addiction — Editor Valuable rankings survey We are profoundly grateful to EducationWorld for ranking Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) among India’s Top 3 agricultural varsities (EW, May). This recognition based on comprehensive and rigorous evaluation, is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire community — faculty, researchers, and students alike. Your rankings provide invaluable insights for prospective students and parents, and your service significantly contributes to the nation’s educational landscape, aligning with the national goals of Viksit Bharat. This recognition is a celebration of our university’s legacy and continuous pursuit of agricultural education excellence. It fuels our commitment to advancing farm research, extending our reach, and enhancing student welfare. We remain dedicated to improving the lives of farmers and contributing to the agricultural sector. Prof. (Dr.) Tejinder Singh Riar Additional Director of Communication. PAU, Ludhiana Innovative inventions I am in awe of young Karman Singh and the three Vivo Ignite champs who were profiled in your well-written ‘Young Achievers’ column (EW June). Kudos to Karman Singh for ideating and conceptualising a Smart Dustbin solution using Internet of Things (IoT) to address India’s civic safety and cleanliness problems. Equally innovative were the energy efficient smart street devices of the AM Naik School champs. Congratulations to the parents and teachers who encouraged these young…
When I switched from the corporate sector to business journalism over four decades ago, journalism was a glamour vocation. Industry leaders and businessmen, long pilloried and abused in the heyday of socialism, were anxious to tell their stories to Business India of which I was a category-creator and first editor. After their stories were told and chronicled, it turned out that far from being the villains of post-independence India, they were in fact, heroes. At that time, apart from businessmen eager to tell their stories of success despite the hundreds of hurdles thrown in their path, politicians were not afraid to explain and justify their policies and initiatives. The launch of Business India and BusinessWorld a few years later had a happy ending. Suddenly the country came to its senses. Dr. Manmohan Singh, for several decades an architect of crushing licence-permit-quota raj, hopped into a telephone booth and changed his turban and emerged as Superman of the historic industry liberalisation and deregulation reforms of 1991. Immediately, India’s annual GDP growth rate doubled and has averaged 7 percent per year since. As a result, an estimated 400 million citizens have been lifted out of deep poverty. A decade later on the eve of the new millennium, your reportedly immodest editor identified the country’s moribund education system dominated by government schools, colleges and universities as the achilles heel of post-independence India’s continuously disappointing national development effort. In 1999, EducationWorld was launched with the mission to “build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda”. Although almost a quarter century later, this mission remains unfulfilled, it’s indisputable that the landscape of Indian education has substantially changed for the better. Now there is a discernible temper to improve learning outcomes in all education institutions from preschools to Ph D. Bona fide educationists committed to developing India’s high-potential, yet long-neglected human resources have enthusiastically welcomed and cooperated with us to tell their stories of struggles against over-regulation of Indian education. Unsurprisingly, the neta-babu brotherhood whose control-and-command of Indian education has smothered India’s human resource development effort, are reluctant to explain or justify their policies and directives. In particular, none of the BJP appointed education ministers at the Centre since 2014 has done us the favour of explaining the revolutionary reforms — including NEP 2020 – imposed upon the nation. Therefore, this issue which offers constructive suggestions to the newly re-inducted Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, doesn’t alas, feature an interview with him. Nevertheless we carry on regardless. Sir, debate, deliberation and discussion of critically important government policies and initiatives are fundamental to democracies. And high-quality education. Pity you aren’t aware.
General Election 2024: Interpreting the verdict
– Rasheed Kidwai is a Delhi-based columnist, author of Sonia A Biography and visiting fellow, Observer Research Foundation Perhaps the most significant outcome of General Election 2024 is that Rahul Gandhi can now shed the failure tag. His biggest contribution was that he improved Congress’ national vote share from 19 to 22 percent The General Election 2024 verdict has something for everyone. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully fashioned a 3.0 government by stitching a coalition NDA alliance with support from the Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal (United), Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar have also been rewarded for their grit and resilience. Together, they provided strength to the INDIA alliance and gave PM Modi, BJP, NDA and a section of hawkish media shivers down their spines. In fact, the opposition has reasons to reflect upon missed chances to unseat the BJP at the Centre. The BJP too made several tactical errors. The sidelining of regional satraps like Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan, and other states proved costly. Also too many last-minute changes in candidates selection and polarising electioneering damaged it. Over-reliance on prime minister Modi in the hustings should bother the BJP for a long time. The party became a victim of its own propaganda believing that the pran pratishta ceremony at the new Ram Temple in Ayodhya, would give them a distinct electoral advantage in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically significant state. It also erroneously assumed that the Mayawati-led BSP would split the INDIA alliance’s Dalit and Muslim votes. Instead, the BJP lost the Faizabad-Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat and a CSDS post poll showed Rahul Gandhi ahead of Modi in Uttar Pradesh as a preferred prime ministerial candidate. Now the Modi-led BJP faces rather bleak prospects in the Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir assembly polls scheduled to be held in October. The BJP is hoping for division within the MVA alliance in Maharashtra, but Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and the Congress are confident that their seat-sharing formula and assembly election outcome will further rattle BJP. Nevertheless, the Congress and INDIA alliance must also be ruing missed opportunities in General Election 2024, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where tacit or tactical alliances were not sealed. In Odisha, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar then representing the INDIA alliance had paid a visit to Bhubaneswar to request BJD chief Naveen Patnaik to join the alliance but after Kumar defected to BJP/NDA, the negotiations were not followed up with BJD, resulting in the triumph of BJP-NDA. In national coalition politics since the 1980s, Andhra Pradesh and TDP have played a historic and crucial role. In 1984, the TDP was the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha. Actor-turned politician and Chandrababu Naidu’s father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao emerged as the convenor of the National Front that enabled Congress rebel Vishwanath Pratap Singh to win the office of prime minister in 1989. The National Front-Left Front government was supported…