“India’s learning outcomes remain stubbornly low. Quality concerns around education are seldom viewed as a political priority. But these concerns cannot be ignored for much longer, especially in light of India’s human capital crisis, reflected in unemployment statistics.”
Rohan Sandhu of the Harvard Kennedy School on why India needs a new education paradigm (Business Line, February 4)
“70 years into the Republic, it is time to give autonomy to private schools. The 1991 reforms gave freedom to industry but not to our schools, who are still groaning under the burden of licence raj. Despite all this, however, the contribution of private schools to the rise of India is incalculable. Their alumni fill the top ranks of professions, civil services and business.”
Gurcharan Das, author & columnist, in an essay titled ‘India is free, its schools are not’ (Times of India, February 6)
“Modi government needs to come up with a far bolder roadmap and big-ticket reforms to put the economy back on the fast track if it has to achieve its $5 trillion goal by 2024. A policy of gradualism will not work as reforms need to be done pronto.”
Raj Chengappa, well-known journalist, on the Union Budget 2020-21 (India Today, February 17)
“Fears that the party will split if the Nehru-Gandhi family steps aside is a poor argument against intra-party reform and it reflects the self-interest of an old guard that is out of ideas and energy.”
Editorial on why the Congress party must end Nehru-Gandhi family dominance (Business Standard, February 25)
“India is descending into a night of dread and despair… The idea is to carpet bomb the Indian republic as we know it, and replace it with a regime that thrives on cruelty, fear, division and violence.”
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, former vice chancellor of Ashoka University, commenting on the recent Delhi riots (Indian Express, February 29)