“I always say it is intellectually lazy for people to advocate herd immunity, because basically it is giving up. It is saying we do not want to work hard on this, we know it is a problem, let us just let everybody get sick and lots of people die. I don’t think that should be India’s strategy. It is not good for the Indian people and it is not going to be good for the Indian economy.”
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute on the rapid spread of Covid-19 infections in India (The Hindu, July 9)
“Our motto has to be ‘even if we eat grass, we have to give our children healthcare, nutrition and education’.”
Ananth Narayan, associate professor, SPJIMR, Mumbai (Bloomberg Quint, July 18) on ‘To-do’ list for the Indian economy
“The one country big enough to emerge as an independent pole and provide common sense and calm leadership in a geopolitically turbulent world, is India.”
Kishore Madhubani, distinguished fellow, National University of Singapore, in an essay ‘India’s tryst with the Asian Century’ (India Today, July 27)
“The goal of 6 percent of GDP to be spent on education was first articulated in 1948! Every government articulates this target and then comes up against its own finance ministry. In the last six years, Modi government expenditure on education has declined in real terms. How will it reach 6 percent?”
Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader and MP, on the implementation challenges of National Education Policy 2020 (twitter.com, July 30)
“Nation was waiting for the new education policy for 34 years. It is here now. It is a forward-looking document that accepts the flaws of today’s education system. But, it has two issues with it — it is unable to break free of pressures of education’s old traditions. Secondly, the policy does not say how the reforms it speaks of, will be achieved. The policy is either silent or confused about these issues.”
Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi state on the National Education Policy 2020 (July 30)
Also read: They said it in June