Close on the heels of the Union health ministry’s directive to make a year’s rural service mandatory for medical students across the country to tackle the acute shortage of doctors in rural India, comes yet another diktat to resolve the shortage of licensed medical practitioners countrywide. On March 10, the Union government issued a notification […]
The most important unwritten nostrum of the sycophancy culture of the Delhi durbar, especially of the Congress party, is to suck up and kick down. And that’s the practice followed by the controversial Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh with consummate ease. Recently following a storm after he was reported to have stated that […]
The annual ‘Report to the People of the Congress-led 17-party coalition United Progre-ssive Alliance (UPA) government which completed four years of office in New Delhi on May 22, has accorded top priority to its achievements in the education and health sectors. The focus of the Eleventh Five Year Plan is education. India is a nation […]
Is it true that your wife writes the books that come out in your name? Why does India not feature in your books?
These were some of the questions lobbed at Jeffery Archer, author of best selling novels such as Kane & Abel, Shall We Tell The President and The Prodigal Daughter, who was in […]
Union human resources development (HRD) minister Arjun Singh has courted many controversies in the recent past. Following the passage of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admissions) Act, 2006 by Parliament, reserving an additional 27 percent quota for OBCs in Central government institutions of higher education and its validation by the Supreme Court on April […]
On April 21 1,000 high-school students flocked to Yales Old Campus to be greeted by a three-storey, inflated statue of the universitys bulldog mascot, Handsome Dan. With their admission to the university just secured, it is their turn to be feted during Yales ‘Bulldog Days with everything from meetings with famous professors to pizza parties […]
Chaos reigns in West Bengals 49,379 primary schools which have an aggregate enrollment of 7.22 million children, because of the state governments failure — despite prior declaration of intent — to introduce English teaching during the current academic year starting this month. The cause of the chaos is simple: there are hardly any teachers to […]
Tibetan teachers fear hard-won gains over teaching pupils in their native language may be reversed in the wake of the unrest that has erupted against their countrys Chinese rulers. Although schools are open, teachers report an atmosphere of intimidation, with many pupils being forced to undergo patriotic education which includes denouncing the Dalai Lama.For decades, […]
As the political temperature rises in anticipation of the general election slated for early next year, Lucknow University (LU —estb. 1921) professors have stepped up their demand for grant of central status to the university which has 36,000 students on its muster rolls. But as befits a university which is in the news mostly for […]
Perhaps no other subject has as graphically highlighted the divide between imperial Delhi and the rest of the country as the raging debate on ways and means in which the Central (and state) government should respond to the spot price of crude oil having risen from $30 per barrel two years ago to $130 currently. […]
April was a busy month for the Hissar (Haryana)-based Vidya Devi Jindal School (VDJS) for girls. An art exhibition, Oeuvres D Art, was staged by the fine arts students of the school from April 9-14 at New Delhis All India Art and Crafts Society. An array of paintings, sculptures and craft works of VDJS students […]
The ugly public spat between deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel over chaotic conditions at Delhi airport is typical of the elitist mindset of the Delhi imperium, reminiscent of Rome burning as emperor Nero concentrated on improving his fiddling prowess. Despite inflation numbers and price […]
Dr. R.K. Pachauri, director-general of Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Humane Letters) from Dr. Richard Levin, president of Yale University, at the universitys 307th commencement held on May 26.The Yale University citation read on the occasion described Dr. Pachauri […]
With a successful footprint in towns with 4-lakh plus population, the Chennai-based Veta, Asias largest spoken English training academy promoted by Amoha Education (P) Ltd, announced the launch of VetaOne, a new venture aimed at building India from the grassroots level, on May 14. The objective of VetaOne is to provide English language learning to […]
Every activist in indian education suffers from a ‘delusion of knowledge — the notion that the socialist State, i.e. government, is in possession of knowledge that the poor need to succeed in life.In reality, the State is itself based on failed knowledge. Economic liberalisation was resorted to in 1991 after half a century of socialism, […]
Utilising the attraction and love of the worlds most popular team game — football aka soccer — Ashok Rathod (20) has initiated a pioneering effort to educate children of the 30,000-strong Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar slum colony in south Mumbai. Rathod invites the children for football training and when they are hooked onto the game, he […]
In February this year, Sagar Gandhi (15), a class X student of City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow became the first student from Uttar Pradesh in 22 years to top grade 2 of the Trinity Guildhall Foundation Level Graded Examination in Musical Performance — an exam written by 200 music students in north India. For this […]
Child and teen suicides are increasingly hitting headlines in newspaper dailies and national magazines. Concern, consternation and distress have been the response of right thinking people. Are these one-off incidents sensationalised by the media or is this trend truly reflective of the malady of our times?
Disaggregated data from epidemiological research clearly demonstrates that the average […]
Recently, while on a visit to my nine-year-old grandson, I asked, So, what would you like to do today? Play baseball without the coach yelling his head off, he replied. Spencer then went on to describe how his coach constantly bellowed instructions on a play-by-play basis.The next day I went to Spencers baseball game and […]
By 2011 over 600,000 additional professionals will be required by the hotels and restaurants industry which offers good money, glamour and growth opportunitiesThe Indian hospitality aka hotel industry is on a roll, powered by a huge surge in business and leisure travel from domestic and foreign tourists. Industry estimates indicate that India is likely to […]
Are state governments which insist upon imposing vernacular languages as the medium of instruction on school children under their jurisdiction acting in the public or private interest? The latter I believe because every parent countrywide wants her child to become English fluent. Ironically the peoples’ representatives, i.e politicians, seem unaware of this grassroots reality.
In late […]
Im in third year B.Com and want to qualify as an air cargo officer. Please advise.Raul Fernandes, Panjim
Cargo handling is one of the services offered by the Airports Authority of India (www.airportsindia. org.in). AAI undertakes design, development and construction of cargo terminals and also supervises management and operations. After graduation you could apply for […]
Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singhs advice to captains of Indian industry to exhibit some sensitivity towards the great majority of the population at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid engaged in a grim struggle to make ends meet in these inflationary times, has come not a day too soon. Speaking at the annual convocation of […]
Prof. Jaideep Prabhu, currently professor of marketing and director of research at the Tanaka Business School of Imperial College, London, is all set to assume the chair of the Cambridge Centre for Indian Business as Jawaharlal Nehru professor of Indian business and enterprise at Cambridge University, UK from September 1 this year. The chair in […]
The snowballing global campaign for the release of Dr. Binayak Sen, a public campaigner for the human rights of the tribal population of the newly (2000) carved out state of Chhattisgarh in eastern India who has been held in the Raipur Central Jail on trumped up charges for over a year, is a telling comment […]
As founder director of Indias first training and certification institute for construction industry managers — the National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR, estb. 1994) — Prof. K.N. Vaid pioneered innovative study programmes to train students for employment in the booming construction, infrastructure and real estate industries. Now in a new avatar this well-respected […]
Lesser known martial art forms of India Learning a martial art form is the best way to learn self-defence and also maintain fitness. Martial arts imbibe in ... 
UP college students write ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on answer sheets, two professors suspended Two professors at a state-run university were suspended following an RTI revelation that four students had allegedly passed exams with ... 
St. Xavier’s College Kolkata to start 3 new PG courses in bio-sciences Mita Mukherjee St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata has decided to introduce three new postgraduate courses in biological sciences from this year ... 
Maharashtra: New upper and lower limits for pre-primary to class I admissions The Maharashtra government has set new age criteria for children seeking admissions to nursery, junior and senior kindergarten and class I ... 
