“Not reading specific ideas or text can be a layman’s way of dealing with contrarian thoughts. The academic style of demolishing an idea is by presenting a more logical and robust theory or idea.”
Dilip Mandal, senior journalist, on Delhi University’s proposal to drop three books written by Dalit activist Kancha Ilaiah from its MA syllabus (www.theprint.in, November 1)
“Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think, we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, in an interview with New York Times (November 8)
“Except in producing quality engineers, the IITs have failed the country on many fronts today. They have not become thought leaders in ushering in any radical thinking that could alleviate some of the burning concerns of contemporary India. They have not been able to provide academic leadership to a country that still has a staggering number of illiterate people…”
Gourishankar S. Hiremath and H.S. Komalesha, IIT-Kharagpur faculty, on ‘How IITs turned from Nehru’s vision of technology to catering engineers for MNCs’, (thewire.in, November 14)
“If man can walk on the moon, what problems are there we cannot resolve?”
Imran Khan, Pakistan prime minister, on settling India-Pakistan disputes (November 28)
“We have to make economic growth relevant to our people, especially to those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. Distributive justice, as a higher goal of democratic polity, can be achieved only through a sound education system.”
Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India, addressing students at Greenwood High International School, Bangalore (November 28)