Yashpal committee report and educational reforms

The Human resource minister , Kapil Sibal's new initiative of improving the access to education to the indian massess is now generating considerable debate and discussion in the area of education , which no doubt requires the much needed attention from the government both in the form of monetary as well as political . some of the basic recommendations given by the yash pal report (under the leadership of MIT trained Physicst prof.Yashpal ) include :

• Srcaping of Bodies such as UGC,AICTE with a statuatory regulatory body called the "Nation commission for higher education and research (NCHER) "
  
• Regulating the mushrooming of management and engineering colleges, which have become centres of profit making in market economy and to an extent , providers of poor quality education
• Creating an environment in universities , which favours joy of teaching and research and potentially alligning university reserach programs with National research centres of ISRO and CSIR.
• Identifying atleast 1500 top colleges to make them potential universities with full fledged government support , so that these 1500 may will grow and help other colleges with smart infrastructures to grow as colleges of excellence.
• Making the IITs,IIMs and NITs to diversify to innovative programs in social sciences and humanities
• and then, there is a talk of allowing FDI in education by judging the pros and cons and also recognition for certifications provided by private colleges with in India.

Apart from the holisitic outlining of educational reforms , the report and the minstry spells the following plans:

• Scrapping of Board tenth exams
• Common national syllabus across higher education which encompasses state universities and high schools
• A single point of contact (SPOC ) responsible solely for conducting examinations, which can keep the universities to focus on core areas of research and teaching
  

I am not sure about the data and statistics to analyse the patterns of educational reforms , but the above broad initiatives may help in long way for the much needed reforms in education sector. you can down load the yashpal committee report here :-

Yashpal Committee Report

The day when a legend closed his eyes from the world - Michael Jackson

The tragic death of one of the greatest pop singer and a legendary icon Michael Jackson , who popularized music of the masses by combining hip hop and pop, is indeed a great loss to the free world , his music clearly reflected some harsh realities of this world like racism, frustration of young , discrimination and poverty .

He was perhaps the best of what America (in particular, black America ) has offered to the rest of the world , where pursuit of happiness , respect for individual's artistic freedom came first for many (often breaking the dogmatic glass ceiling , under which totalitarian & theocratic societies survive to this day ). whatever may be his personal conduct in his later part of life ! his Kindness, music and his vision will always be with his admirers and especially his fans !!


Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

lessons from a social networking site .

what began as an informal discussion in one of the communities (International relations ) of social networking site orkut , which you can see here , gives me a fair amount of idea , that there are healthy and rational discussions among people of different faiths and cultures , people might disagree to agree on sensitive issues such as faith and customs, yet social networking sites will , definetly give you an insight , about the thoughts and ideas or rather can provid you a small sample to quantify , how the dynamics of our environment is changing for good !

What is International Political Economy?

What is International Political Economy?

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The Politics of Sons and daughters : A parivar Raj in the making

To my surprise / dismay , indian political parties led by the congress party have virtually institutionalised the concept of dynastic politics , right from allocating party tickets for fighting elections to inducting children ( children of either dead political leaders or extended families of politicians ) as cabinet and union minsters.

Here are the few examples:-

• Priya dutt ; s/o : Sunil dutt
• Sachin pilot ; s/o : Rajesh pilot
• Milind Deor ; s/o : Murli Deora
• Jitin prasad ; s/o : Jitender prasada
• Rahul Gandhi ; s/o : Rajiv Gandhi
• Jyothiraditya scindia : s/o : Madhav Rao Scindia
• Agatha sangma ; d/o : PA sangma
• jagan reddy ; s/o : YSR reddy
• Uhav thakrey ; c/o : Bal thakrey
• Raj thakrey ; c/o : Bal thakrey
• Dayanidhi maran ; c/o : Karunanidhi
  

..................the list does not end here ! one wonders where are those innocent karyakartas, party workers and innocent public . who toil through out the day irrespective of day and night ...yet these very people are not rewarded either with a party ticket or a responsibility as a minster or as a strategist within the parties per se.

will, hard work and loyalty towards political party is not rewarded , instead they are reserved for a few ..who belong to class of affluent , powerful and super rich people. A law must be enacted to safeguard democracy from a barbaric invasion of dynastic politics ...so that politically conscious and visionaries have the final say on important issues concerning our nation , rather than policies amended through the hands of fathers , mothers and sons !

UPA part - 2

"Team Manmohan is ready" after a decisive mandate coupled with media euphoria, its now clear that economy seems to be getting the much needed attention , same is the case with security being one of the important strategeis of the new team , the very issue that rocked the parliement , media and general public over the intelligence failure during the Mumbai attacks and increased violence due to terrorism. what is interesting to see is that, how will the dynamics of the new government will take shape under the second tenure , if not during the first hundred days of this adminstration and will the Indo - US relations take another new trajectory ?

But one thing is for sure , with no tussle of coallition politics , the government should be more assertive in implementing policies that will have a value addition towards longterm future of india , viz, disinvestment, regional co-operation within south asia and renewed security strategy to fight terror ! only time will tell , how things will shape on the ground .

India Verdict 09, and the return of family Praise atmosphere !

Finally , its official after a gap of 25 yrs or so , the congress is gaining its lost ground in strategic states like U.P and west Bengal , praises and showers on individuals are a natural extension of rejoicing , but there is a harsh reality and a bitter truth that an average indian electorate must understand , that our democracy still carries a heavy burden of producing political leaders who merely rely and expect a blessing hand for their political fortunes by praising individuals , single families (Gandhi family ) , conducting praise melas across the states through Pradesh congress committes (PCCs) and ofcourse their discourses always start and end with family praises , rather than their own individual contributions and efforts for developing states and their individual constituencies. it is a well know fact that the indian democracy rose to fight this physche through formation of political parties and coalition governments that guranteed a culture of reality based with revolutionary programs that had a far reaching impact on our society be it the formation of Minority government led by V.P singh that bought Mandal before the national scene or the emergence of Parties that had a primarily backward caste led orientation like the Janta dal or samaj wadi party and needless to say the complete white wash of Andhra politics by the Advent of Telugu desam in 1983.

Power transfers and verdicts or Mandates are a sign of healthy democracy , but at one end it is also giving space to crooks , goons and Mafia based groups (and individuals ) who find a safe ground by becoming a part of a larger organization to meet their personal goals whose main job revolves around "conducting family praise melas" and not talk about innovative programs or ways to develop their own communities . the ultimate victim in this scenario is an avergae indian electorate who sees national building through the prism of Propaganda, praises on family led parties by local leaders rather than the leadership qualities of their own representatives, in a country characterised by huge social divide its easy for any one to be carried away by this mass hysteria of keeping the legacy of family led politics alive in the minds of people.

In a way our democracy offers both parts of the world , the worst and the best , the former seems to be taking its lost ground after a long time . congratulations congressmen ! you bought our old memories alive ...!