There is a new excitement in the air concerning higher education. It has been decided by the powers that be, warmly supported by the academic community, that turning selected colleges into universities will open the gates to a Valhalla of knowledge. A commission entrusted with the qualitative improvement of higher education has recommended that on top of some 350 universities and/or equivalent institutions, another 1,500 will be created by upgrading...
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The Little Headmaster And His Big Homework by Samrat Chakrabarti
FIVE HOURS’ bus ride from Kolkatta, just past the railway crossing at Beldanga, is a dilapidated concrete structure covered in half-torn posters variously advertising a Marxian utopia, films for red-blooded adults and bedroom advice for couples intent on children. Inside, in a tiny, dank room behind a desk, sits someone the Queen of England knows by name – and you should too. Lanky, awkward and at 16, the possessor of...
More »From dream to reality by NK Singh
This newspaper recently hosted its annual debate on whether a resurgent Bengal was an impossible dream. Not surprisingly, the verdict of the 600-odd listeners went against the motion. This has as much to do with tangible societal gains as with an enveloping sense of crisis which embeds enormous opportunities. The glorious past of Bengal needs no persuasion. It was integrated with the rest of the world through trade and interchange...
More »Midday meal index vetoed by Charu Sudan Kasturi
An ambitious human resource development ministry proposal aimed at ending persistent gaps between allocated and needed funds that plague the midday meal scheme has been rejected by a key finance panel. The Centre’s expenditure finance committee (EFC) has dumped the ministry proposal to tie costs of the meal scheme to fluctuating commodity prices through a special pricing index, The Telegraph has learnt. The EFC’s approval is mandatory for central proposals with...
More »'We're possibly the world's most corrupt society'
Ravi Gulati left a corporate job and took to teaching children of drivers, barbers and maids near his home in New Delhi's Khan Market. Today, in his unusual classroom every student is a teacher and every teacher a student. "I don't expect the kids to pay me back but pay it forward," says the man who has turned his home into a learning centre for the poor. A Ganesh Nadar...
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