-The Telegraph Media-academia partnerships are a necessity Last week, The Conversation US reminded readers that it has turned eight years old.  As notfor-profit media funding grows in India, this site is well worth profiling as a venture to emulate. It is the American edition of a non-profit first launched in Australia as a partnership between universities and journalists funded by universities and foundations. This is a platform that is constantly generating in-depth...

-ThePrint.in UGC Wednesday asked institutions to make courses available via govt platform SWAYAM. Academics question move, citing issues like need for classroom instruction & lack of infrastructure. New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked universities to offer up to 40 per cent of the courses in any programme online on SWAYAM, the central government’s Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform.  Academics have questioned this move, citing issues such as the need...

-The Hindu Challenges abound in this approach, which needs to be analysed in depth before a policy is announced The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently announced that it will do away with the mandatory PhD qualification to teach in Central Universities (CUs) spread across the country. It purportedly addresses a shortage of qualified faculty in CUs. According to the Ministry of Education data, there were 10,000 teaching positions lying vacant in...

-Press release by CUTS International dated 5th July, 2021 In a study done by CUTS International under its 4-years  old project -- ProOrganic, almost 97.4 percent of consumers were found to be aware of the fact that chemical input-based food products are harmful for health compared to 86 percent of the same set of consumers way back in 2017. Similarly, the percentage of farmers doing organic farming has gone up to...

-The Hindu Data stored digitally in devices that are seized can be tampered with or distorted, says petition by five teachers The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to a plea by five teachers to protect “academic freedom” from raids and seizures of police and investigative agencies. The past few years have seen raids on and seizures of electronic evidence from academicians, researchers, lawyers and activists. Now, a group of educationists have...