Monday, August 11, 2014
Agathe Lorthios-Guilledroit, Kareen Nour, Manon Parisien & Stéphanie Dupont
Bernadette Doykos, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Krista Craven, Mark McCormack & Joanna Geller
Kaston D. Anderson-Carpenter, Jomella Watson-Thompson, Marvia Jones & Lisa Chaney
Yossi Korazim-Kὅrösy, Terry Mizrahi, Marcia Bayne-Smith & Martha Lucia Garcia
Aug 11 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Think Beyond a Judicial Commission
The legislature must have a role in judges' selection
It is time the discourse moved away from treating the collegium system of selecting judges and a judicial appointments commission as the only two choices before the nation for fair appointments to the higher judiciary . The trouble with a judges' collegium making the selection is supposedly the possibility of converting the judiciary into a self-propagating oligarchy . The revelation by Justice Markandey Katju is that the executive exerts undue influence on the collegium, not that the collegium is insularly autonomous. The conduct of the present government of turning down the nomination of Gopal Subramanium also makes it clear that the problem that needs to be fixed is not collegiate insularity and unaccountability . Actually , the problem is broader.India's justice system is a mess. It takes decades to settle a legal dispute beyond final appeal. Undertrials waste long years of their life in jail before they are, more often than not, acquitted. As the ultimate repository of popular sovereignty , Parliament has the responsibility to fix this mess that the judiciary has manifestly failed to.
Judges' selection must be seen in this context. It is necessary to ensure the individual independence of those appointed as judges and to maintain the collective independence of the judiciary , to ensure that it retains its ability to act as a check on the executive. While the judiciary is vocal on these themes, its silence on accountability is deafening.
The proposed Judicial Appointments Commission does not address these issues even partially. It only runs the risk of enabling the executive to pack the highest court of the land with people of its own ideological bent.
This is not surprising, considering that its offered solution to the quandaries surrounding fair selection of judges is to transfer such quandaries to the selection of members of the commission. To ensure truly non-partisan selection of judges, the legislature must have a decisive role in the process, whether by committee or majority of an entire House, preferably the Upper House that is less susceptible to the vagaries of electoral mood swings.
Judges' selection must be seen in this context. It is necessary to ensure the individual independence of those appointed as judges and to maintain the collective independence of the judiciary , to ensure that it retains its ability to act as a check on the executive. While the judiciary is vocal on these themes, its silence on accountability is deafening.
The proposed Judicial Appointments Commission does not address these issues even partially. It only runs the risk of enabling the executive to pack the highest court of the land with people of its own ideological bent.
This is not surprising, considering that its offered solution to the quandaries surrounding fair selection of judges is to transfer such quandaries to the selection of members of the commission. To ensure truly non-partisan selection of judges, the legislature must have a decisive role in the process, whether by committee or majority of an entire House, preferably the Upper House that is less susceptible to the vagaries of electoral mood swings.
Aug 11 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Govt Okays Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee
NEW DELHI
OUR POLITICAL BUREAU
|
Announcement may come before Independence Day; Dhyan Chand & Subhash Chandra Bose other probables
The government is understood to have approved Bharat Ratna for former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and an announcement could be made soon, perhaps as early as this Independence Day.A senior government official, familiar with the matter, said there were a couple of other names in contention as well, including hockey legend Dhyan Chand and freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, but only Vajpayee’s name had been cleared so far.
The Centre can award a maximum of three Bharat Ratnas in one year. Last year, the UPA government had given the award to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist CNR Rao.
The BJP, then in the Opposition, had criticized the UPA for ignoring Vajpayee’s contri
bution and said it will bestow the honour upon him as soon as it comes to power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have approved the move and could soon send a recommendation to President Pranab Mukherjee for the same. Vajpayee, now 90, was awarded the Padma Vibhushan way back in 1992. His name was recommended to the PMO by citizens 11 times in 2011 and half-a-dozen times in 2012, records show.
The family of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, meanwhile, said it did not approve the idea of a Bharat Ratna being conferred upon him. “Netaji has been missing since 1945.
When you award him with the Bharat Ratna posthumously, you have to say when he died, but where's the evidence? The best way to honour him is to declassify files which can reveal the truth behind his disappearance,” Netaji’s grand-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose said.
The Centre can award a maximum of three Bharat Ratnas in one year. Last year, the UPA government had given the award to cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist CNR Rao.
The BJP, then in the Opposition, had criticized the UPA for ignoring Vajpayee’s contri
bution and said it will bestow the honour upon him as soon as it comes to power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have approved the move and could soon send a recommendation to President Pranab Mukherjee for the same. Vajpayee, now 90, was awarded the Padma Vibhushan way back in 1992. His name was recommended to the PMO by citizens 11 times in 2011 and half-a-dozen times in 2012, records show.
The family of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, meanwhile, said it did not approve the idea of a Bharat Ratna being conferred upon him. “Netaji has been missing since 1945.
When you award him with the Bharat Ratna posthumously, you have to say when he died, but where's the evidence? The best way to honour him is to declassify files which can reveal the truth behind his disappearance,” Netaji’s grand-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose said.
Friday, August 08, 2014
National Initiative for Innovation Centres in the
Country
New Delhi: A new scheme on “National Initiative to establish 20 Design Innovation
Centres, one Open Design School and National Design Innovation Network” has
been launched during 2013-14.
There is proposal under consideration of the Government to formulate
National Innovation Policy in education sector at present. Research and
innovation have also been the focal points during XII Plan.
Further, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), which seeks to
support and reform the state higher education system, is providing funding for
Research, Innovation and Quality Improvement. The states have to prepare
a Research and Innovation Plan which would include facilities that
(i) support research hubs/parks etc.,
(ii) adopt of meta-university concept that offer cross
university education and credit transfer facility to students,
(iii) procure high quality e-resources,
(iv) upgrade library and laboratory facilities,
(v) facilities like incubation centers, innovation hubs,
(vi) initiatives to attract top-rated international faculty,
(vii) institutions that offer merit-based scholarships, fully-funded
doctoral fellowships, post-doctoral fellowships,
(viii) promotion of research
and entrepreneurial activities,
(ix) support different types of research programs – Base Research,
Key Technology (R&D), High end (R&D) etc., and
(x) Special grants to faculty for conducting outstanding
research.
This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development
Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Lok Sabha question.
UGC
Begins Scheme to Introduce Courses on Social Thinkers of India
Wednesday, August
06, 2014
|
Report by India Education bureau, New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has started a scheme of
“Epoch Making Social Thinkers of India” in various universities/colleges to
introduce various courses on great thinkers and social leaders, their thoughts
and philosophies including Gandhian studies. As reported by the UGC, under this
scheme 85 Gandhian Studies Centres have been approved by the UGC for
continuation in the XII Plan and 55 Centres have been approved for
establishment during XII Plan w.e.f 2013-14.Details of the scheme are available
at http://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/xiplanpdf/epochmakingsociathinkers1.pdf.
This information
was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani
in a written reply to the Lok Sabha question.
HRD Ministry planning a new programme called
Campus Connect
New Delhi: The Ministry of
Human Resource Development is planning a new programme called Campus Connect.
Under these programme 21,000 colleges, 20 classrooms will be made Wi-Fi
enabled. Totally, 4.2 lakh classrooms will be made Wi-Fi enabled and this will
help around 1.5 crore students. Students will be given access only to those
websites which are academically relevant.
All the buildings of 600 universities
that have 1 Gbps bandwidth will be made by Wi-Fi enabled. This includes
Government of India funded institutions, state government universities and also
private universities. This will help around 20 lakh students. The whole campus
of all the 140 centrally funded Institutions of Ministry of HRD will be made
Wi-Fi enabled.
The National Mission on Education
through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) aims to leverage the
potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and
learning process. The Mission also aims to provide 20 Broadband connections of
512 Kbps speed to over 25,000 colleges and 2000 polytechnics and optical
fiber connectivity one Gbps to 419 universities/ university level institutions
in the country which includes internet facility.
The NMEICT scheme has three major components
viz. (i) content generation; (ii) providing connectivity to universities and
colleges; and (iii) Research and development of low cost access device.
Under the NMEICT scheme, the activity of providing
connectivity to 419 Universities/ University level Institutions and all
colleges including polytechnics is in progress. So far connectivity to 403
Universities/ University level institutions and 21,026 colleges in the country
has been provided. Under this scheme, no central assistance has been provided
by the Central Government directly to States to implement the scheme/ project.
However, as provided in the Mission document, funds have been released to
universities/university level institutions of the country for various
projects.
For connectivity to universities and colleges,
central share of 75% of the cost is directly released to the BSNL/ MTNL
(implementing agency) with the stipulation that the balance 25% of the cost
(10% in case of institution of North East Region) would be deposited by the
concerned institution directly to BSNL/ MTNL.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)