Friday, December 26, 2014
According to the latest rankings, India has four varsities in the top 40 –- IISc, IIT Bombay (37), IIT Roorkee (38) and Chandigarh’s Panjab University (39) -– and seven more in the top 100. “There is some good news for India as it has universities in the top 100, which is a good sign and it also has entirely new entrants arriving in the higher echelons of the table,” said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings.
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/university-no-1/#sthash.AF2lg5WC.dpuf
Minimum educational qualification for Raj civic polls
Days ahead of the panchayat poll announcement in Rajasthan, an ordinance issued by Governor Kalyan Singh fixed minimum educational qualifications for contesting polls for panchayat samiti and district councils, drawing much opposition from political parties, local communities and civil society groups. The ordinance effecting an amendment to the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act 1994, has made it mandatory for the candidates contesting zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls to be Class X pass and those contesting sarpanch elections to be Class VIII pass. In the scheduled areas the eligibility has been fixed at Class V pass.
Even as the ruling government argues that this will check embezzlement of funds at the hands of illiterate panchayat level representatives, the opposition groups alleged that the move is discriminatory to a large section of the rural population, particularly women among whom the literacy rate is the lowest. In rural Rajasthan, the literacy rate stands at 76.16 percent for males and 45.8 percent for females respectively.
Defending the state government’s move, BJP spokesperson Kailash Nath Bhatt told, “The Centre is spending crores of money on panchayats and this goes directly to the sarpanch. There are thousands of pending cases of fund embezzlement against these elected representatives in the state and the standard excuse is that ‘I am illiterate and put my thumb impression on whatever papers were given to me’.
Earlier, the audits were managed by the state government so the accountability was not with the sarpanch but now with funds to the tune of crores coming in for projects like MNREGA and others, there has to be better accountability. Let us take this decision positively as it will end up encouraging education in rural areas. We are confident this will lead to better literacy rate in the state and as it is we have a 50 percent reservation for women.”
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/minimum-educational-qualification-for-raj-civic-polls/#sthash.aSyS5Uhh.dpuf
Indian students, British scholarships
Scholarships to UK universities for students from India have risen by 50 per cent this year. In October 2014-15, the total scholarships to Indian students amounted to nearly 1.5 million pounds, according to senior British embassy officials.
“Scholarships to Indian students were 1.5 million pounds this year as compared to 1 million pounds last year,” said Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai.
According to Joshi, the scholarships were for those students who aspire to pursue undergraduate and post-graduate courses in the United Kingdom. Contrary to the rise in scholarships though, Joshi pointed out that as far as education visas were concerned there had been a ‘general dip’ in almost all visas except for Business.
“Visas, including education, have seen a general dip this year, except for business,” he pointed out.
In fact, Business visas to the UK have actually risen by 12 per cent this year compared to the previous one. Figures given were for the October 2013-September 2014. Visa applications have also seen a 91 per cent approval rating, he said. “Ninety one per cent of applications seeking visas are approved and the rest are not for reasons including lack of requisite documentation,” he said.
Trade has also seen a marked improvement and according to Joshi, there are expectations that growth would be better than what has been seen so far. Total trade was around 15.6 billion pounds so far this fiscal.
Joshi also announced that more joint ventures between British and Indian companies would be a good thing and that he was a ‘fan’ of them. “The renewable energy sector holds huge potential for bilateral ties and both TN and Gujarat have immense opportunities as far as this is concerned,” he said.
British telecommunications giant Lyca is also expected to enter the Indian market by June next year in the medical diagnostics sector.
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/indian-students-uk-scholarships/#sthash.QUsJhWaj.dpuf
Carnage in Assam
Serial attacks by armed militants from the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) have claimed the lives of at least 67 Adivasis (who are still fighting for tribal status), in villages in Sonitpur, Kokrajar and other districts, in a shocking recrudescence of ethnic violence. Assam, with a history of more than three decades of insurgency, has seen fewer incidents of militant violence overall during 2014 than in any recent year. Two of the major militant groups, the United Liberation Front of Asom led by Arabinda Rajkhowa and the NDFB led by Ranjan Daimary, have come to the negotiating table, though there has been only limited progress in the talks. Meanwhile, the NDFB (S), opposed to the talks, stepped up acts of extortion and abduction. Sustained operations by the security forces against it have led to the killing and arrest of several of its cadres in recent months, principally in the Bodoland Territorial Areas District along the India-Bhutan border. Significantly, the latest attacks came soon after the State’s Director General of Police revealed intelligence on expected attacks by the group, and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi dismissed threats by the NDFB (S) of retaliation against the stepped up operations against it.
The immediate challenge before the authorities is to ensure that the killings do not lead to ethnic clashes on a wide scale that could lead to a larger conflagration. Meanwhile, the best way of stripping the NDFB (S) and any others of its ilk of the facade of the “Sovereign Boroland” cause behind which they seek to mask their criminal intent, will be for the government to address at the earliest the genuine aspirations of the Bodo people in terms of development and entitlements, that would take the people forward from their state of deprivation that stems from historical anomalies and injustices. Efforts to drive a wedge between Bodo and non-Bodo sections need to be countered effectively. Everything should be done to ensure the integration of the different strands of the population. Also, the talks being held with two organisations should be pursued with a sense of seriousness if only to demonstrate the fact that it pays to talk. Alongside such an approach, employing tactics that combine physical sweeps with the help of security forces and an effective intelligence network on the ground, the state should root out the menace of faux terror indulged in by the NDFB (S) cadres who are estimated to number less than 300 and who strike in hit-and-run mode in areas that are remote, forested and inaccessible. In this battle, the Centre should deploy and commit its security forces to aid the State — rather than indulge in any sort of a blame game.
ISRO's Radhakrishnan in Nature journal's top ten list
Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is one of the 2014 top ten scientists chosen by the prestigious journalNature. This is the first time in the recent past that the journal has chosen an Indian working in India. He is listed along with other people like Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director, European Space Agency.
The reasons for choosing Dr. Radhakrishnan are pretty simple and straightforward.
When India’s Mangalyaan successfully settled into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014, the country became the first and only nation to have done so on its maiden attempt. India also became the first Asian country to reach Mars.
The space organisation crossed two other major milestones this year. In January, the space organisation achieved spectacular success with the spaceflight of an Indian cryogenic engine and stage. India has been striving hard for some years to indigenously develop a cryogenic engine to improve the reliability of GSLV rockets and to take the rocket to greater heights.
The recent launch of the heaviest and tallest GSLV Mark III and the successful re-entry of the unmanned crew module were the other landmark achievements.
“It’s recognition for executing a major technological mission by bringing in synergy of a large team,” said Dr. Radhakrishnan about Nature choosing him as one of the top ten scientists in the world. The team is as large as 16,000 members, with the younger generation alone accounting for 4,500.
“ISRO is a wonderful and unique organisation. There is wonderful team spirit and openness,” is how he describes an organisation that he joined in 1971. He had worked in various major capacities before becoming Chairman.
He was with the then Department of Ocean Development for five years from 2000-2005 and was a Founder Director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad.
If the number of young people wanting to join ISRO skyrocketed after the success of the Chandrayaan moon mission, the Mangalyaan magic is bound to generate much greater attraction. “These missions have been able to generate remarkable interest in the younger generation. If we are already able to attract the best brains in the country, these achievements provide a fillip to that,” he said.
“Just after the September 24 event [when Mangalyaan settled into Mars orbit], ISRO got many postcards from people. The Facebook of ISRO has 900,000 likes,” he said
At a time when other government research organisations are struggling to get the best, motivated people, ISRO has been like a magnet attracting and retaining. Dr. Radhakrishnan shares the secret behind this. “The challenge provided by the job itself attracts people. To retain people, the job should be challenging,” he said. “There is also good working culture and ambience. There is also pride associated with the job, and in a society how people look at you also matters.”
“I don’t subscribe to that,” he said about women not being on par with men when it comes to science. “Women make for good scientists and engineers,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said. “ISRO has over 20 per cent women scientists and even in senior positions like project directors.”
He does acknowledge that the visual impact of a rocket launch excites people and goes a long way in helping people connect with ISRO. “A rocket taking off certainly excites people but so is the impact [of the satellites] made on people and their lives,” he stressed. To drive home the point, he cites the advance cyclone warning provided to people in the two recent instances.
The next major events on ISRO’s calendar is the developmental flight of GSLV Mark III vehicle with a fully operational cryogenic engine in two years’ time. The other is the launch of Chandrayaan-2 mission configured with an Orbiter, Lander and Rover for in-situ investigation of the lunar surface in 2016-2017. ISRO has already developed and tested a lunar Rover.
But it remains to be seen if Dr. Radhakrishnan will be in the saddle till then. He is due to retire on December 31, 2014.
Dec 26 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
THINK POST-MILLENNIUM - Reducing Conflict in the World
Bjorn Lomborg
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Violence holds a huge cost for our world. Globally , the cost runs to more than 11% of the world's GDP , and for India the annual social cost of violence may reach almost $900 billion.But this is not mostly about the highly-visible violence that dominates TV and news. Civil wars and conflicts rumble far too long in far too many places like Syria and Africa, and they are devastating for those involved. Economists have measured the costs of all such conflict, from the death toll from civil wars, regular wars, terrorism along with the costs of refugees but also including the way conflicts can blight countries' economic growth for decades. Yet, their total impact, though important in specific hot spots, is globally fairly small, with a total cost of about 0.2% of global GDP .
But surprisingly , other forms of violence are likely a much greater problem and they certainly deserve more of the world's attention. This is the argument by James Fearon and Anke Hoeffler in a new research paper for the Copenhagen Consensus.
Take the stark fact that, for each civil war battlefield death, roughly nine people are murdered. If you measure the total cost, not just of homicides but assaults and the fear associated with these, the global cost runs to more than 1.4% of GDP .
But even murders are not the most important part of violence.The most devastating impact of violence comes from two areas that are often neglected, and the economic analysis shows us why we need to give them much more attention.
The first area is child abuse: across the world, many children still have a very violent upbringing. Each month, more than 15% of all children experience what the UN calls severe physical punishment. They are being slapped on the face, head and ears and 4% are even being beaten up with an implement, being hit over and over as hard as possible.This is the fate of 290 million children across the world each month, with 17 million occurring in South Asia.
The economists estimate the cost of such child assault, not just from the obvious costs of increased child welfare interventions, but also from the well-documented loss of future earnings from an assaulted child. The total global cost reaches an astounding $3.5 trillion annually . For India, the cost is estimated at $453 billion.
Violence against women is the biggest global cost; it includes female infanticide, genital mutilation and incitement for widows to commit suicide. But far bigger is the cost of intimate partner violence, including being slapped, pushed, shoved, kicked, choked, burnt on purpose and forced to sex.Over the last 12 months, this violence afflicted more than 16% of women in South Asia. The total cost of such violence against women runs to $4.4 trillion per year, or about $447 billion just for India.
The world and the UN are trying to answer the question: what kind of world do you want in 2030? The focus is to find the best targets for the world to concentrate on.
That is why my think tank, Copenhagen Consensus, has asked some of the world's top economists to look at the economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of many different proposed targets, from areas like health, food and education to the thorny question of violence.
The economists find that a target to reduce civil wars could be achieved with more active deployment of peacekeeping forces.While costly , these could help prevent future civil wars, and the analysis shows that each dollar spent could do between $2 and $7 worth of good. They also find changing alcohol laws could partially reduce assaults: in the UK such change has lowered assaults so much that the benefits outweighed cost 17 to 1.
Reducing violence against children could be helped by strengthening social services. Studies from Washington state show that home visitation programmes can reduce child abuse and hence reduce both further spending on child welfare and litigation while helping the children avoid medical, mental health and quality of life costs. For each dollar spent the benefits could reach $13-14.
We now need to start a conversation about which targets for the world we want to set.
Knowing the costs and benefits on how to reduce violence is one part of that puzzle.
The author is Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center NEXT WEEK: Energy
But surprisingly , other forms of violence are likely a much greater problem and they certainly deserve more of the world's attention. This is the argument by James Fearon and Anke Hoeffler in a new research paper for the Copenhagen Consensus.
Take the stark fact that, for each civil war battlefield death, roughly nine people are murdered. If you measure the total cost, not just of homicides but assaults and the fear associated with these, the global cost runs to more than 1.4% of GDP .
But even murders are not the most important part of violence.The most devastating impact of violence comes from two areas that are often neglected, and the economic analysis shows us why we need to give them much more attention.
The first area is child abuse: across the world, many children still have a very violent upbringing. Each month, more than 15% of all children experience what the UN calls severe physical punishment. They are being slapped on the face, head and ears and 4% are even being beaten up with an implement, being hit over and over as hard as possible.This is the fate of 290 million children across the world each month, with 17 million occurring in South Asia.
The economists estimate the cost of such child assault, not just from the obvious costs of increased child welfare interventions, but also from the well-documented loss of future earnings from an assaulted child. The total global cost reaches an astounding $3.5 trillion annually . For India, the cost is estimated at $453 billion.
Violence against women is the biggest global cost; it includes female infanticide, genital mutilation and incitement for widows to commit suicide. But far bigger is the cost of intimate partner violence, including being slapped, pushed, shoved, kicked, choked, burnt on purpose and forced to sex.Over the last 12 months, this violence afflicted more than 16% of women in South Asia. The total cost of such violence against women runs to $4.4 trillion per year, or about $447 billion just for India.
The world and the UN are trying to answer the question: what kind of world do you want in 2030? The focus is to find the best targets for the world to concentrate on.
That is why my think tank, Copenhagen Consensus, has asked some of the world's top economists to look at the economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of many different proposed targets, from areas like health, food and education to the thorny question of violence.
The economists find that a target to reduce civil wars could be achieved with more active deployment of peacekeeping forces.While costly , these could help prevent future civil wars, and the analysis shows that each dollar spent could do between $2 and $7 worth of good. They also find changing alcohol laws could partially reduce assaults: in the UK such change has lowered assaults so much that the benefits outweighed cost 17 to 1.
Reducing violence against children could be helped by strengthening social services. Studies from Washington state show that home visitation programmes can reduce child abuse and hence reduce both further spending on child welfare and litigation while helping the children avoid medical, mental health and quality of life costs. For each dollar spent the benefits could reach $13-14.
We now need to start a conversation about which targets for the world we want to set.
Knowing the costs and benefits on how to reduce violence is one part of that puzzle.
The author is Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center NEXT WEEK: Energy
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