IIT, IIM faculty is not world-class, says Jairam Ramesh News
New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Monday said Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the country’s top educational institutions, are surviving only because of their quality students but they do not have world-class faculty.
‘IITs, IIMs are good because of their students but the faculty is not world-class here. No worthwhile research is happening at the IITs and IIMs,’ Ramesh told reporters here.
Ramesh said only private institutions can be relied upon for meaningful research and a government institution can never attract young talent.
When asked why he was criticising government institutes when he himself had studied at the IIT, Ramesh said: ‘The IITs and IIMs are excellent because of the quality of students not because of quality of research or faculty.’
Speaking at a function on conservation of biodiversity, the environment minister announced setting up of a world-class institution of marine biodiversity on a public-private-partnership basis with Reliance Industries.
Ramesh said the ocean is as important as forests in the country especially because India has a 7,500-km-long coastline. ‘We are setting up a world-class centre for carrying out research on marine biodiversity,’ he added.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
IIMA prof’s study finds loopholes in UID project - Indian Express
IIMA prof’s study finds loopholes in UID project - Indian Express
110518
Adam HallidayTags : UID Project, IIM-A, Rajanish DassPosted: Wed May 18 2011, 04:42 hrs
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/assets/snippets/workingpaperpdf/5463926942011-03-04.pdf
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/assets/snippets/workingpaperpdf/5463926942011-03-04.pdf
Says need for review as concept involuntary in nature
The ambitious Unique Identification (UID) Project has broad gaps that need review, a study by a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) suggests.
The study has attributed inputs from seven institutes (including IITs, IIMs, and law universities), quotes from 46 documents and lists 11 papers as references.
Titled ‘Unique Identity Project in India: A divine dream or a miscalculated heroism’, the paper was written in March by Professor Rajanish Dass of IIMA’s Computer and Information Systems Group.
Dass illustrated the increasingly involuntary nature of UID. While the project’s concept note said enrollment would not be mandated, it also says the benefits and services linked to it would ensure demand for it.
“This is like selling bottled water in a village after poisoning the well, and claiming that people are buying water voluntarily,” he wrote, adding that the UID Authority of India says it is voluntary but governments can make it mandatory.
“The Planning Commission’s proposal for the National Food Security Act argues for ‘mandatory use of UID numbers...’, which means, ‘No UID, no food’,” Dass noted while giving an example.
Besides, there has been no clear evidence of claim either from the government or from the UIDAI about the total cost of the project, Dass wrote, pointing out replies to five parliamentary questions have evoked inconsistent figures.
Inconsistencies apart, “there is no indication of any cost benefit analysis... The only response to a question raised in the Lok Sabha about the the same was that ‘the benefits accruing out of the project should far outweigh the cost of the project’.”
Dass has quoted Delhi-based “researcher on jurisprudence, poverty and rights” Usha Ramanathan as saying that the UID’s self-sustainability would mean that “it is going to be a profit-making model riding piggy-back on public money and social sector schemes”.
He has further written that the project is expected to create 3.5 lakh jobs and “result in a commercial opportunity of $20 billion in the first five years, and from the sixth year onwards, $10 billion annually”.
Technology-wise, the UID would collect demographic details of each person including “biometrics of all 10 fingers, along with the iris scan of both the eyes and the photo of the face”.
“Around five megabytes of data will be required to store the compressed fingerprint images (of all the 10 fingers) of each individual, requiring the size of the entire database to be at least six petabytes (6,000 terabytes, or 6,000,000 gigabytes),” he wrote.
He identified two main problems. The technology is untested: “UIDAI’s Biometrics Standards Committee has noted that retaining biometric efficiency for a database of more than one billion persons ‘has not been adequately analysed’ and the problem of fingerprint quality in India ‘has not been studied in depth’.”
“Another concern is that marketeers will find ways to build profiles of people based on how they use their IDs,” Dass wrote. He quoted a Professor of the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata as saying, “You will basically be creating these wonderful resources for people to mine.”
IIM-A professor questions autonomy need; rekindles debate | India Education Review
IIM-A professor questions autonomy need; rekindles debate | India Education Review
IIM-A professor questions autonomy need; rekindles debate
18 May 2011
0 Comments
"It is often asked why the government cannot exit the boards of IIMs and leave things entirely to eminent professionals as it happens in the corporate world.... Any government withdrawal would create a dangerous governance vacuum with adverse implications for the very character of the IIMs," says Ram Mohan in his soon to be published book.
The issue of autonomy is decade-long and it has gained momentum in recent times with IIMs pitching hard for greater autonomy. The institutes argued autonomy would help them pay better salaries, attract foreign faculties and assist in setting up overseas campuses.
In case of IIM-A the institute was at loggerheads with the HRD ministry headed by Murli Manohar Joshi in the early part of 2000 and its then director Bakul Dholakia continuously fought against the government interference as claimed by him. He once said in one of his interviews: ".. for institutes of higher education to excel globally, withstand the pressures of global competition, they require ideological, financial and operational autonomy."
The present IIM-A director Samir Barua has also been insistent on autonomy and said in his convocation address that the institute must be free of all government controls to compete with foreign Bschools.
"The contention that there is a government devil out there that has smothered autonomy and that, absent this devil, IIM-A would have become truly world class, lacks substance. Over the first four decades, starting from the days of Sarabhai (founder Vikram Sarabhai) and Matthai, no director at IIM-A had any serious complaint about lack of autonomy.... The clamour for autonomy in recent years must be seen for what it is: a thinly-disguised attempt to escape the checks and balances inherent in the government system and enter a lawless paradise made possible by a dysfunctional and ineffectual board," he adds.
The issue of autonomy only came up in IIM-A when the institute stopped taking government grants eight years ago. Ram Mohan believes to avoid government aid, IIM-A has been heavily relying on in-company training conducted by its faculty for the corporate world. This activity has been helping the institute generate a significant portion it's annual revenue. "It thus sees such revenues as crucial to its autonomy... Institutions that rely entirely on internally generated revenues end up as teaching shops," he says.
"Trying to cover costs mainly through revenue-generating programmes is the road to perdition," he says suggesting institutes should look at philanthropy and private funds to meet their requirements.
Prof. Ram Mohan worked extensively in consultancy and in the financial sector before entering academics. He has carried out consulting assignments in India as well as in the Gulf and the Middle East. Prof. Ram Mohan specialises in the financial sector. His current research interests include banking sector reforms, privatisation and corporate governance. He has run training programmes for bank executives and given talks on issues in the Indian banking sector at various for a. He was Visiting Faculty at Stern School of Business, NYU in the summer of 2001. In June 2002, he was appointed Member, Technical Advisory Committee on Money and Government Securities Markets, Reserve Bank of India.
[Source: Economic Times]
IITs and IIMs: Yash Pal is wrong - Economic Times
IITs and IIMs: Yash Pal is wrong - Economic Times
090903
IITs and IIMs: Yash Pal is wrong
In India, institutions of higher learning tend to deteriorate with time. The great universities of the past — Bombay, Madras and Calcutta — are today but pale shadows of their former selves. This hasn't happened with the IITs and IIMs. These institutions have retained their attractiveness to students and employers alike. The newer IITs and IIMs lag behind the older ones but are still preferred to most institutions outside the IIT/IIM fold.
The Yash Pal committee on higher education now wants the IITs and IIMs to develop into full-fledged universities. The committee is dead wrong. The IITs and IIMs have other priorities. Besides, replicating the IIT/IIM experience at universities may be infeasible.
We have seven IITs that admit about 10,000 students into their undergraduate programme and seven IIMs that admit 1,600 students for their post-graduate programme. These are pathetically small numbers in relation to the requirements of the economy. The total in any graduating batch across all IITs cannot meet the requirements of even one of our IT giants in a normal year.
So, one priority for IITs and IIMs is to scale up without compromising on quality. This is a challenge that neither the IITs nor IIMs have been able to crack so far. It required the introduction of OBC quotas to produce the first significant scaling up in years.
The IITs and IIMs say they face constraints of both physical and human infrastructure. But several proposals made for increasing capacity have not been given due importance: faculty working in shifts; creative use of IT; involvement of international faculty in teaching; reducing faculty time spent on administrative tasks; curtailing excessive time spent at some institutions on in-company training programmes.
Eight new IITs and seven new IIMs are to be set up in the Eleventh Plan. This is an acknowledgement of the difficulties in coaxing greater capacity out of the existing IITs and IIMs. Creating new IITs and IIMs may solve the problem of physical infrastructure but how can it address the faculty crunch?
Surprising as this may sound, it could. There is a large pool of NRIs keen to return to India. Many of them wish to return to their home towns, so setting up new IITs and IIMs could help. New institutions can offer better entry level positions and faster promotions than older ones. Entrenched interests at the older institutions are often an obstacle to attracting new faculty. So the new institutions hold out the promise of enhancing the faculty pool.
Still, the existing IITs and IIMs must do their best to increase capacity. This should be their first priority, not becoming full-fledged universities. Another priority is improving their standing as research institutions. So poor is the quality of teaching in higher education in India that the IITs and IIMs have made a mark through quality teaching alone. But this is not enough. They need to gain recognition in research. They must respond to emerging areas in the economy through the creation of high quality centres.
A better approach is to concentrate on the 14 new central universities the government proposes to set up. The government could contemplate a level of financial commitment higher than for ordinary universities but not of the same order as for IITs and IIMs.
Academic excellence is not achieved merely through higher funding. Our experience has been that unstinted financial support from government, with not too many questions asked, delivers results in areas that require focus — atomic energy, space research, defence applications, institutions of higher learning. This has helped produce excellence up to a certain level. But moving to the next level requires better governance.
This is required as much for the IITs and IIMs as for central universities. The RC Bhargava review committee on IIMs (2008) was of the view that there were shortcomings in governance in the IIMs and a certain lack of accountability in the system.
Better governance is not a matter of the government abdicating its monitoring role or exiting institutions of excellence. Far from it. State presence is not incompatible with academic excellence. In the US, there are several state universities — California, Texas, Ohio — that can give the best private universities a run for their money. It is all about putting in place the right governance structures.
Here are some suggestions. The IITs and IIMs have large, unwieldy boards. The Bhargava committee had rightly suggested that IIM boards be pruned from about 26 to 11 members. We need to define an appropriate composition for IIT/IIM boards, with the right balance between government representatives and independent members.
Chairmen and independent members of IIT/ IIM boards must selected by a distinguished Appointments Committee for Higher Education. The boards must lay down clear performance objectives for directors of IITs and IIMs and closely monitor performance. Not least, academic boards, no less than corporate boards, are prone to 'management capture'. So, board monitoring must be supplemented by periodic external audits by committees of eminent persons.
The IITs and IIMs should not aspire to become universities. They have other priorities. They must scale up as much as possible. They need to produce better research. They need to spread out into newer areas in their respective disciplines. To be able to do all this, they must first get their governance right.
(The author is professor, IIM Ahmedabad)
Monday, May 16, 2011
IIM-A professor questions autonomy need, reignites issue - The Economic Times
IIM-A professor questions autonomy need, reignites issue - The Economic Times
16 MAY, 2011, 02.18AM IST, AVINASH NAIR, ET BUREAU
AHMEDABAD: Just when the IIMs' relentless pleas for autonomy are finding favour in the power corridors, an insider view rekindles the decade-long debate. A senior professor at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has questioned the need for autonomy, described as functional independence by academicians, in a book that argues government role is necessary for better accountability. Finance professor TT Ram Mohan says IIMs run the risk of turning into "teaching shops" without government funds and monitoring.
"It is often asked why the government cannot exit the boards of IIMs and leave things entirely to eminent professionals as it happens in the corporate world.... Any government withdrawal would create a dangerous governance vacuum with adverse implications for the very character of the IIMs," Ram Mohan says in his soon to be published book "Brick by Red Brick".
The arguments against autonomy are restricted to one chapter and Ram Mohan says he had expressed his views earlier as well. The book largely delves on the colourful persona and the contributions of Ravi Mathai, the first fulltime director of IIM-A, and says there has been a devaluation in the Mathai model at the institute. The book is critical of the waning faculty governance at IIM-A, powerless boards and faculty councils.
The IIMs known for attracting country's top talent that aspires for crore-plus salaries on passing out have been lobbying hard for autonomy since a decade. The institutes argued autonomy would help them pay better salaries, attract foreign faculties and assist in setting up overseas campuses.
The IIM-A was at loggerheads with the HRD ministry headed by Murli Manohar Joshi in the early part of 2000 and its then director Bakul Dholakia put up a sustained fight against what he claimed was government interference. During his tenure, he had several run-ins with the ministry and said in one of his media interviews: ".. for institutes of higher education to excel globally, withstand the pressures of global competition, they require ideological, financial and operational autonomy."
Dholakia who now heads a private Bschool did not comment on the book. The present IIM-A director Samir Barua too has been insistent on autonomy and said in his convocation address that the institute must be free of all government controls to compete with foreign Bschools that have now been permitted entry into India. There is a change in the ministry's approach over the years and human resources minister Kapil Sibal has favoured more autonomy to the IIMs. Ram Mohan counters these arguments in the book.
"The contention that there is a government devil out there that has smothered autonomy and that, absent this devil, IIM-A would have become truly world class, lacks substance. Over the first four decades, starting from the days of Sarabhai (founder Vikram Sarabhai) and Matthai, no director at IIM-A had any serious complaint about lack of autonomy.... The clamour for autonomy in recent years must be seen for what it is: a thinly-disguised attempt to escape the checks and balances inherent in the government system and enter a lawless paradise made possible by a dysfunctional and ineffectual board," he adds.
Talks of autonomy within IIM-A began only eight years ago when the institute stopped accepting government grants. Ram Mohan believes to avoid government aid, IIM-A has been heavily relying on in-company training conducted by its faculty for the corporate world. This activity has been helping the institute generate a significant portion it's annual revenue. "It thus sees such revenues as crucial to its autonomy... Institutions that rely entirely on internally generated revenues end up as teaching shops," he says.
"Trying to cover costs mainly through revenue-generating programmes is the road to perdition," he says suggesting institutes should look at philanthropy and private funds to meet their requirements. The government has made "colossal investments" for more than four decades and merely not accepting funds from the government does not take the institute outside the purview of the government. An IIM-A alumni Chetan Bhagat says, "Not just the IIMs, the government in general should encourage autonomy in educational institutes..."
"It is often asked why the government cannot exit the boards of IIMs and leave things entirely to eminent professionals as it happens in the corporate world.... Any government withdrawal would create a dangerous governance vacuum with adverse implications for the very character of the IIMs," Ram Mohan says in his soon to be published book "Brick by Red Brick".
The arguments against autonomy are restricted to one chapter and Ram Mohan says he had expressed his views earlier as well. The book largely delves on the colourful persona and the contributions of Ravi Mathai, the first fulltime director of IIM-A, and says there has been a devaluation in the Mathai model at the institute. The book is critical of the waning faculty governance at IIM-A, powerless boards and faculty councils.
The IIMs known for attracting country's top talent that aspires for crore-plus salaries on passing out have been lobbying hard for autonomy since a decade. The institutes argued autonomy would help them pay better salaries, attract foreign faculties and assist in setting up overseas campuses.
The IIM-A was at loggerheads with the HRD ministry headed by Murli Manohar Joshi in the early part of 2000 and its then director Bakul Dholakia put up a sustained fight against what he claimed was government interference. During his tenure, he had several run-ins with the ministry and said in one of his media interviews: ".. for institutes of higher education to excel globally, withstand the pressures of global competition, they require ideological, financial and operational autonomy."
Dholakia who now heads a private Bschool did not comment on the book. The present IIM-A director Samir Barua too has been insistent on autonomy and said in his convocation address that the institute must be free of all government controls to compete with foreign Bschools that have now been permitted entry into India. There is a change in the ministry's approach over the years and human resources minister Kapil Sibal has favoured more autonomy to the IIMs. Ram Mohan counters these arguments in the book.
"The contention that there is a government devil out there that has smothered autonomy and that, absent this devil, IIM-A would have become truly world class, lacks substance. Over the first four decades, starting from the days of Sarabhai (founder Vikram Sarabhai) and Matthai, no director at IIM-A had any serious complaint about lack of autonomy.... The clamour for autonomy in recent years must be seen for what it is: a thinly-disguised attempt to escape the checks and balances inherent in the government system and enter a lawless paradise made possible by a dysfunctional and ineffectual board," he adds.
Talks of autonomy within IIM-A began only eight years ago when the institute stopped accepting government grants. Ram Mohan believes to avoid government aid, IIM-A has been heavily relying on in-company training conducted by its faculty for the corporate world. This activity has been helping the institute generate a significant portion it's annual revenue. "It thus sees such revenues as crucial to its autonomy... Institutions that rely entirely on internally generated revenues end up as teaching shops," he says.
"Trying to cover costs mainly through revenue-generating programmes is the road to perdition," he says suggesting institutes should look at philanthropy and private funds to meet their requirements. The government has made "colossal investments" for more than four decades and merely not accepting funds from the government does not take the institute outside the purview of the government. An IIM-A alumni Chetan Bhagat says, "Not just the IIMs, the government in general should encourage autonomy in educational institutes..."
Saturday, May 14, 2011
My Voice of Dissent: [Som] Review petition and its rejection
My Voice of Dissent: [Som] Review petition and its rejection
I find that a review petition that was submitted to CIC has found its way on to a blog located at http://my-voice-of-dissent.blogspot.com
Incidentally the same one is available on CIC website as well.
When will CIC decide on this?
Saturday, May 07, 2011
[Som] Key Paisa Bolta Hai – Part-1 (LTC)
Annother rip-off report. This one on groundswell of hard corruption. IIM Ahmedabad has been dolling out huge amount of funds to placate greed of its senior officials who in-turn may have kept power-grids well oiled. Leaked documents also include 'General Ledger (LTC)" listing transaction-ids, exact amounts plundered, beneficiary names and dates.
Here is the text of ripoff report https://sites.google.com/site/myvoiceofdissent/110328Ripoffreport-IIMLTCScam.pdf For instant reference leaked documents are ALSO available at https://sites.google.com/site/myvoiceofdissent/110412IIMAhmedabad-LTCscam.zip
Beneficiaries of big value air tickets did not make mandatory declaration regarding their claim being only limited to 'air travel component' of ticket. Moreover vigilance department refuses to inquire if there were any kick-backs. Nonchalant CVO keeps busy 'beating around the bush' and haunt those who challenge status-quo.
Director and CVO of IIM Ahmedabad, through their actions have endangered fundamental rights of IIMA 'whistleblower' employees to fair and equitable employment. However faculty members of 'so called faculty governed' institute would care the least. Faculty members write case studies on whole world except IIMA. Writing on IIMA is taboo, blasphemy. As Mr. Bhatt once wrote, elite class at IIMA has organized itself as a "commune". Case of a sinister "SAUDA", unwritten rule, among elites –viz- none would question/ undo deliberate wrongs committed by one of them. As they say, "IIM JAYE BHAD MA".
Tx.
--Here is the text of ripoff report https://sites.google.com/site/myvoiceofdissent/110328Ripoffreport-IIMLTCScam.pdf For instant reference leaked documents are ALSO available at https://sites.google.com/site/myvoiceofdissent/110412IIMAhmedabad-LTCscam.zip
Beneficiaries of big value air tickets did not make mandatory declaration regarding their claim being only limited to 'air travel component' of ticket. Moreover vigilance department refuses to inquire if there were any kick-backs. Nonchalant CVO keeps busy 'beating around the bush' and haunt those who challenge status-quo.
Director and CVO of IIM Ahmedabad, through their actions have endangered fundamental rights of IIMA 'whistleblower' employees to fair and equitable employment. However faculty members of 'so called faculty governed' institute would care the least. Faculty members write case studies on whole world except IIMA. Writing on IIMA is taboo, blasphemy. As Mr. Bhatt once wrote, elite class at IIMA has organized itself as a "commune". Case of a sinister "SAUDA", unwritten rule, among elites –viz- none would question/ undo deliberate wrongs committed by one of them. As they say, "IIM JAYE BHAD MA".
Tx.
Posted By Blogger to Som at 5/07/2011 10:29:00 AM
Monday, May 02, 2011
Osama bin Laden Was the Most Wanted Face of Terrorism - NYTimes.com
Osama bin Laden Was the Most Wanted Face of Terrorism - NYTimes.com
110502 Good collection (7 parts) of info on life and growth of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan on Sunday, was a son of the Saudi elite whose radical, violent campaign to recreate a seventh-century Muslim empire redefined the threat of terrorism for the 21st century.
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110502 Good collection (7 parts) of info on life and growth of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan on Sunday, was a son of the Saudi elite whose radical, violent campaign to recreate a seventh-century Muslim empire redefined the threat of terrorism for the 21st century.
..............
Sunday, May 01, 2011
History of 'Rowlatt Act' - 'Jallianwala Bagh' - ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ - "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil"
History of 'Rowlatt Act' - 'Jallianwala Bagh' - ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ - "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil"
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After the First World War, the Government felt the need for replacing the Defence of India Act, an emergency measure to suppress political movements in India that could have hampered the war effort. In December, 1917, the Government of India named Sir Sidney Rowlatt of the King’s Bench to recommend legislation to curb sedition. He recommended two Bills, commonly known as "Rowlatt Acts". One of these became law. When the Imperial Legislative Council passed this Bill, all Indian members voted against it. Three of them, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Mazarul Haque, and M.A. Jinnah, resigned.
This law empowered the Government to arrest and search people and property without warrant, to detain anyone without trial, and to try people before special courts where there was no right to appeal.
The memorial at Jallianwala Bagh |
The Act raised a storm of protest the kind of which India had not seen before. The law was summed up in the cryptic phrase, "Na appeal, na dalil, na vakil". The movement against it was the most acute in Sir Michael O’Dwyer’s Punjab.
In Amritsar, the spirit of the people found expression in a combination of two leaders, Dr Saif-ud-Din Kitchlew, a Cambridge educated Muslim lawyer, and Dr Satyapal, a middle class Hindu who had held the King’s Commission for one year during the war.
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(Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, is mostly remembered today as the one of the
two persons (the other one being Dr.Satyapal) whose arrest, along with the
notorious Rowlatt Act, was the reason the ill-fated Jallianwala Bagh meeting was
held on Baisakhi Day(April 13th) 1919- the meeting that ended with that gruesome
carnage by General Dyer.
Dr. Kitchlew originally hailed from a Brahmin family of Baramulla in
Kashmir. His ancestor, Prakash Ram Kitchlew embraced Islam. Many Kashmiri
Muslims migrated to Amritsar during the famine that struck Kashmir in 1871.
Saifuddin’s grandfather, Ahmed Jo was amongst them. Saifuddin’s father was a
prosperous merchant, trading in pashmina and saffron. Saifuddin studied medicine
at Cambridge and married the daughter of Mian Hafeezullah Manto, a lawyer.
Saifuddin started the Amritsar branch of the All India Muslim League in 1917- at
that time many Congressmen were also members of the Muslim League.
In 1919, Dr. Saifuddin organized a series of meetings to harness public
opinion against the Rowlatt Bills. His cry ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ became
a popular refrain against the bill. Gandhiji made him the president of the
Satyagraha Sabha. When Dr.Saifuddin brought about a remarkably united show of
Hindu-Muslim strength on Rama Navami day, April 9th, 1919, he, along with
Dr.Satyapal, was arrested and deported to Dharmashala. The Jallianwala Bagh
meeting was organised as a protest, and in the aftermath of that ghastly
bloodbath, Dr.Saifuddin was named as the first accused in the Amritsar
Conspiracy Case, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the overwhelming
public opinion in his favour secured his release.
Dr. Saifuddin was honoured by the Akal Takth in 1924. He became the
President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee. He was among the founder
members of the Jamia Milia Islamia. He was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in
1954.)
two persons (the other one being Dr.Satyapal) whose arrest, along with the
notorious Rowlatt Act, was the reason the ill-fated Jallianwala Bagh meeting was
held on Baisakhi Day(April 13th) 1919- the meeting that ended with that gruesome
carnage by General Dyer.
Dr. Kitchlew originally hailed from a Brahmin family of Baramulla in
Kashmir. His ancestor, Prakash Ram Kitchlew embraced Islam. Many Kashmiri
Muslims migrated to Amritsar during the famine that struck Kashmir in 1871.
Saifuddin’s grandfather, Ahmed Jo was amongst them. Saifuddin’s father was a
prosperous merchant, trading in pashmina and saffron. Saifuddin studied medicine
at Cambridge and married the daughter of Mian Hafeezullah Manto, a lawyer.
Saifuddin started the Amritsar branch of the All India Muslim League in 1917- at
that time many Congressmen were also members of the Muslim League.
In 1919, Dr. Saifuddin organized a series of meetings to harness public
opinion against the Rowlatt Bills. His cry ‘Na Vakil Na Dalil Na Appeal’ became
a popular refrain against the bill. Gandhiji made him the president of the
Satyagraha Sabha. When Dr.Saifuddin brought about a remarkably united show of
Hindu-Muslim strength on Rama Navami day, April 9th, 1919, he, along with
Dr.Satyapal, was arrested and deported to Dharmashala. The Jallianwala Bagh
meeting was organised as a protest, and in the aftermath of that ghastly
bloodbath, Dr.Saifuddin was named as the first accused in the Amritsar
Conspiracy Case, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the overwhelming
public opinion in his favour secured his release.
Dr. Saifuddin was honoured by the Akal Takth in 1924. He became the
President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee. He was among the founder
members of the Jamia Milia Islamia. He was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in
1954.)
................................
The Pioneer :: Home : >> When sarkari jholawallahs lost the plot
The Pioneer :: Home : >> When sarkari jholawallahs lost the plot
When sarkari jholawallahs lost the plot
May 01, 2011 4:12:32 PM
Chandan Mitra
Digvijay Singh's diatribes are part of a script for 10 Janpath can't digest that the NGO agendas it has nurtured have been upstaged by newbies in the game
Will the Lok Pal Bill see the light of day? No way, if the Congress has its way. Irrespective of Ms Sonia Gandhi’s assurance to a distressed Anna Hazare of her continued support to his aims, Congress leaders are out to scuttle it. The controversies that have engulfed Anna’s chosen coterie have not helped the Bill’s cause either. The self-appointed chieftains of civil society have fallen out among themselves, which of course was only to be expected. Justice Santosh Hegde may eventually be persuaded to remain on Anna’s panel, but the mirror’s cracked and no amount of superglue will ensure the crack doesn’t show up or more cracks don’t happen. The fundamental fallacy of the anti-corruption crusaders was to attempt usurpation of the entire moral space in Indian politics by determinedly excluding the political class. They forgot French revolutionary Regis Debray’s famous dictum: “In order to overthrow the system, you must first come to grips with it”. No systemic change can ever be ushered without the support of sections of the political class as Gandhiji and JP well understood, which is why they succeeded.
But that is not the only thing that is set to dissipate the mass effervescence we witnessed at Jantar Mantar some weeks ago. The Congress, past master at manipulation, has unleashed a full-scale assault on the weak links in Anna Hazare’s chain of command. Having severely wounded the Bhushans, Congress’s wiliest commander Digvijay Singh has fired a salvo at Justice Hegde, Lokayukta of Karnataka, hitting him where he is most vulnerable. He is ultra-sensitive to criticism, being accustomed only to adulation for honesty and uprightness. The charge that he is not sufficiently motivated to act against Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has got his goat.
Mr Digvijay Singh is smirking for the arrow has hit bull’s eye and may even deliver another political benefit. Stung by the attack, Justice Hegde may well be tempted to go out of his way to indict Mr Yeddyurappa when he files his final report — something he hinted at during a TV discussion Thursday night. So, at one level his vacillation over continuing in the Lok Pal panel has already dealt a blow to its credibility while at another, the enraged Lokayukta may hand an issue to the Congress by slapping serious charges on Mr Yeddyurappa. Both developments will come handy for the Congress, which has already succeeded in diverting attention from its myriad scams, channelising attention to alleged wheeling-dealing by Lok Pal panel members, exploiting Mr Amar Singh’s eagerness to please 10 Janpath.
Initially, many Congress leaders were gravely discomfited by Mr Digvijay Singh’s unconventional diatribe. Its TV gladiators merely mumbled that in a democracy everyone was free to air personal views, but they were genuinely hard put to explain how the party’s seniormost general secretary and purported mentor to the heir-apparent could sing a completely different tune. Ms Sonia Gandhi’s reply to Anna Hazare’s complaint, paradoxically, helped clarify things. Congressmen, clueless till then, realised everything was part of an elaborate plot scripted by 10 Janpath, a drama in which one would play good cop and another the bad cop — as a TV anchor put it succinctly.
Mr Digvijay Singh has often been cast in this role, something he appears to revel in. Calling Mr P Chidambaram “intellectually arrogant”, sympathising with Maoists, agreeing with a communalist writer that Hemant Karkare’s killing and even 26/11 itself could have been masterminded by “Hindu terrorists”, and travelling to Azamgarh to debunk the Batla House encounter as fake, were all part of this script. Had it not been so, he would have been firmly asked to shut up. Congress is known to act swiftly against people who deviate from the script — Mr Abhishek Manu Singhvi was taken off his spokesperson’s job, even if temporarily, after the Kerala lottery episode, while the hapless ex-Socialist Mohan Prakash was told to stay away from TV studios when he compared the party’s heir-apparent to Jayaprakash Narayan!
There is a discernible method in the utterances of the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. He was among the first Congress leaders to discover the utility of NGOs and worked meticulously to win them over to serve his party’s aims by lubricating them with funds, access and privileges. In turn they offloaded their agendas onto him. Mr Digvijay Singh adopted many of their ideas in matters of governance although politically that failed to work and Madhya Pradesh fell into the BJP’s outstretched arms. Having nurtured the jholawallahs for long he appears to have encouraged Ms Sonia Gandhi to float the most powerful sarkari NGO ever, namely, the National Advisory Council. He also suggested to Mr Rahul Gandhi to toe the NGO line, spend highly publicised nights in Dalit hutments, direct UP Congressmen to follow suit and undertake other visible elements of NGO agendas. Ms Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile, emerged as the patron-in-chief of this brigade, promoting their leaders like Ms Aruna Roy and Mr Jean Dreze to impose their dictates on a reluctant Mr Manmohan Singh.
Had the 2G, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Society and similar multi-billion rupee scams not played havoc with the Government’s credibility, the plan seemed to be going very well. Narega was a big hit and loan waivers by nationalised banks an election-winner. The Food Security Bill was up next and the NAC was convinced that the slew of spendthrift poverty alleviation packages would help Mr Rahul Gandhi to coast to power in 2014. Then, all of a sudden, a 73-year-old ex-Armyman came along and upset Ms Sonia Gandhi’s applecart. The frustration at his ability to galvanise the youth was palpable in Congress leaders’ body language during and after the Jantar Mantar episode.
Taken for granted by successive Congress regimes, the urban middle class revolted. Swayed by Anna Hazare’s sincere, even if naïve, call to fight corruption, the youth flocked to him both in the real and cyber world. Overnight, “youth icon” Rahul Gandhi had no takers; a septuagenarian had swept the rug from under the 41-year-old Gandhi scion’s feet, leaving the heir-apparent with no agenda. He can’t attack NGO culture having been part of its spawning process, nor is he acceptable as part of the Anna brigade. Understandably, his alleged mentor feels that unless the Anna movement is discredited, young Rahul has little future. Ms Sonia Gandhi’s desperate attempt to convince people that she is as much against corruption as Anna Hazare won’t cut ice with anyone for the Congress is rightly perceived as the fountainhead of all corruption in post-independence India.
This doesn’t mean Anna Hazare’s people are squeaky clean — far from it. Personally I am deeply suspicious of agitators who stupidly rail against the political class and demand politicians be fed to (nearly extinct) vultures. As the weeks roll, Anna Hazare will be hard put to defend the shenanigans, past and present, of many of his self-seeking cohorts. But the genie he has unleashed can’t be put back in the bottle. It is for parties like the BJP, whose emergence in the mainstream was a by-product of the JP Movement, to resume its ordained role as the cleanser of the corrupt system erected over the years by the Congress.
May 01, 2011 4:12:32 PM
Chandan Mitra
Digvijay Singh's diatribes are part of a script for 10 Janpath can't digest that the NGO agendas it has nurtured have been upstaged by newbies in the game
Will the Lok Pal Bill see the light of day? No way, if the Congress has its way. Irrespective of Ms Sonia Gandhi’s assurance to a distressed Anna Hazare of her continued support to his aims, Congress leaders are out to scuttle it. The controversies that have engulfed Anna’s chosen coterie have not helped the Bill’s cause either. The self-appointed chieftains of civil society have fallen out among themselves, which of course was only to be expected. Justice Santosh Hegde may eventually be persuaded to remain on Anna’s panel, but the mirror’s cracked and no amount of superglue will ensure the crack doesn’t show up or more cracks don’t happen. The fundamental fallacy of the anti-corruption crusaders was to attempt usurpation of the entire moral space in Indian politics by determinedly excluding the political class. They forgot French revolutionary Regis Debray’s famous dictum: “In order to overthrow the system, you must first come to grips with it”. No systemic change can ever be ushered without the support of sections of the political class as Gandhiji and JP well understood, which is why they succeeded.
But that is not the only thing that is set to dissipate the mass effervescence we witnessed at Jantar Mantar some weeks ago. The Congress, past master at manipulation, has unleashed a full-scale assault on the weak links in Anna Hazare’s chain of command. Having severely wounded the Bhushans, Congress’s wiliest commander Digvijay Singh has fired a salvo at Justice Hegde, Lokayukta of Karnataka, hitting him where he is most vulnerable. He is ultra-sensitive to criticism, being accustomed only to adulation for honesty and uprightness. The charge that he is not sufficiently motivated to act against Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has got his goat.
Mr Digvijay Singh is smirking for the arrow has hit bull’s eye and may even deliver another political benefit. Stung by the attack, Justice Hegde may well be tempted to go out of his way to indict Mr Yeddyurappa when he files his final report — something he hinted at during a TV discussion Thursday night. So, at one level his vacillation over continuing in the Lok Pal panel has already dealt a blow to its credibility while at another, the enraged Lokayukta may hand an issue to the Congress by slapping serious charges on Mr Yeddyurappa. Both developments will come handy for the Congress, which has already succeeded in diverting attention from its myriad scams, channelising attention to alleged wheeling-dealing by Lok Pal panel members, exploiting Mr Amar Singh’s eagerness to please 10 Janpath.
Initially, many Congress leaders were gravely discomfited by Mr Digvijay Singh’s unconventional diatribe. Its TV gladiators merely mumbled that in a democracy everyone was free to air personal views, but they were genuinely hard put to explain how the party’s seniormost general secretary and purported mentor to the heir-apparent could sing a completely different tune. Ms Sonia Gandhi’s reply to Anna Hazare’s complaint, paradoxically, helped clarify things. Congressmen, clueless till then, realised everything was part of an elaborate plot scripted by 10 Janpath, a drama in which one would play good cop and another the bad cop — as a TV anchor put it succinctly.
Mr Digvijay Singh has often been cast in this role, something he appears to revel in. Calling Mr P Chidambaram “intellectually arrogant”, sympathising with Maoists, agreeing with a communalist writer that Hemant Karkare’s killing and even 26/11 itself could have been masterminded by “Hindu terrorists”, and travelling to Azamgarh to debunk the Batla House encounter as fake, were all part of this script. Had it not been so, he would have been firmly asked to shut up. Congress is known to act swiftly against people who deviate from the script — Mr Abhishek Manu Singhvi was taken off his spokesperson’s job, even if temporarily, after the Kerala lottery episode, while the hapless ex-Socialist Mohan Prakash was told to stay away from TV studios when he compared the party’s heir-apparent to Jayaprakash Narayan!
There is a discernible method in the utterances of the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. He was among the first Congress leaders to discover the utility of NGOs and worked meticulously to win them over to serve his party’s aims by lubricating them with funds, access and privileges. In turn they offloaded their agendas onto him. Mr Digvijay Singh adopted many of their ideas in matters of governance although politically that failed to work and Madhya Pradesh fell into the BJP’s outstretched arms. Having nurtured the jholawallahs for long he appears to have encouraged Ms Sonia Gandhi to float the most powerful sarkari NGO ever, namely, the National Advisory Council. He also suggested to Mr Rahul Gandhi to toe the NGO line, spend highly publicised nights in Dalit hutments, direct UP Congressmen to follow suit and undertake other visible elements of NGO agendas. Ms Sonia Gandhi, meanwhile, emerged as the patron-in-chief of this brigade, promoting their leaders like Ms Aruna Roy and Mr Jean Dreze to impose their dictates on a reluctant Mr Manmohan Singh.
Had the 2G, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Society and similar multi-billion rupee scams not played havoc with the Government’s credibility, the plan seemed to be going very well. Narega was a big hit and loan waivers by nationalised banks an election-winner. The Food Security Bill was up next and the NAC was convinced that the slew of spendthrift poverty alleviation packages would help Mr Rahul Gandhi to coast to power in 2014. Then, all of a sudden, a 73-year-old ex-Armyman came along and upset Ms Sonia Gandhi’s applecart. The frustration at his ability to galvanise the youth was palpable in Congress leaders’ body language during and after the Jantar Mantar episode.
Taken for granted by successive Congress regimes, the urban middle class revolted. Swayed by Anna Hazare’s sincere, even if naïve, call to fight corruption, the youth flocked to him both in the real and cyber world. Overnight, “youth icon” Rahul Gandhi had no takers; a septuagenarian had swept the rug from under the 41-year-old Gandhi scion’s feet, leaving the heir-apparent with no agenda. He can’t attack NGO culture having been part of its spawning process, nor is he acceptable as part of the Anna brigade. Understandably, his alleged mentor feels that unless the Anna movement is discredited, young Rahul has little future. Ms Sonia Gandhi’s desperate attempt to convince people that she is as much against corruption as Anna Hazare won’t cut ice with anyone for the Congress is rightly perceived as the fountainhead of all corruption in post-independence India.
This doesn’t mean Anna Hazare’s people are squeaky clean — far from it. Personally I am deeply suspicious of agitators who stupidly rail against the political class and demand politicians be fed to (nearly extinct) vultures. As the weeks roll, Anna Hazare will be hard put to defend the shenanigans, past and present, of many of his self-seeking cohorts. But the genie he has unleashed can’t be put back in the bottle. It is for parties like the BJP, whose emergence in the mainstream was a by-product of the JP Movement, to resume its ordained role as the cleanser of the corrupt system erected over the years by the Congress.
Mukesh Ambani’s disciplinary code for IIM Bangalore staff draws flak - India - DNA
Mukesh Ambani’s disciplinary code for IIM Bangalore staff draws flak - India - DNA
110218
110218
The faculty members of premier B-school Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) are opposing the “disciplinary code” introduced against them by head of board of governors of the institiute, Mukesh Ambani, who is also the chairperson and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited.
Ambani is said have put in place a disciplinary code according to which “erring” faculty member will be punished, if found guilty.
The decision of Ambani to introduce a disciplinary code for teachers of the institute came in the wake of faculty members’ opposition to several recommendations made by three committees, appointed by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry.
In fact, the faculty members recently submitted a memorandum at the board of governors meeting, attended by Ambani along with director of IIMB Professor Pankaj Chandra, and other members of the top decision making body of the institute.
In the memorandum, IIMB’s faculty members clearly stated that change of governance at IIMs, fixed teaching hours for faculty members, and barring the faculty members from taking part in decisions of the IIMs would be damaging for the autonomy of the top B-schools of the country.
IIM-A dons want Harvard-like status - Times Of India
IIM-A dons want Harvard-like status - Times Of India
.........
Designed on lines of Harvard Business School, IIM-A is upset that the Sixth Pay Commission has wrested this 'special status' from it, so they are demanding bigger pay packets.
The memorandum says an assistant professor (AP) at Harvard gets $140,000 as annual starting pay, equivalent to Rs 23 lakh and Indian School of Business (ISB) pays over Rs 20 lakh to its APs. Against this, an IIM-A AP gets only Rs 5.5 lakh as starting pay annually.
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