Articles by J V Deshpande

The present exam system is essentially atrophied and unless it is drastically revised, scandals about the exams are bound to crop up regularly. The academic community has to address three issues at least: how to make the present student-teacher ratio less skewed than it is today; how to reduce the over-centralisation that has become chronic, and to dispassionately consider the current practices for preserving confidentiality and for maintaining uniformity of standards.

Even if the government limits the issue of the NICs to adults in the chosen 13 states, it will involve registration of at least 100 million persons and issue of cards to them. Given their known record in the issue of ration cards, passports and permanent account numbers to income tax-payers, which arms of the central and state bureaucracies can be considered equal to the task today?

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Without going into the merits of R Deshmukh’s English translation of the Marathi book Gaav Gada, it must be said that the review of the translation by Deena Khatkhate (December 15) is grossly unfair to the original book.