A University Grants Commission panel went beyond its mandate to suggest that Aligarh Muslim University drop the word Muslim from its name. Such a recommendation has been made by government authorities and parliamentarians in the past as well. But in the highly vitiated and polarised atmosphere prevailing in the country today, it can be seen by Muslims as yet another assault on their symbols and institutions.
Those who knew the groundbreaking scientist and eminent educationalist, Yash Pal will sorely miss him. He was loved not only for the work and ideas he could generate, but for the ideas and creativity he induced in others around him.
The dissolution of the Planning Commission and expiry of the Twelfth Plan has imperilled the futures of the centres for Women's Studies, and Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy across public universities in India. These centres were borne out of struggles for inclusion and continue to operate at the margins of the academic set-up. A critical appraisal of Women's Studies has been undertaken here to locate its relevance in contemporary times.
The low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments. Did the government prioritise familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices over the promise of quality mass education generated by low-cost devices?
In the history of Indian economic thought of the last 50 years, P R Brahmananda will have a secure place. His colleagues, students and readers will long remember him for what he taught them, for the help he gave them professionally and in other ways, and, in general, for the warmth and friendliness in his relations with them.
Recruitment of Teachers in Universities A Proposal H SRIKANTH In the debate in EPW on the relevance of UGC-NET, the critics (K M Seethi, June 3, A K Bagchi July 29 and Sajid Ibrahim October 7, 2000) have examined how the external actors like the UGC, the central government, the Hindutva forces, etc, have been facilitating the recruitment of not-so-deserving candidates as teachers in the universities. While the points they have raised are not without merit, I feel they have given very little attention to the actual processes that determine the recruitment of teachers in Indian universities. The NET model is no doubt elitist in its approach, but the earlier system of recruitment was no better. There is a need to ensure that our opposition to the anti-people educational policies of the government does not end up as endorsement of all that is polluted and rotten in the university system.
