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Outlook can’t see beyond clothes and appearance of a lady IAS officer

OpIndia Staff
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Outlook can’t see beyond clothes and appearance of a lady IAS officer

First take a look at the following cartoon published by the weekly magazine Outlook:

outlook-cartoon

What could a drawing depicting a lady on the ramp being lecherously watched by some politicians convey? Since it is a cartoon published in a “respected” magazine, it must be making a satirical comment?

No, it is not shaming politicians for enjoying fashion shows at expense of taxpayer’s money, nor is it any smart comment on how entertainment industry and politics are linked. And don’t strain your brain further; there is no visual metaphor here.

It is a crass tasteless depiction of a young IAS officer who is working in the Chief Minister’s Office in Telangana. And it is a part of a “gossip” that was deemed fit to be published in a column tragically titled “Deep Throat”.

Deep Throat was name of the anonymous source whose revelations forced a US President to resign. His revelations were in public interest. But here, Outlook is publishing sexist trash under the same name.

Look what they have to say about this young IAS officer Smita Sabharwal, who had qualified in the UPSC examinations at a young age and had secured an all India rank of 4:

The lady is present at every meeting and seen in almost every official photograph sent out by the CMO. But what she does exactly is a puzzle. She makes a fashion statement with her lovely saris and serves as “eye candy” at meetings, admit leading party politicians.

So Outlook wonders what exactly does Smita, Additional Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, do. Maybe check with the government what Additional Secretaries do. But instead of checking with the government, they talked to “leading party politicians” who “admitted” that she serves as “eye candy at meetings”.

Lovely! So some politicians tell an Outlook journalist that a lady IAS officer serves as “eye candy” for them. And the journalist thinks that instead of exposing this sexist mentality of those politicians, it will be good to write this gossip and cast aspersions on the lady.

Perhaps this explains their hit job against Smriti Irani earlier, where instead of wondering if their unnamed “sources” could be talking trash, the magazine thought to publish their gossip as gospel truth.

The note on the lady officer further says:

In fact, it’s this bureaucrat who calls up other officials in the CMO and asks them to come for meetings. She knows exactly what time the CM will arrive and leave the office.

Well, at least the journalist now knows she arranges meetings, so what exactly she does is not really a “puzzle” as it was earlier claimed. However, the worst insinuation is in the second line – she knows exactly what time the CM will arrive and leave the office – what exactly is Outlook trying to convey?

Given the kind of mentality they had shown in the earlier part, it’s not tough to guess what the journalist is trying to do. And it’s shameful. No wonder, a fellow journalist termed it “yellow journalism”:


However, that’s not all; the note has more of sexism and insinuations if you hadn’t enough. It says:

The lovely lady, known for her ethnic style, recently stunned all by appearing in a trendy trouser and frilly top at a fashion show. And for once, she wasn’t sitting in an official meeting. But this appearance too made for a great photo op.

So the entire existence of this lady officer has been reduced to what she wears and how she appears.

For Outlook, Smita Sabharwal might be “known for her ethnic style” only, but for people of Telangana, she is known for her work. Recently, the CMO received a request to transfer her to fluoride-affected Nalgonda as collector, because she had done impressive work when she served Karimnagar and Medak districts. But for Outlook, her trendy trouser and frilly top is what defines her.

It is indeed surprising and shocking how editors are allowing such gossip to get published. And this is not limited to Outlook magazine only. If you had missed our article on how media showed its sexist mentality when reporting on Vasundhara Raje, read here

Media does a U-Turn, hates #SelfieWithDaughter as Modi comes into the picture

OpIndia Staff
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Media does a U-Turn, hates #SelfieWithDaughter as Modi comes into the picture

Little did Sunil Jaglan, a sarpanch in Haryana’s Biwipur village, know that his small idea would trigger off a global phenomenon. In Mid-June this year, Sunil came up with a “brilliant scheme, to involve community members in a campaign to raise awareness about selective abortion and welfare of the girl child.” It was after the Panchayat noticed that very few families had photographs with their daughters. He announce a Selfie With Daughter contest, with cash rewards. It was yet another “Progressive stand” taken by this village.

The contest concluded on 19th June, with almost 800 entries from the village, and some even from other states like Gujarat, MP and UP. Probably enthused by this response, PM Modi decided to endorse this “brilliant scheme”  and tried to make it a national event, when he talked about it in his latest “Mann ki baat”. But, the response was slightly different this time.

All the text in “bold” above, is directly from a piece written on Huffington Post India, on 13th June, about the Haryana contest. As you can see, Huffington Post then, thought this idea was a “brilliant, progressive scheme”. But as soon as Modi touched it, it became problematic. This is what Editor-in-chief of Huffington Post India, thought of this “Selfie with Daughter” idea, yesterday, once Modi espoused it:


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//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsSo from being a “Brilliant and Progressive scheme”, when it was done in Haryana, Selfie With Daughter became a “token selfie business, “cute selfie contests”, which creates a “mirage of buy-in without requiring any real commitment or inspiring change.” Of course, Huffington Post can always say that this is just the Editor’s “personal view”. But when we checked Huffington Posts’s coverage of yesterday’s event, we found it lacked any of the adjectives used for this same scheme when it was done in Haryana.

On our part, we believe it may not be a “great” idea, but it is definitely a good idea. It is very much like putting up rainbow DPs, in solidarity with same-sex marriage rights. And as Sruthijith rightly says, both these acts just on their own, do not involve any real commitment. But, The girl child campaign, is backed with much more solid initiatives. Firstly, it is backed by the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” campaign, which aims to generate awareness and improving the efficiency of welfare services meant for women, not just by “selfies” or “DPs”, but by focussed multi sectoral action in 100 selected districts low in Child Sex Ratio.

Thus Selfie With Daughter idea, is not just a stand-alone “token” activity, but part of a multi-pronged approach, which involves Government action on one end, and changing the mindset of people on the other. But of course, now that Narendra Modi, the man with the reverse-Midas touch has touched it, it has to become a “mirage”.

As for the actual hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter, it became an online rage, and trended worldwide. Sure many people may not have known what the agenda behind it was, but it was another chance for parents to come closer to their daughters.

#SelfieWithDaughter: even if not a great idea, is certainly a good idea

Rahul Raj
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#SelfieWithDaughter: even if not a great idea, is certainly a good idea

This Sunday, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about the declining sex ratio in India, he addressed something not very new, but very serious. Issues related with circumstances faced by women in India, especially in the rural parts, is much more complex that we discuss on the social media or “chai ki thari”. The current status of women is an outcome of hundreds of years of cultural overlaps, geographical dissimilarities, religious interventions and conflicting social equations. The issue becomes more complex when the female treatment changes astronomically within very close diaspora, for example while some girls compete with boys in high-paying jobs in Gurgaon, some others are not allowed to use mobile phones in nearby villages of Haryana; or while some girls freely talk about liberty in bars of Kolkata, some others are not allowed to remove “ghunghat” or “hizab” in nearby villages of Bihar.

We can have perpetual discussions and debates to arrive at a solution or sets of solutions, but at the end of the day, all the utilitarian solutions would have to satisfy some legal frameworks and psychological structures. While forcing rules to “respect women” may trigger unintended hatred against women (like we see for seats reserved for women), neglecting it on the fate of evolution may gulp thousands of females (like how the silence of people against ISIS captured women is consuming women)

Selfie with daughter may not be the best way to empower women, but it is certainly a good idea. It doesn’t require parents to force their opinions on others or praise her due to some strict rules, but at the same time it indirectly prompts parents to realize that feeling proud of their daughters can make their daughters feel empowered. However, some aspects can’t be cornered.

  • The social media campaign should reach rural areas, where internet penetration is not great, else it may die like a superficial act.
  • Uploading pictures of girls may expose them to online sexual predators

It would be too early to comment on overall impacts of such campaigns, but we can be hopeful that such campaigns will supplement initiatives like “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” and the girl investment scheme. Even if these hashtags sound like a silly fad, they will be certainly instrumental in carving a better society in the longer run. We have already witnessed similar evolutions – initiated like a social buzz – changing views of people on racial, homosexual or regional jokes.

Media stoops to sexism in reporting Vasundhara case

OpIndia Staff
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Media stoops to sexism in reporting Vasundhara case

For long we have been exposing falsities printed and posted by various outlets of Indian Media. Obviously, all of them are in the form of words or text. This time, we focus on the images used by various media outlets, sometimes, to subtly make a point, which cannot be made explicitly using words, and sometimes for pure titillation and other unnecessary reasons.

First up, see this cover photo used by India Today in one of their latest editions, with the caption “Fatal Attraction”:

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India Today cover

In case one doesn’t notice, besides Vasundhara Raje being the main face in focus, there is a off-colour picture of Lalit Modi to in the background. For background, the phrase “Fatal Attraction”, used by India Today, in all probability, got popular after the release of a Hollywood film of the same name, in 1987. The said film, centered around the story of a married man, who has an affair with a woman.

Is this relevant to Vasundhara Raje – Lalit Modi controversy, where it is alleged that a politician, namely Raje, has helped Lalit Modi, a friend, and a “fugitive”, in some sort of quid pro quo on account of their friendship? Probably not. But if you consider, that Lalit Modi is a married man, and Vasundhara Raje is a woman who has separated from her husband long back, thus single, then the terms of reference of the phrase “Fatal Attraction” , along with the imagery presented by India Today, seem to be pretty clear.

While India Today could definitely not allege in black and white, that there exists anything more than a friendship between Raje and Lalit Modi, has it tried to suggest this by using an image, and a phrase which subtly hints to that? If yes, then this would probably be a new low for India Today
Vasundhara Raje though, is not new to such cheap innuendos. While running a special story on her, and her involvement in Lalit-Gate, ABP News chose to use the following picture, of Vasundhara Raje and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and MD of Biocon, although, she has no relevance to the current controversy:

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(This image was used in the video linked in the image, by ABP News, at around 1.30 minutes into the video, with this voice-over: “..Aur Kabhi woh camera ke saamne, Liplock ki wajah se vivaadon mein ghir jaati hain”

The above image was originally clicked by a PTI reporter, and was carried by Economic Times, way back in 2006. Economic Times, eventually had to issue a clarification via an article, saying the picture was only ” It was bad camera angle that gives the impression of a kiss on the lip, in what is just a friendly embrace”. All this, because back then too, TV channels had gone crazy using titles like “Maharani Ka Chumban” and  ‘Shahi Kiss’ for this picture. Economic Times of course, claimed that they themselves “carried the picture in good faith”, while ” TV channels, equally hungry for the ‘breaking story’, pick up such insignificant events and blow it out of proportion”.

Reacting to the re-circulaton of this picture by media, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, had this to say on Twitter:


And if she is to be believed, even “elite” and “classy” channels like NDTV, have used the same image:


But are only Politicians victim of such cheap mentality existing in Indian media? Probably not. And is all mainstream media that perverted? Again probably not. This was proved by a small observation by @ARangarajan1972 on Twitter. On 14 June 2015, he posted 3 images of how Newspapers had covered the Delhi Showers: Times of India, Indian Express and Hindustan Times. It was pretty easy to guess which picture was used by Times of India:

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Indian Express posts onesided report on Hindu Terror without asking NIA?

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Express posts onesided report on Hindu Terror without asking NIA?

Indian Express has earned a rather bad reputation when it comes to publishing factual news. Many news stories of Indian Express have turned out to be fake, and most of them have been critical of BJP or the Modi Government, but without any facts to back them up. In what may be the latest such instance, Indian Express is under fire for a story which claims Modi Government has asked Public Prosecutors to go slow on “Hindu Terrorists”.

Firstly, the entire post is based only on an interview with Rohini Salian, Special Public Prosecutor in the case related to the Malegaon 2008 blasts. Indian Express, has drawn whatever conclusions it has, only based on the version of this lady.

Salian claims, that over the past one year, she has been asked to go “soft” on this case. She says a senior officer from NIA told her this, but for some reason stops short of naming him, citing that he is “senior”. She also claims that “higher-ups” did not want her to appear in the court for the State of Maharashtra and that another advocate was asked to attend the proceedings.

While she claims that the Government has asked her to go slow, she also mentions that the Supreme Court has now decreed that the case should be tried in a special court with a specially appointed judge to see to the matter, because of which, “its back to square one”.

The problem it seems, with the Indian Express report, is that it is one-sided, written without confirming the facts with NIA. And hence, the NIA in a strongly worded rebuttal has rejected these theories.

Firstly, NIA says, on 16th June 2015 itself, it has received recommendations for denotification of 3 Special Public Prosecutors including Salian,  in view of the fact that many Special Public Prosecutors  are already available. NIA further says this reccomendation is under process. On the other hand Salian says she wants the NIA to denotify her from the case so that she can fight “other cases, against the NIA, if need be”. So while the process to denotify her began almost 10 days back, Salian now herself wants to get denotified. Is it a case where Salian got whiff of her removal in advance, and in order to cover that fact, she wants to give a twist, trying to signal that here removal is Political?

Secondly, NIA makes it clear that the Malegaon case, which Salian is handling, hasn’t yet reached the trial stage. As per rules of NIA,  when cases haven’t reached such advanced stages, “the branch Public Prosecutors (who are Government Officers) deal with the same except when a complex legal matter is involved which warrant the services of Special Public Prosecutors”.  “Therefore”, it says, “it is incorrect to infer that Ms Salian was being bypassed for court appearances “.

Further, NIA completely denies issuing any “inappropriate briefing” by any officer to Salian. It also chides Indian Express for a one-sided story by saying:

NIA also wishes to place on record that before publishing a news article , it is expected that the concerned reporter approaches the agency for hearing its version and avoids writing a one sided story.

So for now, it is the NIA’s word vs the Indian Express’s interview with the Public Prosecutor. Only time and probably the courts will tell who was speaking the truth.

Times Group caught in “Conflict” of Interest over story on Rahul Yadav’s “resignation”?

OpIndia Staff
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Times Group caught in “Conflict” of Interest over story on Rahul Yadav’s “resignation”?

The mercurial CEO of Housing.com found himself at the centre of another “controversy” today. On 25th June, in the afternoon, ET Tech, the Technology section of Economic Times, posted an “exclusive” story on Rahul Yadav. The article claimed that Yadav has quit Housing.com again. But within a few hours, the article was taken down by Economic Times, without specifiying any reason. We have a screenshot of the original article as it had appeared:

lies3

As you can read, the news was completely “source” based. The article itself says that they did not get “immediate replies” from either Yadav, or a Softbank representative they contacted. Inspite of this, Times Group went ahead with this story. The article further went on to call Yadav the “enfant terrible of the Indian startup industry”.

Rahul Yadav on his part had slyly denied this news, by posting this on his facebook profile:

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While Times Group is no stranger to peddling half baked news as “real news”, what makes this case interesting is that Times Group also owns MagicBricks.com, a rival of Yadav’s Housing.com. To be fair to Times Group, they did mention this in their article, but when publishing a news piece about its rival, one needs to be that much more careful. Especially when the news piece is being uncharitable to the rival.

This is all the more important, since Times Group and Rahul Yadav have been at it for quite some time now. In March 2015 too, Rahul Yadav was in the crosshairs of an Economic Times’ “source” based story. It reported that Housing.com Investors were thinking of replacing Yadav after “multiple differences”. Responding to this, Yadav had shot off a mail claiming that Times Group was maligning Housing.com to help its own company MagicBricks.com. He also pointed out a factual inaccuracy in the Times Group story, which claimed that Yadav was an accused in a car accident, whereas he was actually never in the car.

In response to Rahul Yadav’s email, Times Group had then sent Housing.com and its directors a legal notice seeking Rs 100 crores in damages, claiming that Yadav’s internal email was “defamatory”. It was a curious scenario where a “source” based news story, was denied by the person concerned, yet instead of the person who got defamed, it was the news portal which claimed “defamation”

Rahul Yadav though, seems to be aware of such games, and had updated his Facebook cover photo, 2 days back, showing his Housing.com being ambushed by 3 dinosaurs resembling various Times Group companies:

lies3

 

Amusingly, later today evening, Economic Times re-published the same post, with the same headline “Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav quits, again”, but this time, mentioning clearly in its article that Rahul Yadav has denied the same. If at all Yadav has denied it, it is completely wrong on part of Economic Times to have a headline which says he has quit again. It would certainly make a good case for defamation if Rahul Yadav seeks to pursue it.

The attempt to white-wash UPA’s legacy has begun

Gaurav
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The attempt to white-wash UPA’s legacy has begun

They say public memory is short. And in the times of 24×7 news and likes of Twitter, our memory is becoming shorter. This presents an opportune moment for “influencers” to manipulate history. That Manmohan Singh “led” the most corrupt Government in Indian History is a fact. But there are some, who believe history might be unfair to him. Sample these two tweets, from 2 of India’s “renowned” journalists, having virtually the same content, within a span of a few hours:


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Lo and Behold, within 1 year of Manmohan’s departure, he has become the benchmark which must be met while dealing with cases of corruption. Not only that, but both these eminent journalists try to create a false equivalence between scams of UPA which ranged in lakhs of crores, to matters of alleged impropriety (in Sushma Swaraj’s case) and a matter of an 11-odd crore investment (in Raje’s son’s case). 

Rajdeep is the official “Coming of Age” announcer of Rahul Gandhi, having promoted him with the same caption twice in  years, so it isn’t a surprise when such things come from him. Without going into too much detail about Rajdeep’s Moral Compass, lets see a few of his thoughts on Manmohan Singh over the years:

May 2010: In an open letter to Manmohan Singh:

” you can no longer be a Dhritirashtra-like figure who turns a blind eye to ministerial corruption”

December 2010: In his second open letter to Manmohan Singh:

“instead of dismissing him (A Raja) from the union cabinet for challenging prime ministerial authority, he was ‘rewarded’ in May 2009 with the same portfolio…”

“Had you acted against Mr Raja three years ago, you might have been able to rise above the stench of corruption that now envelops your government.”

“A bank manager may well be of ‘impeccable’ personal integrity at home, but if he allows his clerks to loot the bank, then he clearly is failing in his primary responsibility at the workplace. Sadly, that’s exactly what seems to have happened in the UPA cabinet, and your continual hand-wringing is now becoming a sign of impotence.”

So for Rajdeep, a Prime Minister who was a “Dhritirashtra-like figure”, turning a “blind eye to corruption”, “rewarding” corrupt ministers, with “hand-wringing” which was a “sign of impotence”, is now suddenly the Adarsh Prime Minister who would instantly sack corrupt Ministers!

Lets move to the other eminent personality now: Vir Sanghvi. Did Vir Sanghvi always hold Manmohan Singh in such high regard? Or did he too do a Rajdeep-turn? We have to rewind a little. 

In May 2013, Sanghvi wrote a blog titled: Manmohan Singh’s fall from grace. He mainly talks about then UPA Minister Ashwani Kumar, who was in a controversy for vetting a CBI report on Coalgate. Here are a few excerpts from the same:

“why was the prime minister so reluctant to take any action against him (Ashwani Kumar)?”

“So, why didn’t the prime minister act? Well, because he could hardly punish Ashwani Kumar for trying to save him, could he?”

“Eventually, after the Congress president made an issue out of Kumar’s continuance in office, and the Supreme Court was critical of his role, Manmohan Singh had no choice but to sack Kumar”

So in 2013, Vir Sanghvi felt Manmohan Singh had “fallen from grace”, was reluctant to act against a minister who had done wrong, because the minister was “saving Manmohan Singh” himself. And the minister eventually was sacked, because Sonia Gandhi said so and Manmohan “had no choice”. And now in 2015, he sees Manmohan as someone who “sacked every minister accused of corruption”. How the times change!

(On a side note, although Ashwani Kumar was made to resign, he was immediately accommodated in the Public Accounts Committee, the Standing Committee of Parliament on Defense and within months was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Japan in the rank of a cabinet minister. So we can understand how harsh the punishment of “sacking” him was)

Here are some more views of Sanghvi on Manmohan Singh:

From: The PM who doesn’t talk (July 1, 2011):

“It astonishes me that Manmohan Singh should talk so little and be so barely visible that we might be forgiven for thinking that India has an imaginary Prime Minister.”

From: How the govt lost its way, and its face (November 4 2011)

“It is now almost an article of faith within the media that a) this is a very corrupt government and that b) its leaders lack the will or the inclination to fight corruption”

“Manmohan Singh, on the other hand, looks like a befuddled passenger on a suburban train who is not sure if he has boarded the right connection. He never once gives the impression that he is in control or in charge. And so, nobody ever associates him with the government’s anti-corruption initiatives. Frankly, it is hard to associate him with any of the government’s initiatives.”

“The Prime Minister has made the mistake of sitting back and watching while his allies have made money. And now, while he should be associating himself with the clean-up, he cowers silently at Race Course Road.”

From a post in July 2013:

“….we don’t question his integrity either. And yet, he (Manmohan Singh) has presided over corruption scandal after scandal”

So once again, it is very clear, while in power, Vir Sanghvi felt very poorly of Manmohan Singh. Yet, somehow now, he is the Gold Standard, when it comes to dealing with corruption. One wonders if Sanghvi’s phones were tapped were once again, would similar tape recordings emerge, as they did in the Radia tapes, where he asked “What kind of story do you want?” and was prepared to do a fully “scripted” interview with Mukesh Ambani, to show him in particular light.

Today, there are just a few odd tweets from eminent journalists. Next week we will have editorials, then TV debates on Super-Primetime: “Can Modi ever be as good a PM as Manmohan Singh?”, and thus, opinions will be framed. With arguments pulled out of thin air. 

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Can Yoga be used to Internationalise Indian Higher Education?

Guest Author
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Can Yoga be used to Internationalise Indian Higher Education?

Two recent events hold the password to unlock the door for internationalising Indian higher education, provided the policy makers decrypt it correctly.

With India’s help, on the 13th day of June, 2015, China set up its first Yoga college at Yunnan University of Nationalities, an almost 65 years old institution, located in Kunming of Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

The first International Yoga Day was celebrated on the 21st day of June, 2015, world over, with the Government of India making successful entries into the Guinness World Records on that day fororganising the largest Yoga class and for having the presence of people from most nationalities in one Yoga class. When the resolution for declaring anInternational Yoga Day was introduced by the India’s ambassador in the United Nations General Assembly in December, 2014, it was co-sponsored by over 175 nations, including 46 Islamic nations, which is reported to be the highest number for any resolution in the Assembly.

The two events offer Indian higher education an innovative route to internationalise.

As any educationist would vouch, India is a ‘sender’ and not a ‘receiver’ of students. This fact is attested by the statistics furnished in the Status of International Students in India for Higher Education, available in the website of India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development, which is based on UNESCO data. In 2012, over 189 thousand Indian students were enrolled for higher education in over 50 nations, including over 97 thousand in the United States, almost 30 thousand in the United Kingdom and over 11 thousand in Australia.  The inbound students numbered marginally over 28 thousand. Though India is emerging as a destination for international students, its student base is substantially from SAARC nations– Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal,and Sri Lanka.

One of the prime reasons for the modest inbound student mobility is the relative disadvantage the country has in the traditional higher education sector. The United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Canada have demonstrated their strength in various disciplines, especially in research and scientific pursuits. So is the case with some developed Asian nations like Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. Even China is leaving no stone unturned to become a hot destination for higher education, which is evidenced by its performance in the latest Times Higher Education Ranking 2015, in which it has overtaken Japan as the Asia’s higher education powerhouse. On the contrary, India has fared badly, with only nine institutions making it to the top 100 Asian universities, down from 10 last year.

If India has to follow the traditional path to internationalise its higher education by establishing research and world class universities by following the Humboldtian model or the US’ or European model or an Asian model, the likelihood of the nation’s higher education globalising is low. It would be very expensive and time consuming too. Hence, catching up with others should best be avoided.

The best option for India would be to choose Yoga as its trump card. Would it succeed? Perhaps, the odds are favourable as this would not just be innovative, but be frugal as well. Further, India could supply continuously for the ever growing global demand and be a natural leader.

Yoga is one area where India has both absolute advantage and comparative advantage, the presence of at least one is a prerequisite for international trade. Yoga is one of the few Indian ‘brands’ that is globally popular and has ever growing demand,  amply proven by the number co-sponsors in the UN General Assembly backing the resolution to declare a day for Yoga and the number of nations actually celebrating it. Though Yoga is  strictly neither a commodity or a brand, the way education as already been commodified and branded for market and the way Yoga is being taught and learnt in most countries, it may be not be completely wrong to label it as such.

If India enters the educational space of teaching Yoga to international students, which it does already in an unstructured way, it may address the concern of purists and some educationists that the trend of internationalisation is driven only by commercial interests and the universities are not leading internationalisation for the benefit of students and promote international collaborative research. This would also essentially be a pillar for India’s soft power, which would be very peaceful and in complete contrast to other economically developed nations that use higher education for manipulating and influencing foreign relations.

The way forward for the policy makers is to bring Yoga under the university education system in a big way. Having a few autonomous institutions will not work. This could be done in the following ways: offer university status to existing ashrams or other institutions that are already teaching Yoga and are willing to and capable of functioning autonomously; create Centres of Excellence for Yoga in top national universities; bestow college status to units teaching Yoga by affiliating them to existing universities, so as to enable them to offer degree programmes; create a model for Yoga as a discipline with indicative or basis structure for courses and programmes–from certificate to degree level– including a model curriculum that could be readily used by institutions; adopt ICT and MOOC platforms to complement the traditional methods.

– by M. Saravanan,
Education Consultant

An IITian left his high-paying job to make many Kashmiri dreams come true

Rahul Raj
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An IITian left his high-paying job to make many Kashmiri dreams come true

In 2012, an IIT Bombay alumnus Mubeen Masudi, decided to move back to his native place, Kashmir with an aim to contribute to society. Given the political strife in the region over the past few decades, the education sector has been vastly neglected. Since 2012, he has been joined by 2 more IIT Kharagpur graduates (one is from Bihar and other is from Delhi), and their initiative RISE has mentored and counselled high school students from different parts of the state for various competitive examinations.

In past 3 years, they have battled harsh winters and uninvited floods and yet produced inspirational success stories through their students. In the September 2014 floods, they suffered huge losses. The ground floor of their institute was completely submerged in water for 15 days; their library, which had approximately 4000 books, could just save 200 books. They survived this calamity and managed to grow.

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This year they have gone a step further, they are conducting a valley wide talent search examination to identify talented students who have the desire to excel but to do not possess the resources to pursue the same. The examination is primarily targeting the economically weaker sections of the society. The selected students will receive mentoring and counselling from experts of relevant fields. From test taking to mentoring, the entire process is free of any cost to the students.

Their initiative – RISE – aims to make this process permanent where year after year talented students are identified and are mentored to secure admissions to the most prestigious institutes of the country and abroad. Currently RISE is in process of replicating the model in other places of the country where the education sector is in equally dire straits, and is trying to build a bigger team of passionate individuals who believe society can be changed for the better through providing quality education and opportunities.

Mubeen believes that school level education is currently a mess in Kashmir. Even the brightest students in Kashmir are not able to get admissions to tier-1 colleges of India due to lack of awareness. A few who have the awareness lack proper guidance or support from schools or institutions. His team aims to establish a sustainable institute where students get the best possible guidance and resources.

Modi Sarkar Honeymoon period over, Sushma, Jaitley, Raje under scanner thanks to Lalit Modi

Gaurav
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Modi Sarkar Honeymoon period over, Sushma, Jaitley, Raje under scanner thanks to Lalit Modi

While development plank and strong anti-incumbency against a corrupt UPA Government, were 2 of the main reasons for Modi getting elected to the post of Prime Minister, the fact that Modi was an “outsider” to the world of Delhi politics was a USP which cannot be ignored. Modi claimed that he was part of the incestuous Lutyens group of babus, journalists, big influencer-crooks and politicians. He was just a “chaiwala”, who far from being part of this coterie, was ostracized by such groups for years through systematic campaigns in press and otherwise.

This image, was passed on to the Government he ran too, but now after Lalit-Gate, it has been shattered. While Modi himself has not been seen to be in such groups, his ministers are deeply in the mess. Sushma Swaraj was the first to get dragged into this imbroglio. While on many counts, her actions maybe justifiable and not illegal, the question of quid-pro-quo will always remain. In hindsight, it would have been better for her to recuse herself from Lalit Modi’s case, like Jaitley had recused himself from a similar conflict of interest decision. A resignation would maybe be too much to ask, but a rebuke from Modi was certainly expected. It has not come yet.

Sushma did not go down alone. She very slyly tried to rope in Arun Jaitley. At the height of the controversy, Sushma tweeted this:


This seemingly cryptic tweet probably hinted at the close relations Navika Kumar, Times Now anchor, has with Arun Jaitley. These relations were brought to fore by the Radia tapes, where Nira Radia repeatedly says, “Arun Jaitley is your friend na?”. Sushma might have tried to fire shots at Jaitley because it was then rumoured that Jaitley was behind the leaked Lalit Modi emails. Lalit Modi and Jaitley have never been friends, right from BCCI times. Jaitley and Sushma too had been on opposite factions within the BJP. So it was felt this leak was a two-pronged attack on Lalit Modi and Sushma Swaraj. This theory was furthered slyly fuelled by BJP MP Kirti Azad:


While two central ministers were in the soup, Lalit Modi made some startling revelations about Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje too. Again, there was no prima facie illegality. An unsigned and unfinished affidavit was bandied about, in which Raje allegedly promised help to Lalit, provided the help wouldn’t be made public. But then Lalit Modi spilt the beans in Rajdeep Sardesai’s interview, where he declared that he and Raje enjoyed close relations. Soon the story unraveled as it was seen that Raje’s Government had signed an MoU with the same Portuguese hospital in which Lalit Modi’s wife was operated, that too within 2 months of the operation. Lalit Modi too, had invested in Raje’s son’s company. While the illegality of all the above was not proven, one thing was certain. Arun Jaitley was very much part of the Lutyens media group, and possibly knew something about the wrongdoings in BCCI. Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje were friends of one time master-salesman- turned-“fugitive” Lalit Modi. These facts are more than enough to shatter the image that atleast some people in the  Modi Government are not insulated from the networks that exist in Delhi. While none of the above “crimes” are earth-shattering like a 2G scam or a Coalgate, they do take away the sheen and the protective layer which the Government enjoyed for its first year. So what should Modi do now? He has to put his foot down. Past mistakes cant be rectified, but in future, the conduct of his ministers has to be top class. If not for public consumption, atleast internally, all the people mentioned above, from Sushma to Jaitley to Kirti Azad need to be told to behave in appropriate manner henceforth. Raje on the other hand, in all probability will have to be investigated, considering the allegations on her are the most damning. If need, be heads should roll. As for Lalit Modi, the Government is in a real tough spot. Undoubtedly Lalit Modi has dirt on everybody across the political spectrum. He has already brought in Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar and even the current President Pranab Mukherjee. If the Government goes hard on him, he may very well expose more BJP leaders. The prime target will obviously be Arun Jaitley, who not only has a troubled relationship with Lalit Modi, but is also the de-facto political head of the Enforcement Directorate, which will go after Lalit Modi.  If on the the other hand, Lalit Modi is let loose, Media will continue with their tirade. The Government will be seen as protecting a criminal and it will become very hard for BJP to fight it out. Public perception will be lost and Bure Din will surely be seen in upcoming elections. It will be interesting to see how BJP and the Government, deal with this conundrum, as either ways, there will be collateral damage. 

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