Outlook magazine’s list of India’s top professional colleges was, as always, eagerly awaited by students, parents, teachers and college administrators (Changing By Degrees, July 4). As an alumnus of King George’s, Lucknow—No. 6 on the top dental colleges list—I would like to make the point that the ranking system is an exercise in futility. To an overwhelming extent, it depends on individual teachers, and not facilities, whether a student learns anything at all, and what skills he or she accumulates. Besides, dentistry in India, an up-and-coming profession 15 years ago, has imploded as a career choice owing to the proliferation of dental colleges and an oversupply of graduates. Up to half of recent dental graduates do not find employment in dentistry. The average student is stressed and unhappy. The Dental Council of India has belatedly taken cognisance of this, in 2016, and decided not to sanction any more colleges. ‘Good’ college or not, if I were a teenager today, I’d certainly not consider a career in dentistry.
Biswapriya Purkayastha, Shillong
The parameter of judging ‘best colleges' should now be by counting how many ‘genuine’ and ‘tainted’ politicians they produced.
Rajneesh Batra, Delhi
Here comes one more issue, thicker than usual, the reason being one more list of colleges. I thumb through it, avoiding splashy adverts from nondescript colleges that put out claims in text, numbers and pictures. The content I care and pay for is interspersed with these lists and advertisements. I know these issues mean good revenue, but can’t a particular segment be all pooled in a separate supplement?
Anand Srinivasan, Bangalore
With the president’s order that the proposed NEET would exempt states, thousands of students have heaved a sigh of relief. Students’ preparations, oriented towards taking the exams conducted by their respective states, would be squandered away, as NEET would have followed a CBSE syllabus. But the decision that there’d be one common entrance test from the next academic year needs to be revised. Meritorious and marginal students from rural areas would suffer the most if this happens.
Buddhadev Nandi, Bishnupur
Balaji Prasad gives some sane advice, but it seems he has never been to an Indian school or college (Learning to Eureka, July 4.) Most of them don’t encourage any new thinking. Projects given to students can be either bought from shops or made by parents. By the time they go to college they know how to get marks but lack skills or an open mind.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
The interaction with Bachi Karkaria was interesting (‘Develop an expertise..., Jul 4). This is the same Bachi Karkaria, who secretly viewed a tape provided by Tarun Tejpal and wrote columns supporting him, while denigrating his victim. Thus, Karkaria proved herself to be a shameless and opportunistic defender of India's rape culture. Shame on Outlook for giving space to this hypocrite.
Ravi Jain, Hyderabad
It feels good that tractors and Farm Equipments Ltd diploma-holders in engineering are treated at a par with degree-holders; chairman Mallika Srinivasan should indeed be thanked (‘Companies hiring engineers..., July 4). ITI-trained workers are good technicians, mechanics. These machinists, welders, engineers, fitters and electricians have been tested, and found to be excellent, in several of the government's biggest projects in sectors such as railways and shipping.
P. Gautampurkar, Sawai Madhopur
Reliance acting as ‘victim’ of the Essar tapes is like a cat going to pray after eating 900 rats.
Rakesh Agrawal, Dehradun
The two-page photo essay, If the Darkness Leaves a Vestige of Good Sense (June 27), of the Orlando massacre by Omar Mateen is, in Barack Obama’s words, “A further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or a house of worship or a movie theatre or a nightclub... We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. To actively do nothing is a decision as well.” One wonders whether gun supporters are aware that, compared to people in 22 other high-income nations, Americans are seven times likelier to die from violence and six times likelier to be accidentally killed by a gun. It is deplorable that this happens even in the world’s richest nation. America sure may have all the resources at hand, but one wants to know, where is the will to change itself as a society? Even the President can only issue plaintive pleas, not really do anything definitive.
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee, Faridabad
Apropos your article on antibiotics (The Bugs Just Got Bugsier, June 27), it must be noted that a patient in India typically feels shortchanged when a doctor charging high consultation fees does not scribble him a list of medicines.
Anand Srinivasan, Bangalore
I disagree with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who says “If yoga is Hindu, then gravity is Christian” (June 13). No one teaches gravity without speaking of the immense contribution of Newton. Then should yoga be taught without acknowledging the contribution of the Indian sages and traditions that spawned it?
Jagdeep Kaur, Delhi
Apropos Black’s Not a Darker Brown (June 13), the Sangh parivar has made concentrated efforts to project Hindus as peace-loving while doing nothing to stop violence in the name of caste and religion. Orthodox diehards in the administration have prevented the caste problem from being presented as a problem of racism or human rights violation at international fora. They seem to think that accepting that many Indians are racist at heart will reflect badly upon Hindus, whom they have presented as peace-loving.
Nasar Ahmed, Karikkudi
Tanmay Bhat’s parody (A Comedy of (No) Manners, June 4) of Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar was abusive. Just as we must not use freedom of movement to trespass into someone else’s home, we must not use freedom of speech to abuse others. Freedom of speech is the freedom to express a different—even critical—opinion; it’s not the right to abuse others. Tanmay Bhat was wrong in being abusive of Lata and Sachin and he must apologise. There can be no total immunity in the name of artistic licence.
Lhasang Tsering, Dharamshala
The story, The Tapes No One Wants To Hear (July 4), confirms the sale of India. The governments that ruled us have facilitated this sale by opening 100 per cent FDI in nine sectors, inviting MNCs with deep pockets to join hands with the Adanis and Ambanis. To make the sale easy, facilitators like Amar Singh and Kirit Somaiya will be at their service.
Richa Juyal, Dehradun
Those involved in the Essar tape scandal are the same business groups who spent money for Modi's election campaigns.
George Pappy, On E-Mail
A compilation error has crept into our ranking of the top 100 engineering colleges for the July 4 issue. Kongu Engineering College, Erode, has been erroneously ranked at 83 (it was ranked 39 in 2015). The college’s revised rank is 42, which it shares with Rungta College of Engineering, Bhilai. This means colleges from 83 to 99 will go up by one rank. The revised ranking can be accessed at http://bit.ly/28Xot5j on www.outlookindia.com The error is regretted.
