What I particularly liked about your issue on India’s top professional colleges was that it carried details on courses like hotel management, media, fashion and healthcare along with the ones traditionally most aspired for (Doc, Ed Or Chef, Jun 11). Your writers thus made the younger generation aware of "other professions" that are, perhaps, more lucrative than medicine and engineering.
K. Chidanand Kumar, Bangalore
The ministers for education and health at both the Centre and states should be experts in the subjects—not vote-conscious politicians. The government should only allot money, and leave expenditure decisions to the wisdom of educationists. A council of ex-VCs should play an advisory role. Rich corporates should adopt colleges and schools. I also felt that parents of high-income group should pay more fees for their children. Government college alumni, earning a million rupees a year, should be charged an additional IT cut that gets diverted to their alma mater.
V. Seshadri, Chennai
I concede the point that privatisation of education is one way you can lessen the constraints in providing higher education, for the field has been facing an increasing supply crunch. However, I feel it’s necessary to qualify this endorsement. Full-scale privatisation can’t be the sole solution, considering that it can institutionalise the advantage the rich already have. We should strive for a balanced growth.
Brij Bhushan Vyas, Lucknow
Eventually we’d realise that it is not the number of research papers, but their quality, that decides the worthiness of an institution. Only check if the papers are bona fide works—not coming out of well-planned sabbaticals at foreign varsities.
Krishna Kumar, Ottawa
I’m saddened by the way society looks down upon dentistry as a discipline. Your survey too chose not to mention the country’s top dental colleges. Hope your issue next year will come up with the list.
Naunit Vaid, on e-mail
Both lists on medical colleges put aiims at the top. Now, the flip side that seldom gets highlighted: a chunk of graduates from this institution go abroad in search of greener pastures. A mere straw poll would be sufficient to prove this disturbing pattern. Wonder why the government isn’t taking serious steps to arrest this talent drain.
Tathagata Bose, Delhi
As the principal of the Times Centre for Media Studies, I wonder how we stood 134/200 under ‘competence of faculty’. We’re a team of ex-Times journalists. Plus, top professionals regularly visit. It’s also strange we got only 100/150 in ‘placement’ when the group absorbs all students on passing out.
Vispy R. Saher, Delhi
I feel more private colleges should come up to the standard of aiims or iits—it would benefit both students and the industry. It would be wise if factors like impact of research on treatment are given weightage instead of a routine set of yardsticks like the faculty or the number of research papers.
A. Jacob Sahayam, Thiruvananthapuram
It’s amazing how you underline the impeccable secular credentials of the presidential candidates (In Office, By August, Jun 11) and go on only to discuss their caste! And Arjun Singh, secular? Just the previous article on the Gujjar agitation should put that to question. It’s amply clear from your story that the dmk and other parties are interested in a Dalit candidate for mere symbolism. Apart from their social cache, do any of the candidates, apart from Pranab Mukherjee, have anything to boast about?
Vijay Shankar, Bangalore
If we citizens mean business, we should run a campaign to bring Fali S. Nariman as the next President of India.
D. Arun, Mumbai
The civil war that erupted in Rajasthan and the ncr (Nomad’s Wrath, Jun 11) is a direct result of the electoral promises made but not kept on potentially volatile issues. They have now come home to roost. By the way, where was the man who has relentlessly aggravated and added fire to his divisive caste agenda? That ‘senior’ leader has not been able to step out of his age and time even though the world around him has altered radically, rendering him a political dinosaur. He should have been at the scene of his crime in a wheelchair, appeasing the monster he created. Yes, I refer to none other than the ‘honourable’ Arjun Singh. All parties, bar none, are responsible; all have misused the less privileged Indian to notch up their personal scores.
Raghavendra S.A., on e-mail
The agitation by the Gujjar community for inclusion in the list of STs means everyone wants something for free and no one wants to work hard to improve their lot in society. The violence in Rajasthan also showed how political parties can whip up passions using caste politics. The way the agitation spread across several cities shows it was a well-planned campaign that could not have been organised without the support of political parties.
Abhilash Thadhani, on e-mail
While reservation was envisaged only for 10 years by our constitution-makers, votebank politics in our country has not only perpetuated it but has also continuously been adding other inflammable segments into the quota cauldron. Seemingly now every community wants to use the caste mark to pluck the sweet fruit of reservations. The steel frame of bureaucracy peopled by officers selected on category rather than merit is sure to cause distortions and breed disillusionment among other sections, as is happening in Rajasthan. If today that state is burning on the Gujjar issue, tomorrow it could be another state, another community. We shouldn’t permit our political parties to carry on with their divide-and-rule tactics.
Raghubir Singh, Pune
Your cover on the return of the Brahmin (Jun 4) made interesting reading. However, you could have lent some historical depth to your analysis by giving an account of the extent to which the Brahmin community dominated politics in an earlier era. Just two facts will suffice to illustrate this. One, the freedom struggle was mostly led by Brahmins, barring a few exceptions. Two, many of our early chief ministers were Brahmins. A checklist: Bidhan Chandra Roy (West Bengal), Nabakrushna Choudhury (Orissa), Gobind Ballabh Pant (UP), Gopichand Bhargava (Punjab), Jaya Narayana Vyas (Rajasthan), Ravi Shankar Shukla (Madhya Pradesh), Bal Gangadhar Kher (Maharashtra), C. Rajagopalachari (Tamil Nadu), ems (Kerala).
Ajit Kumar, on e-mail
Is it possible that there are still beings on the planet who do not believe in climate change? I thought not, until I read Sanjay Suri’s article The Poseidon Myth (Jun 11). For some reason, Suri’s normally sensible journalism has upped and fled. Perhaps he felt that it would make better copy to fly in the face of both scientific fact and common sense, to challenge the prevailing ‘climate of opinion’—that global warming is the greatest and gravest challenge facing the world today. "Some scientists," reads one of the bullet points, "question the very concept of global warming." Yes, and I’m sure some scientists believe God created the world in six days, and that Elvis is alive and well and living in Memphis. What I’m less sure about is why a responsible magazine would lend credence to such notions by reproducing them, uncritically, in print. "Coal- and oil-based industry feeds growth, and more cars and trucks on the road are both the expression and engine of growth. The rich grew rich this way; when others want to, everyone’s talking climate change." Suri’s formulation reeks of the kindergarten: they had their turn, now it’s mine and they won’t let me—climate change as the ultimate ‘spoiler’. As a response, it’s understandable but utterly inadequate. What’s needed is neither the wilful blindness of journalists like Suri and scientists like Bjorn Lomborg, nor the ‘Clean Delhi, Green Delhi’ ads that jostle for print space on World Environment Day. What India needs is to find new indices for ‘growth’ and ‘development’; to imagine a future that does not rely on coal- and oil-based industries. Also, what is becoming increasingly clear is that we have a relatively short span of time to act—decades rather than centuries—before global warming becomes irreversible. Yes, we are tired of ‘scare-mongering’ and of ‘doomsday scenarios’, but the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are clear. Global warming is real. It is a threat. It is a result of emissions produced by the richest countries: but the responsibility for tackling it lies with us all.
Anita Roy, Delhi
Kanti Bajpai is right in pointing out that the frenzy for marks is a reflection of scarcity (Marks of Insecurity, Jun 11). However, he doesn’t seem to realise that it will disappear only when there is a massive increase in opportunities for everyone. Unlike Doon School students who are born into a network of opportunities via their parents and contacts, for the rest of the population marks make the difference between getting an education that is valued and one that isn’t. Bajpai concedes marks matter in college admissions, but says they don’t in the hiring process. What he doesn’t say is that employers are anyway hiring from the pool of students who had sufficient marks to get the required education in the first place.
Ashish K., Cambridge, US
It’s true we lose our perspective when we talk only of toppers at the end of the year and forget the billions who don’t even get an education. But we should take heart from the cbse releasing its pass statistics. Close to 80 per cent pass statistics is a sign of improving education in schools that cater to not-so-rich pupils. If Bajpai can’t see that, it shows how much of an elitist he has become after governing Doon. Maybe passing comes easy in his school. Let him take a trip to schools where teachers bunk more classes than students. And then he can marvel at the achievement of the kids who survived.
Naresh Ranvah, Chennai
What choice do you have when a few marks can make or break your entire life in a wretched country like India?
Arun Prakash, Doha, Qatar
For once, an intelligent article in Outlook.
Pradip Singh, Stafford, UK
Your story on Clubland—Is Beige the New Brown, Jun 4—could more aptly have been titled ‘Sour Grapes’. Much of the story was about ridiculing institutions which the members are trying to preserve as islands of order and decorum in an increasingly lawless and disorderly society. The Pakistan High Commissioner does not seem to have cavilled at the need to attend the "At Home" which all aspiring members must. Like a good diplomat, he is obviously in favour of observing the rules, unlike many who always seek shortcuts! As for Bhaichand Patel’s comment in the Hindustan Times; it is tantamount to a family member bringing a guest into his home and who, after having enjoyed the family’s hospitality, goes about talking of the host’s halitosis. Bhaichand, who is a good friend and himself no spring chicken, is also prone to the same glandular reactions he decries in Gymkhana Club members. So, why need the pot call the kettle black? Clubs are said to be home away from home. Just as no family would care to indiscriminately admit a member to its fold; so also clubs have their rules and regulations, and criteria for new members, which need to be observed. Let us not unnecessarily and unrealistically criticise, or ridicule, the new islands of ordered groups which exist in the country.
Gurbachan Singh, New Delhi
Don’t know what comrade Karat sounds like, but Vinod Mehta sure sounds like a fellow traveller (Delhi Diary, Jun 11). I must assume that most ceos the PM was addressing would probably like to help alleviate poverty in a public-private partnership, but can’t or won’t because the current power dynamics between the two can never result in a fruitful partnership.
Arun Maheshwari, Bangalore
The rich are a selfish, greedy, corrupt lot and need to have their salaries axed, no doubt. But the government is the last one to preach this! They are a bunch of profligates unable to spend taxpayers’ money properly for development purposes. Mumbaikars of all shades, including the rich, donated to the CM’s relief fund after the record downpour in the metropolis last July. The money, we are told, lies largely unspent.
Bindu Tandon, Mumbai
There were many poor people even in Gandhi’s time, but no one ridiculed his lessons in austerity. That’s because the Mahatma led by example. Let our current leaders show the same discipline and the corporates would no doubt follow. Till then, sermons such as these will only invite ridicule.
Chakrapani Mishra, Noida
It is surprising that an intelligent weekly like Outlook criticises pink papers and mainstream dailies for questioning Manmohan Singh’s suggestion to the corporate world. Most pink papers have criticised the government for inefficiencies in implementing poverty alleviation programmes because the total amount of subsidies by the centre and state governments, when divided by the total number of people below the poverty line, gives an amount higher than that used to define the poverty line. In other words, if the total amount of subsidies is distributed as dole, there would be no bpl person in India. What a shame!
K. Nayak, on e-mail
Mr Mehta, like your deities—Sonia, Rahul and Manmohan—you are fake. It takes a lot of cake to write about poverty by someone who drinks whisky, lives in a posh area and vacations in South Africa. Why not use that money to support some aam admi?
Gopi Maliwal, Hong Kong
I agree with Mr Mehta. But I wish he had also pointed out the mismanagement by and corruption of intermediaries that blights most government-sponsored poverty alleviation programmes.
T.S. Krishnamoorthy, Mumbai
Actually, Mr Mehta, you belong to the conservative Left (while claiming to be a liberal) that still believes that the pie is only so much, and if someone has more, he has stolen someone else’s share. You don’t understand that the pie can be enlarged. Those who have the will to do that enjoy it at leisure. Your argument on conspicuous consumption also sounds hollow. ‘Wasteful expenditure’ is a relative term. A poor farmer would, according to his means, spend on a good meal for his son’s wedding. Why blame Laxmi Mittal for serving caviar? And as for media hostility towards poverty alleviaton schemes, do you think they’ve actually helped? Rajiv Gandhi admitted that only 15 paise out of every rupee spent on such schemes reaches the target. Had they been efficient, would we still have needed them 60 years after Independence?
Kiran Bagchi, Mumbai
Why doesn’t Outlook take the trouble to prove that poverty alleviation programmes do indeed work? What’s the status of the much-touted employment guarantee scheme? How many people has it helped? Why not show some hard numbers instead of just whining about those people who thought up these schemes?
Ganesan, New Jersey, US
Sorry, Mr Mehta, you’re defending a modern-day Don Quixote. The PM, a darling of the media who is often referred to as the ‘good doctor’, comes up with a hare-brained scheme every other day.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
I feel entitled to tell Manmohan Singh how to run the government, for it wastes tax money like no one else. Mr Mehta is probably sincere, but extremely naive.
Ganpat Ram, Haridwar
Mr Mehta like other armchair intellectuals pays lip service in lamenting the fate of the poor in our growing economy. But high economic growth is good for the rich as well as for the poor. It is for the government and policymakers to provide the benefits of high growth to the underprivileged.
A.K. Ajmani, on e-mail
