Policy Wise

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The parliamentary committee on higher education has suggested the introduction of graduate tax in India,
Parliament’s standing committee on HRD ministry has recommended taxing students who take up overseas jobs after graduating from premier higher education institutions [...]

In a column in The Times of India, Gurcharan Das calls for freeing schools in India from government control and regulations,
A dear friend of mine has grown weary. He runs five schools in the slums of Delhi, which provide a fine education to 13,500 poor children with 250 motivated teachers. But his [...]

The government in India is moving towards guaranteeing student loans,
In a significant step towards making it easier for banks to give loans to needy students, the Government may soon stand as the guarantor for them. This will help ensure that needy students are not refused an education loan for want of a security or collateral…This [...]

T Thomas argues that India should create six elite schools and six elite universities,
An imaginative Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh can possibly use his own advocacy and credibility to persuade, say six Indian states to build up one elite Institution in each of these states. The Central Minister for Education should then be given [...]

Vivek has adequately responded to Abi’s post which argued that the standard of students being admitted in IIT is falling and blamed the proliferation of coaching centers for this malaise.
In his response to Vivek’s post, Abi points towards abysmal number of women in IITs’ and posits that this IS because JEE is biased against women. [...]

Over at Nanopolitan, Abi raises the issue of the abysmally low budget allocation for government sponsored research and development in India. In response, Nitin points out that R&D should be left to private enterprise. Some interesting discussions in the comments section of both blogs (part of this write-up is essentially reposting a comment left on [...]

There is little doubt that primary education in India is in doldrums and needs urgent reforms. Our public schools lack basic facilities, have outdated curriculum and suffer from crumbling infrastructure. Primary education is a public good and hence a fit case for public investment. This is not merely a utilitarian argument but a moral [...]

Through an opinion piece in The Hindu, Prof Gautam R. Desiraju argues that an important reason for India’s lag behind China in terms of scientific output is the lack of research infrastructure at the undergraduate level.
A major area of investment in Chinese universities is the upgrading of undergraduate teaching labs. We spend almost nothing [...]

It is too early to celebrate but the government seems to be on the right track.
Government is for allowing 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in higher education and hinted at making reservation mandatory in the institutions to be set up by foreign universities in the country.Citing India’s WTO commitments made in 2003, [...]

Montek Singh Alhuwalia is right on the money,
Stop subsidising higher education and increase the fees. That is the recipe of Montek Singh Alhuwalia to improve the quality of education. The Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission was addressing students at the University of Mumbai’s 150th convocation ceremony on Sunday.[link]
In a country which is unable to [...]