kriticulture

  By Rajesh Sharma The University Grants Commission recently published a 129-page document titled Inclusive and Qualitative Expansion of Higher Education which spells out the Commission’s vision for higher education in the country for the 12 th Five Year Plan (2012-17). The document consists of the deliberations of a working group set up for the purpose and envisages a ‘quantum jump’ in higher education with the three objectives of access, equity and excellence. Among the major proposals is a mission mode national programme to be called Rashtriya Uchcha Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) geared to achieve 25% national level Gross Enrollment Ratio. The document notes that the GER in higher education in India (13.2%) is just about half the world's average (24%) and about two thirds that of the developing countries (18%), and scandalously below that of the developed nations (58%). With enrollment already exceeding two million in the universities and 13 million in colleges, a massive expa...

By Birinder Pal Singh The latest count for downloading Why this Kolaveri Di on the You Tube has crossed the four million mark. It has not only made a mark with youth and other mortal beings but with celebrities too including Amitabh Bachan and A. R. Rahman, the music man of Bollywood. It is a moment of pride and celebrations for Dhanush and Anirudh, the two makers of the song that has clicked. The “murderous rage” has definitely overtaken the listeners all over. A Tamilian friend from York University informed that the Time magazine has also taken note of this song after the one in the film Roja that was about insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.       There are people for and against the song. Those of the latter type want to see a close relation between poetry and music like the great English poet John Keats. They not only rate it low on these counts but call it a jarring piece and an absurdity. Some of these read much into the lyrics and label it as anti-femi...

M. L. Raina The festival has come and gone And gone are glamour girls, They left behind detritus At Diggie, and it swirls. The prickly bristly Solomon Was forced to stay away But had his cronies panting In dudgeon's tight sway. They fretted and frothed withal While Oprah stole the show, And all that Sanjay/Namita got Was eggs on their brow. The corporate -they had a merry time Looking all the way askance, Like a cat on a hot tin roof, They made our liberals prance. Give us more of Chetan lad Not Tom nor David' Hare, Cried the raving frantic teens Who fanned out everywhere.