MIT tops the table as India falls further behind

US research power house Massachusetts Institute of Technology has retained the number one spot in this year's QS World University Rankings, but there is still no Indian University in the global top 200.

The nation's top performer is still IIT Delhi which this year drops  10 places to 222nd.

In the first 100 places, china has three universities - Peking University (46), Tsinghua university (48), Fudan university (88).

Singapore ( National University of Singapore ) is occupying 24th position.- great!

University of Copenhagen in Denmark is in 45th position. University of Helsinki in Finland is in 70th position. University of Oslo in Norway is in 89th position.

(TOI Education Times, Monday, September 16, 2013)

Double-decker train to Bangalore loses sheen

 Hardly five months after the Chennai-Bangalore double-decker train service was launched with fanfare, passengers have begun complaining that travelling by the train is a hassle. 

•  Cramped seats with no push-back facility. 
• Air conditioning doesn't work. 
• No GPS -aided announcements about approaching stations. 
• Toilets are not cleaned regularly and remain flooded. 
• Poor quality of food. Stale food packets are reheated and distributed.

If this were to happen, what was the use of introducing such facility in the first instance?

When do our executives want to prove their capacity for hard and honest work?

Funny Nation & Funny Characters

The CBI's closure of a disproportionate assets case against Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, on the plea that its officers got their math wrong is artful arithmetic. For a country that discovered 'zero' it took CBI officers on the case five years (the complaint was lodged five years ago) to employ all its brains , computers and calculators to compute that it all amounted to zilch -- TOI Dt. September 24, 2013. It can happen only in a banana republic like India.This must be the best joke of the year provided by the highest investigating agency of this country. Imagine what will be happening in the states in the most efficient and impartial agency, namely, the anti vigilance bureau working under the direct control and guidance of chief min isters. Who is befooling whom? God knows or probably we all know it. By the way who is to pay the compensation to the leader who suffered humilation and the benefit he gave to other parties and individuals? What is the punishment proposed to those intelligent and loyal government servants who did wrong calculations so casually and deliberately to harass a person?

Why lowest investment?

The RBI's latest bulletin released on September 10, 2013 rated the state of Tamil Nadu eighth from the bottom in investments. 

Successive governments in Tamil Nadu may have made a pitch for investments but big money has not taken the bait because of the chronic power crisis. Tamil Nadu's share of investments for new projects has dropped to its lowest in a decade in 2012-13 - the state received just 1.8 per cent of investments in 2012-13 down from 5.7 per cent in 2011-12. (TOI Friday, September 13, 2013)

Any standard explanation for such a development in a developing state like Tamil Nadu?

"Why not ban caste-based guru pujas",

"Why not ban caste-based guru pujas", asks Justice N.Kirupakaran, of Madras High Court ( TOI, Friday, September 13, 2013) 

"These kinds of celebrations are of recent origin. It is said they are conducted usually only to show the strength of various groups and exhibit supremacy over other communities."

The observation of the judge in hearing and listing some 11 petitions on guru puja festivals seeking direction to the police for permission to conduct pujas was extremely useful and timely in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Politicians and community leaders take this opportunity to the advantage of their parties. In fact their participation leads to a major law and order problem to the district authorities.

Sooner such a ban is introduced on the HC's direction, the better would be for communal harmony in the state. 

All round Failure

The Times of India dated Tuesday September 17, 2013

Jats accuse P.M, Sonia of partisanship.......

Say they were ignored, Muslim villagers given more importance........

Riots were well orchestrated, says U.P government.......

UP govt ignored alerts: Centre......

Everything got over in 10 minutes, no one molested anyone: Muslims...

Ever since S P came to power things have been different: Jats..........

When a communal clash based on the behaviour of some individuals takes place, everybody in the community including the local officials from S.O to S.P and DM as also state machinery at the state capital like the chief minister, chief secretary, home secretary, D.G of police should have been alert and appropriate action mooted at different levels automatically so that the flare-up is averted and harmony is restored to the satisfaction of all. 

In the present case everyone defaulted in his duty unfortunately. No commission of enquiry or postmortem is going to help the families of the deceased.

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Celebration on a celebrity scale?

UPA II's Third Year's successful completion was recently celebrated in New Delhi and reported by a Tamil Daily named 'DinaMalar' on Sunday, October 7, 2012 with a break-up of expenditure incurred by the organisers on page 9 of the paper with a cartoon wherein P.M Dr.Manmohan Singh is shown telling the participants "You should eat well because the nation will prosper only when we are prosperous."

Breach of Trust

I read a leading news in TOI on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 under the following caption:

"Betrayed Vanzara lashes out at his 'God' Expected Modi government to back loyal officers."

All India Service officers are to be aware of this reality and conduct themselves properly. There is no loyalty rewarded by the politicians at the end of the day. Blood is thicker than water. It is true of business men too. They are all time-servers. Be loyal to the Constitution and the hapless citizens of this country and not to the selfish individuals at any time. India should rightly belong to the poor and the really needy persons first.

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Correction by Supreme Court

September 13, 2012:

S.C's  Direction:

 " the chief information commissioner at the Center or state level shall only be a person who is or has been a Chief Justice of the high court or a judge of the Supreme Court"

People like me were little agitated after reading such a direction but luckily the court's bench comprising Justice A.K Patnaik and Justice A.K Sikri erased the afore-said direction on September 3, 2013. The court can hardly legislate on a subject in which its fraternity has a prima facie vested interest. As a person interested in transparency and impartial judgment in the working of RTI Act, I was advocating the posting of a Chief Information Commissioner from a different state as in the case of the Chief Justice of a high court - a good convention practiced by  the country so far but unfortunately the suggestion fell on the deaf ears of Dr Manmohan Singh for the last 6-7 years. 

Let the new government at the centre take note of this suggestion after a year at least!

Letter to the Editor, The South Asian Times

Dear Editor,

I thank and admire the efforts of some respectful Indians who started organisations/ societies a few decades ago with a view to perpetuating their culture and traditions in USA and they are religiously conducting annual or biannual meetings/carnivals by inviting some celebrities from their respective regions in India. 

Examples:

26th annual convention of Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America at the Sony Centre in Downtown Toronto - a 3 day event with a congregation of about 3000 people.

Three day Telugu Convention organised by the North America Telugu Society in Dallas in the first week of July, 2013 with the participation of about 7000 people.

Founded in 1969 the Orissa Society of the Americas conducted a three day convention (July 4-6, 2013) in Chicago with the participation of about 1400 people.

Back at home ours is a divided nation on the basis of religion, race, culture, caste, community and economic status in urban centres. As a tourist in USA I would like to see a Society of India celebrating annual conventions with a focus on one culture at a time projecting India as one nation to the foreigners.

Dr.P.Raghavan

p_raghavan47@yahoo.co.in

USA

(Based on news published in The South Asian Times July 13-19, 2013)

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