Two more casulaties to the quota....

Two quit Knowledge Commission from The Hindu

Two members of the National Knowledge Commission, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, resigned on Monday in protest against the Centre's reservation policy.

While putting in their papers, sociologist Andre Beteille and political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta placed on record their support for affirmative action as opposed to numerical quotas.

The two were among the six in the eight-member Knowledge Commission who felt that the status quo ought to be maintained and the existing policy of reservation should not be extended to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) till alternatives were explored. The Commission formally discussed the reservation policy at a recent meeting in Bangalore and apprised the Prime Minister individually about their respective positions.

Dr. Beteille (Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Delhi University) and Dr. Mehta (Chief Executive at the Centre for Policy Research) submitted their resignation letters to the Prime Minister stating that in the light of recent announcements by the Government in the realm of higher education, their continuation would serve no useful purpose.

Dr. Beteille told reporters later that he favoured affirmative action. "Though slow to bear fruit, affirmative action makes universities truly inclusive while quotas merely queer the pitch." He questioned the process by which the Government was imposing quotas on institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology without consulting their directors.

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You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
--Vernon Howard

There is no Mandal II III or IV - Arjun Singh (so he says)

This entire weekend I have been flipping through news channels listening about the students' revolt against Mandal II... What started as a minor movement has slowly caught on and is due to become a nation wide revolt. And to some extent I would give full credit to the police for making this is nationwide event. Had they not done what they did to students in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore then probably this wouldn't be so hard fought by the students. There atrocities gave this Rang De Basanti generation another reason to come out on the streets and well why not. And so I say that let us thank the commissioner of police Bombay for his outrageous comments and then throw him out of his office.

Now let's look at the center of issue the reservation itself. Opinions flow from both ends in high passion on this issue. The people who favor this new (or the previous) reservation say that "It will give the traditionally underprivileged communities an opportunism to come at par with the rest of the society. Also that the underprivileged communities make a huge portion of the society and without there advancement we cannot make a progressive society."

My question to the government is what has it done in 55 yrs that these people have not been educated well enough that they cannot compete with the rest? Where has the money gone that was spent on education since independence? Why are these students not able to compete in the world today? Is because that they can't afford the expansive tuitions that is almost necessary for entrance exams? Or is it because that there basic foundation from the schools (government or private) is not strong enough? Is it because that these families do not give importance to education itself? Are backward classes the only once that suffer form these problems? Are there no others that will have the same problem? Why is the govt. signaling out the SC/ST? Is it because that they form the major vote banks? There are many question to be answered before we can actually there can be any appropriate solution.

None of the above is a fault is the fault of the student who will appear in the entrance exams... And then why does He/She have to pay for it? And most importantly reservation is a shortcut -- and some wise guy said that "there are no shortcuts to any place worth going" The uplifting of individual or a society is not done by giving them charity it is done by making them strong enough to be able to stand at par and with pride. Now lets look at the consequences of Mandal II(yes it is mandal II Mr Arjun Sing weather you accept it or not) Every deserving student that will loose out a seat to a non-deserving student will create a divide in the society that is already fighting many other such differences. Let us assume that we do not look at the intangible results but only at the tangible. Are we not pulling down the entire standard of education of some very good institutes? Are we not making the one strong selling point that India has (its educated youth) a lot weaker? Are we not passing out less competent workforce? Are we not increasing the already biased opinion about these communities? Are we not ruling by divide and conquer?

Now don't get me wrong I am not against uplifting of these sections of society it is jut that reservation is not the right way of doing it. If there ever has to reservation for anyone it has to be for economically backward. To bring them to the main stream we need to make them able and this is not done at university level it is done at lower levels, in schools. Open schools and make the education given there count. Follow through that programs that are implemented in villages to see that they reach there desired end. But no the government does not want to work all they want to do is find any number of way that will make others work and get them votes. Actually I can categorically say that Arjun Singh surely does not have the interest of the nation in his heart as he has a heart of politician.

Now let's look at the current situation… form the comments that have been delivered by our so called leaders of the society has been none other that Mr. Singh. This is a shameful act in itself. None of the politicians have cone out and made any comments including our revered PM. Shouldn't this be of some concern that the educated youth has taken to the streets, or is it because of the fact that the educated youth is still a small number vote that the politician do not concern themselves. Actually that is what is true. So for one thing we (this generation) should be aware of is that the more the number of people educated the better our voices will be heard. And second we need more educated people running this country, people who can think further than the next election. Mr Singh called the student movement 'propaganda' I call his move 'propaganda' because it truly benefits none.

One thing that does concern me is the suffering of the patients in the due course of the protest. We can put the blame on the govt. but the truth remains… they are suffering. So for protest let the medical students call upon some less fatal profession to conduct the strike. Let the MBA's, software professionals, industrialists', journalists' do that for them. Let the people not suffer in this fight for right with the government. Hopes are very limited, but the cause is worth a fight. But in the due process let us not forget that there are truly underprivileged people in our society and this fight is not against them it is against a wrong solution to a worthy problem.

Links:
Arjun rejects relook at quota issue from The Hindu
Quota protests: Private doctors join stir from NDTV
Students:Arjun inciting us from The Asian Age
Arjun rejects re-think on quota from Rediff.com (this has other article to read too)

We might more than 70 IITs if this is the case...

Knowledge panel to study quota issue holistically from HT

"At present, just seven to eight per cent of our population under the age of 25 get to go to college. We need to increase it manifold to make India a knowledge society. Why cannot we have 70 IITs instead of just seven. The alumni of IITs can build 10 IITs. It is possible," he said.

The future is coming !!

This is your brain on a microchip from CNET

He laid out several specific projects and figures. For example, computational power is advancing. The human brain produces between 10^13 (10 to the 13th power) and 10^16 operations per second, emitting 100 watts of energy while at rest. The human brain is incredibly efficient, too: The brain takes about 20 percent of the body's oxygen to perform at that rate.

Today's supercomputer, such as IBM's Blue Gene, processes about 10^14 operations per second, but with six orders of magnitude more wattage.

Also, money is flowing into artificially intelligent systems. Car and truck companies, for example, are investing heavily in collision-warning systems and vehicles that can drive themselves. (Hawkins even acknowledged that several major car companies have contacted him and are showing interest in his intelligent platform.) And a study from the Department of Transportation said that robotic vehicles with safety warnings will likely save more lives than airbags and seatbelts together, Albus said.

The military is building future combat systems and investing in technology such as fighter drone planes. Albus said that by 2015, cognitive reasoning capabilities in computer-driven systems will enable tactical behaviors on the battlefield.

After I read this one all I coud was smile :)

Staying dumb may be the best option from Cricinfo

Around a month back, at the pre-match press conference before the sixth one-dayer against England at Jamshedpur, Sehwag was asked about Ganguly. His response was guarded, more an effort to pass the question rather than create a stir: "... there's no question of looking back ... We have already forgotten that chapter." No warning then, no yellow card, no nothing.

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Life is simple, its just not easy.
-- Author Unknown