Maintaining the State’s place as a higher education hub

Maintaining the State’s place as a higher education hub

M. Veerappa Moily

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/25/stories/2006102509750400.htm

 

To mark Suvarna Karnataka, The Hindu will run a series of articles, beginning with this one, on different facets of the State’s economic, educational and developmental experience over the past 50 years, to culminate on November 1, the State formation day. We will have articles by experts and committed individuals who have been major forces in shaping policy and moulding opinion.

 

Bangalore: Till the mid-1950s, the demand for professional education in the State was met by colleges established by the Government. Gradually, the clamour for professional education grew in intensity.

Social awakening and the spread of literacy made people realise that professional education led to social and material advancement. The demand for seats in professional colleges grew by leaps and bounds. Before long it became plain to everyone concerned that the State, with limited resources available for expenditure on professional education, could not fulfil the spiralling demand.

In this background private initiatives came in handy to extend professional education to those who wanted it. The pioneering effort in implementing this self-financing concept was made in Manipal in 1953. Many others followed and a large number of such colleges came to be established in the State in the late 1960s and 1980s.

A uniform feature of these private colleges is their reliance on contributions from parents of students, and the public, for the establishment and maintenance of the colleges. The fees collected by these colleges are invariably high.

Ideal policy

An ideal policy for admission of students to professional colleges should ensure selection of the best and the highest quality of education in the institutions to which they are admitted. Only the attainment of these twin objectives can ensure that the very best professionals walk out of the portals of our professional institutions. This absolute principle may, of course, have room for a reasonable amount of dilution dictated by the demand for social justice. So categorisation based on social backwardness can be justified within constitutional limits.

Professional workforce

The prosperity of a nation largely depends on the talent and expertise possessed by its professional workforce. There is no frontline nation in the world that does not have a highly efficient and dynamic army of dedicated professionals. Our country today needs the ultimate professional skills to nudge it into the top league and enhance the welfare of the people.

Professional education, therefore, deserves the highest priority of the Government. It should fully tap the abundant talent to produce highly skilled engineers, doctors and technocrats.

Karnataka was the pioneer in ensuring transparency, equality, fair play, social justice and excellence in admissions to professional colleges by introducing the Common Entrance Test in 1993. This pioneering effort was jeopardised by the Supreme Court judgment of 2002 in the T.MA. Pai case. The State Government will have to come out with a strategy to ensure that Karnataka does not lose its reputation as the hub of higher education in the wake of the judgment.

Manpower quality

The State can be the hub of higher education in not only engineering and medicine but also other fields like management. Bangalore is known as India’s Silicon Valley because of the quality of manpower available in abundance. That pool of talent has to be constantly revitalised and replenished.

(Mr. Moily is a former Chief Minister of the State and Chairman, 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, Government of India.)

Ambareesh’s elevation a solace to Vokkaligas

Ambareesh’s elevation a solace to Vokkaligas

S. Rajendran

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/25/stories/2006102517470100.htm

A boost to Congress campaign in Chamundeshwari bypoll

 

 

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He is the first film personality from State to make it to the Union Ministry S.M. Krishna and Tejaswini Sriramesh were among the aspirants AFTER A LONG WAIT: M.H. Ambareesh being sworn in Union Minister of State in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty     BANGALORE: The elevation of M.H. Ambareesh, three-time member of the Lok Sabha from Mandya and noted film artiste, as a Union Minister of State may have come a day late but nevertheless it has pleased the dominant Vokkaliga community in Karnataka to which he belongs. Mr. Ambareesh, who is from Malavalli in Mandya district, is the grandson of late Vidwan T. Chowdiah who played the seven-string violin, and is the first Kannada film artiste and of the film industry here to be made a Union Minister. He now joins the select band of film industry people such as the late Sunil Dutt and Shatrughan Sinha who made it to the Union Ministry. Karnataka, however, continues to be denied a Cabinet Minister at the Centre with the other three — Oscar Fernandes, M.V. Rajasekharan and K.H. Muniyappa — being Union Ministers of State. Mr. Ambareesh’s entry into the Union Ministry is expected to give a boost to the Congress party in Karnataka in general and the Vokkaligas therein in particular. The Vokkaligas in the Congress have received a shoddy treatment for several years now and have even complained to the Congress high command about this. The Vokkaligas have no representation in the Rajya Sabha and in the All-India Congress Committee. The other dominant community in the State, Veerashaivas (Lingayats), also have a similar complaint although Mr. Rajasekharan was accommodated in the Union Council of Ministers in 2004. Mr. Ambareesh’s elevation is expected to give a boost to the Congress campaign in the prestigious byelection to the Chamundeshwari Assembly Constituency in Mysore. Soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that an expansion of the Union Cabinet was round the corner, there were many aspirants from the Congress in Karnataka seeking to be a part of the Ministry. Topping the list was Governor of Maharashtra S.M. Krishna, who is keen on getting back to active politics. The others included Tejaswini Sriramesh who believed that she should be a choice since she was the “giant killer” in the 2004 general elections when she defeated former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Kanakapura. Credit should go to the erstwhile Janata Dal for inviting Mr. Ambareesh (56), who at the time was at the peak of his film career, to join politics. The party fielded him in the byelection to the Legislative Assembly from Ramanagara after Mr. Deve Gowda vacated the seat on being elevated as Prime Minister. Although he lost the elections to C.M. Lingappa, Mr. Ambareesh maintained interest in politics and won the 1998 elections to the Lok Sabha by a handsome margin. With general elections repeating in 1999, he maintained his victory margin, and won again for the third time in 2004. With the Congress winning only eight of the 28 seats it was widely believed that he would be inducted into the Cabinet straightway. Mr. Ambareesh, who reached New Delhi on Monday after being called by the Prime Minister’s office, told The Hindu , “I owe my elevation as Union Minister to the people of Mandya and my fans all over the State. Although I am still not aware of my portfolio, I will do my best for the people of Karnataka and the Congress party. My induction is a case of better late than never.”