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Email this storyHigher education officials yet to take a stand on ATKT
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 Israeli cos in talks with TCS, Wipro, Infosys for IT deals Israeli hi-tech firms are in talks with Indian IT giants, such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys for contracts, especially in e-governance projects.  Infosys employee strength down by 945 in Q1 Infosys hired 3,538 employees in June quarter, but after attrition its total strength lowered.  Infosys looks to outbid rivals for UBS unit buy Infosys has intensified its efforts to outbid rivals Wipro and Genpact to acquire the back-office operations of the Swiss financial giant UBS.  Allure of R&D draws tech giants to India India, perceived as a necessary low-cost option only a few years ago, is fast becoming a destination for higher-end R&D work.  Cognizant to promote, hike employees' salaries Cognizant has sent a mail, stating that it has kicked off the process to promote and hike salaries for employees across levels.  Rishad Premji moves up the ladder, gets new role Rishad's new role will involve handling investor relations and maintaining dialogue with Wipro's financial investors and key stakeholders.  Shiv Nadar's daughter takes charge at HCL Corp Roshni Nadar, the daughter of business tycoon Shiv Nadar, has been appointed CEO of the HCL group's holding company.  Tech majors go all out to bag Rs 2K cr defence deal TCS, Wipro and Infosys, apart from SAP and IFS Defense, are pursuing contracts worth Rs 2,000 crore from the country's defense forces.  TCS to invest Rs 1,300 crore for capital expenditure Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday said it will invest Rs 1,300 crore for its capital expenditure in the current financial year.  UK's Lloyds banks on Wipro, TCS staff Many of the Indian recruits will be from top-rung Indian IT majors like Wipro and TCS, who are also the bank's vendors, said officials.  TCS, Infosys see signs of recovery on order flow TCS & Infy are seeing first signs of economic recovery as their top customers start discussing outsourcing contracts in order to reduce operational cost.  Wipro warns job aspirants from falling prey to bogus mails The e-mails had been sent out to job aspirants registered in job portals informing that they had been shortlisted for interviews for various vacancies.  IT looks at sunny days as deals begin to flow As companies in the $60-billion technology services sector gear up to announce results for the first quarter of 2009-10, the straws in the wind suggest that they may have weathered the worst of the global economic downturn.  No conflict of interest between new job & Infosys: Nilekani Nilekani is set to quit Infosys board after taking over as chairman of India's national project for creating a database of citizens.  IT biggies take 40% hit in billing rates The race to woo recession-hit clients across the world is forcing IT biggies to reduce their client billing rates, sometimes as high as 35-40 %, though most are still managing to control any sharp declines in their topline. | ||
After accepting the honour, Sibal said science and technology has brought prosperity to the world, but the impact has not been uniform as the scourge of poverty persists. Over 20 Nobel laureates and 580 students, including 50-odd from India, are participating in the conference in Germany. The Foundation's Honorary Senate includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former German President Roman Herzog and secretary general of the European Research Council, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker.
The EOI has been called for setting up universities in cities other than Bangalore as one NRI university is already going to come up there.
The EOI said preference would be given to those institutions which are already in possession of at least 100 acres of land and have experience in the field of university education as compared to primary and secondary education.
The government had indicated about plans for starting universities for children of NRIs\PIO at a Pravasi Bharat meet held last year.
The guidelines for setting up these universities, put out on the website of the ministry, said that 50 per cent of the seats in these universities would be reserved for children of NRIs and PIOs while the remaining 50 per cent seats would be given to resident Indian students.
Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday reiterated the UPA government's keenness to open up the education sector to foreign education providers and private players. The minister made this clear in his keynote address at the plenary session of the World Conference on Higher Education at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Taking forward the government's intent of having one Central university in each of the uncovered state, an amount of Rs 827 crore has been allocated in the Budget for the purpose.
IITs and NITs have been allocated Rs 2,113 crore which includes a provision of Rs 450 crore for new institutes.
Eight new Indian Institutes of Technology have been approved, six of which, namely, IITs at Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Gandhinagar, Patna and IITs for Rajasthan and Punjab have commenced their academic sessions from the year 2008-09.
Remaining two IITs at Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) are likely to commence the academic programmes from 2009-2010.
Earlier this week, Mr Sibal had told Parliament that the government was considering introducing a legislation allowing foreign education providers to set up campuses in India. In Paris, Mr Sibal said higher education providers delivering cross-border education should ensure that their programmes are of comparable quality to that provided in their home country. Acknowledging the tremendous potential of cross-border education, Mr Sibal warned: "We have to be mindful of the risks involved regarding the entry of 'diploma mills' and unscrupulous for-profit providers".
West Bengal school education minister Partha Dey said the education system would collapse if the Class X examination was done away with. 'The present system of phased-wise graduation from secondary to higher secondary and finally education system is more scientific since it follows the principle of gradual projection," he said. He also criticised the proposal for FDI in education and said that this will lead to a few big foreign universities monopolising education in India. "Students coming from humble economic background will suffer," he said.
The Gujarat government has welcomed the proposal. Jaynarayan Vyas, the state health minister and Gujarat government spokesperson, said, "We are open to the idea. The annual SSC examinations are very stressful. Any alternative to this system is welcome. In fact, there should be a universally accepted model of education and our Gujarat Educational Innovation Commission is working to bring out such a model," he said.
Parents have hailed the move.
"As a parent I feel it is a good move as class 10 board exam is redundant in the present scheme of school education being extended up to the class 12," said K Srinivasan, a resident of Chennai, "During my days we used to have a board exam in class 8, which was subsequently abolished and schooling was up to class 11. Then they introduced one-year PUC after class 11, which has now been standardised as class 12. I also feel that most students who drop out after class X will continue till class XII."
A principal from the Manik Vidya Mandir, a school in Mumbai, said Indians should be open to the idea of having a single examination at the end of schooling. "Earlier board exams were conducted at class IV and VII level. Now, it's time to think about having only board exams at class 12," she said.
The school agenda
Abolishing class X exam, replacing it with internal assessment; exam option for those planning to leave school
CBSE schools to grade class IX and X students from this year
Schools to be rated by independent accreditation body
Enacting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill
Evolving a consensus to establish an All-India Madrassa Board; incentives for madrassas that teach modern subjects
Framework for public-private-partnership in school education; allowing private sector to run government schools
Broadband in secondary schools
Revamping curriculum for teacher education to improve quality
Recasting National Literacy Mission to focus on women
Intensifying efforts to modernise madrassa and to develop skills of Muslim children
Higher education plan
Apex National Commission to be set up
A law against educational malpractices taking capitation fees and not providing facilities listed in prospectus, and cheating students sent to study abroad
Mandatory assessment and accreditation in higher education through an independent regulatory body
Entry and operation of foreign educational providers to be regulated
Tribunals to adjudicate education disputes
Strengthening National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions
Amending the Copyright Act due to changing technology
'Brain Grain' policy to attract talent to teach and research in Indian institutions
Equal Opportunities Offices in all universities
New policy for distance learning
Strengthening remedial coaching schemes for SC/ST/minority students
Flagging issues that will come up when the domestic legislation is introduced in Parliament, Mr Sibal pointed out that increased cross-border education required networks of equivalence of degrees and
diplomas. The minister asked the UNESCO to helping member states to develop national standards of accreditation for bench-marking higher education, improving and maintaining the quality of education. This, he suggested would ensure that private players do not become 'teaching sweat-shops'.
Touching upon another contentious domestic issue, that of greater private sector participation, Mr Sibal said that public institutions cannot keep pace with the rising demand. The minister said that there was a need to realise the importance of private sector in making investments in higher education.
"The huge gaps in access to higher education between regions and countries need to be narrowed but this is not possible without participation of private sector investments", the minister said. In Parliament, Mr Sibal had made it abundantly clear that allowing private sector a larger role was the way to move forward. "We are going to de-stress the system by allowing a lot of people to set up institutes with very strong entry barriers. That is what our policy is going to be. We need huge expansion in this area, because there is a mismatch between demand and supply. Unless that mismatch is rectified, we will not be able to move forward quickly," the minister had told Parliament.
Mr Sibal stressed on three historic realities which impact the need for investments in quality higher education around the world. The first being that cross border manufacturing processes and global transactions in services sector have created a demand for higher education not only of "national quality" but also which helps further this process of globalised economy. The second important development has been the technological revolution opening the doors of cross border education particularly in distance mode, with possibilities of virtual universities
providing quality education at reasonable costs. The third important development affecting our globe is the awareness and the need for action on global warming and climate change. Education, particularly higher education, must inculcate the values of sustainable development in the minds of our youth, the minister said.
Speaking of the demographic change, Mr Sibal said, "in this situation it is also in the interest of the developed countries to come forward and partner with the countries having demographic advantage (which are mostly developing countries) so that different countries of the world can share their strengths to develop the world, and I think education, particularly higher education, is the field to do so. I would, in fact, advocate for a global strategy to meet the requirements of skilled manpower for the world and certainly UNESCO can play an important role in the same."
A five stage procedure has been set out for this review. This includes written questionnaires for the deemed to be universities as well as field visits to shortlisted institutions.
There are at present 128 deemed universities, of these 35 are government managed. There has been a rapid expansion in the number of deemed universities since 2005. Between 1956 and 1990, only 29 institutions were granted the deemed university status, while between 2000 and 2005, 26 private-sponsored institutions got the deemed university status. Since 2005, the number of private deemed universities has increased to 128.
The review will report on the deficiencies, with respect to maintenance of standards, of deemed universities. Particular emphasis is being placed on the availability of the qualified faculty, infrastructure and the sanctity of the admission process. The UGC will also report on the status of accreditation of existing deemed universities to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council and the National Board of Accreditation. As of now only 35 of the 93 private deemed to be universities have been accredited by the NAAC.
These are IIMs at Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak in Haryana and Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari told the Rajya Sabha today in a written reply.
The government would set up the rest IIMs in Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan later. The IIM in Shillon has been set up in 2007-08, she said.
Sibal asks IITs to expand into areas of medicine, law
Seeking to take forward reforms in education, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal asked the IITs to expand into new areas like medicine and law and evolve a framework in this regard.Interacting with the IIT directors, Sibal said the institutes need to explore the possibility of having multiple campuses, good connectivity and courses with multi-disciplinary approach.
"You need to prepare a framework on how to achieve expansion, inclusiveness and excellence. IITs are good because you get the best students, not necessarily you give them the best. What you need is to give them the best," he said at a meeting at the IIT here.
He also said the IITs should go beyond the fixed boundaries.
"There should be multifarious disciplines in IITs -- school of medicine, law, social science and even literature.
What I want is innovation. Why cannot the 14 IITs become 14 universities with innovation," he said.
Sibal's remarks assume significance in view of a Government-appointed committee suggesting for starting multi-disciplinary approach in the IIT system. The committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation has favoured the idea of making IITs universities and allow them to start courses in various disciplines.
The government on Monday constituted a Group of Ministers to look into pricing and auctioning of spectrum for 3G telephony that will revolutionise the way data is received and transferred on mobile phones
. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the GoM that will include as members Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar and A Raja, official sources said.
Deciding the number of operators in each telecom circle, the reserve price for 3G and broadband wireless services (Wi Max) and the fee to be paid by mobile operators to the auctioner are among the key terms of reference of the GoM.
The government had last month decided to auction 3G spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 4,040 crore to at least six private operators besides state-owned MTNL and BSNL.
Raja had then maintained that no final decision had been taken and it would be either the Group of Ministers or the Cabinet that would take a call on the spectrum reserve price.
Initially, six private operators, apart from state-owned MTNL and BSNL, are expected to be allowed to offer 3G services that enable high-speed internet
On the exemption given to MTN from open offer now, SEBI Chairman C B Bhave told PTI: "...(it) was under a scheme of advance ruling ... What advise we have given them is correct... whether we will study the deal further and things like that we will see because the deal is not yet done."
Last week, SEBI had said that the South African firm MTN need not make an open offer to Bharti Airtel shareholders in India as its shareholding in the Sunil Mittal-promoted firm would be through Global Depository Reciepts (GDRs).
SEBI said that the open offer will only trigger once the GDRs, issued to MTN and its shareholders by Bharti Airtel are converted into local shares with voting rights.
Asked about the complicated nature of the deal that could be beyond the understanding of common investors Bhave said, "As long as we are satisfied with that, we will allow complication to happen..."
The proposed 23-billion dollar transaction between the largest mobile phone operator in India and the African firm involves a complex structure, according to which, both entities would pay cash and equity to get each other's stake.
Bhave said, "As far complicated deals are concerned it is in the nature of innovation. People will try to make more and more complicated deals, complicated products and so on. What as regulator we need to make sure is that complication is not just for the sake of getting over something else."
Though many companies have increased their internal audit budgets, the survey said that 44 per cent companies confirmed that fraud-detection procedures are not included in the work plan for most audits, while 36 per cent of them said they do not account IT risk assessments in their annual audit plans.
Though IT systems are backbone of operations in most companies, the India Internal Audit Survey 2009 showed that there is a dearth of IT auditors and a low percentage of firms perform an IT risk assessment before finalising their internal audit plans.
This means that firms need to revamp the functioning and involvement of audit committees in overseeing the audit function and see if there is proper implementation of audit recommendations, the survey said.
"Deeper involvement of audit committees is essential to improve the perception of the importance and quality of work delivered by the internal audit function," E&Y partner and national director Ram Sarvepalli said.
| Sibal clears exam air |
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |
| New Delhi, June 30: The Class X board examination may be made optional for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools as soon as next year, but detailed consultations will precede the proposed reforms, education minister Kapil Sibal clarified today. Faced with opposition from the BJP and concerns raised by states, Sibal today challenged his detractors but clarified that the government would hold detailed consultations with all stakeholders before proceeding with planned reforms. "The consultations will begin very soon, well within a hundred days," Sibal said. Concerns were raised by several states and sections of the education community over the proposed reforms being announced without any consultations. Sibal's comments today indicated the pressure he is under to clarify that his reform plans are not authoritarian, but the HRD minister also threw a challenge to his detractors. "Let those who are opposing me come out and say that they believe all is fine with our education system," he said. Sibal said he would follow a two-stage approach to examination and evaluation reforms articulated in the National Policy on Education, 1986, and argued that his proposals were in keeping with existing government policy. In the first stage, the HRD ministry will consult teachers, parents, students and management of schools affiliated to the centrally-run CBSE on the proposal to make the Class X board examination optional. "If these consultations succeed in the manner in which I expect them to, we may be in a position to implement the optional Class X board examination for CBSE schools from 2010," Sibal said. Bringing state governments on board will constitute the second stage. The proposed CBSE grading system for the Class X exam will do away with the term "failure" to lessen the stigma attached to poor performance, a PTI report said. "The last grade... will say the student 'needs improvement'," a CBSE official said. |
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented | |
 The front cover of an 1892 edition of Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, published by Harper & Bros, NY. | |
| Author | Thomas Hardy |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Tragedy |
| Publication date | 1891 |
| Media type | print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 592 |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Woodlanders |
| Followed by | Jude the Obscure |
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper, The Graphic. It is Hardy's penultimate novel, followed by Jude the Obscure. Though now considered a great classic of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Summary of the novel
[edit] Phase the First: The Maiden (1–17)
Tess is the eldest child of Jack and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants. One day, Parson Tringham informs John that he has noble blood. Tringham, an amateur genealogist, has discovered that "Durbeyfield" is a corruption of "D'Urberville", the surname of a noble Norman family, now extinct. Although the parson means no harm, the news immediately goes to John's head.
That same day, Tess participates in the village May Dance, where she briefly meets Angel Clare, the youngest son of Reverend James Clare, who is on a walking tour with his two brothers. He stops to join the dance, and finds partners in several other girls. Though Angel takes note of Tess's beauty, he does not dance with her, leaving her feeling slighted.
Tess's father, overjoyed with learning of his noble lineage, gets too drunk to drive to market that night, so Tess undertakes the journey herself. However, she falls asleep at the reins, and the family's only horse wanders into the path of another vehicle and is killed. Tess feels so guilty over the horse's death that she agrees to visit Mrs. d'Urberville, a wealthy widow who lives in the nearby town of Trantridge, and "claim kin." She is unaware that in reality, Mrs. d'Urberville is not related to the Durbeyfields or to the ancient d'Urberville family. Instead, her husband, Simon Stoke, purchased the baronial title and adopted the new surname.
Tess does not succeed in meeting Mrs. d'Urberville, but her libertine son Alec takes a fancy to Tess and secures her a position as poultry keeper on the d'Urberville estate. He immediately begins making advances, but Tess, though somewhat flattered by the attention, resists. Late one night while walking home from town with some other Trantridge villagers, Tess inadvertently antagonises Car Darch, Alec's most recently discarded favourite, and finds herself about to come to blows. When Alec rides up and offers to "rescue" her from the situation, she accepts. He does not take her home, however, but rides at random through the fog until they reach an ancient grove called "The Chase". Here, Alec informs her that he is lost and leaves on foot to look for help as Tess falls asleep beneath the coat he lent her. After Alec returns, alone, it is left to the reader to decide whether he rapes or seduces her.
[edit] Phase the Second: Maiden No More (17–20)
After a few weeks of confused dalliance with Alec, Tess begins to despise him. Against his wishes, she goes home to her father's cottage, where she keeps almost entirely to her room. The next summer, she gives birth to a sickly boy who lives only a week. On his last night alive, Tess baptises him herself after having been refused by the parson, giving him the name 'Sorrow'. Her father locks the door to prevent her sending for the parson. Tess buries Sorrow in unconsecrated ground and lays flowers by him in an empty marmalade jar.
[edit] Phase the Third: The Rally (20–24)
More than two years after the Trantridge debacle, Tess, now twenty, is ready to make a new start. She seeks employment outside the village, where her past is not known, and secures a job as a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy, working for Mr. and Mrs. Crick. There, she befriends three of her fellow milkmaids, Izz, Retty, and Marian, and re-encounters Angel Clare, who is now an apprentice farmer and has come to Talbothays to learn dairy management. Although the other milkmaids are sick with love for him, Angel soon singles out Tess, and the two gradually fall in love.
[edit] Phase the Fourth: The Consequence (25–34)
Angel spends a few days away from the dairy visiting his family at Emminster. His brothers Felix and Cuthbert, who are both ordained ministers, note Angel's coarsened manners, while Angel considers his brothers staid and narrow-minded. Following evening prayers, Angel discusses his marriage prospects with his father. The Clares have long hoped that Angel will marry Mercy Chant, a pious schoolmistress, but Angel argues that a wife who understands farm life would be a more practical choice. He tells his parents about Tess, and they agree to meet her. His father, the Reverend James Clare, tells Angel about his efforts to convert the local populace, and mentions his failure to tame a young miscreant named Alec d'Urberville.
Angel returns to Talbothays Dairy and asks Tess to marry him. This puts Tess in a painful dilemma. Angel obviously thinks she is a virgin and, although she does not want to deceive him, she shrinks from confessing lest she lose his love and admiration. Such is her passion for him that she finally agrees to the marriage, explaining that she hesitated because she had heard he hated old families and thought he would not approve of her d'Urberville ancestry. However, he is pleased by this news, because he thinks it will make their match more suitable in the eyes of his family.
As the marriage approaches, Tess grows increasingly troubled. She writes to her mother for advice; Joan tells her to keep silent about her past. Her anxiety increases when a man from Trantridge, named Groby, recognises her while she is out shopping with Angel and crudely alludes to her sexual history. Angel overhears and flies into an uncharacteristic rage. Tess resolves to deceive Angel no more, and writes a letter describing her dealings with d'Urberville and slips it under his door. After Angel greets her with the usual affection the next morning, she discovers the letter under his carpet and realises that he has not seen it. She destroys it.
The wedding goes smoothly although many omens are noticed by Tess (the cock crowing and the appearance of the old D'Urberville coach). Tess and Angel spend their wedding night at an old d'Urberville family mansion, where Angel presents his bride with some beautiful diamonds that belonged to his godmother and confesses that he once had a brief affair with an older woman in London. When she hears this story, Tess feels sure that Angel will forgive her own indiscretion, and finally tells him about her relationship with Alec.
[edit] Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays (35–44)
Angel, however, is appalled by Tess's confession, and he spends the wedding night sleeping on a sofa. Tess, although devastated, accepts the sudden estrangement as something she deserves. After a few awkward, awful days, she suggests that they separate, telling her husband that she will return to her parents. Angel gives her some money and promises to try to reconcile himself to her past, but warns her not to try to join him until he sends for her. After a quick visit to his parents, Angel takes ship for Brazil to start a new life. Before he leaves, he encounters Izz Huett on the road and impulsively asks her to come to Brazil with him, as his mistress. She accepts, but when he asks her how much she loves him, she admits "Nobody could love 'ee more than Tess did! She would have laid down her life for 'ee. I could do no more!" Hearing this, he abandons the whim, and Izz goes home weeping bitterly.
A very bleak period in Tess's life begins. She returns home for a time but, finding this unbearable, decides to join Marian and Izz at a starve-acre farm called Flintcombe-Ash. On the road, she is recognised and insulted by a farmer named Groby (the same man who slighted her in front of Angel); this man proves to be her new employer. At the farm, the three former milkmaids perform very hard physical labour.
One day, Tess attempts to visit Angel's family at the parsonage in Emminster. As she nears her destination, she encounters Angel's priggish older brothers and the woman his parents once hoped he would marry, Mercy Chant. They do not recognise her, but she overhears them discussing Angel's unwise marriage. Shamed, she turns back. On the way, she overhears a wandering preacher and is shocked to discover that he is Alec d'Urberville, who has been converted to Christianity under the Reverend James Clare's influence.
[edit] Phase the Sixth: The Convert (45–52)
Alec and Tess are each shaken by their encounter, and Alec begs Tess never to tempt him again as they stand beside an ill-omened stone monument called the Cross-in-Hand. However, Alec soon comes to Flintcomb-Ash to ask Tess to marry him. She tells him she is already married. He returns at Candlemas and again in early spring, when Tess is hard at work feeding a threshing machine. He tells her he is no longer a preacher and wants her to be with him. She slaps him when he insults Angel, drawing blood. Tess then learns from her sister, Liza-Lu, that her father, John, is ill and her mother dying. Tess rushes home to look after them. Her mother soon recovers, but her father unexpectedly dies.
The family is now evicted from their home, as Durbeyfield held only a life lease on their cottage. Alec tells Tess that her husband is never coming back and offers to house the Durbeyfields on his estate. Tess refuses his assistance. She had earlier written Angel a psalm-like letter, full of love, self-abasement, and pleas for mercy; now, however, she finally admits to herself that Angel has wronged her and scribbles a hasty note saying that she will do all she can to forget him, since he has treated her so unjustly.
The Durbeyfields plan to rent some rooms in the town of Kingsbere, ancestral home of the d'Urbervilles, but they arrive there to find that the rooms have already been rented to another family. All but destitute, they are forced to take shelter in the churchyard, in a plot called "d'Urberville Aisle". Alec reappears and importunes Tess again. In despair, she looks at the entrance to the d'Urberville vault and wonders aloud "Why am I on the wrong side of this door!"
In the meantime, Angel has been very ill in Brazil and, his farming venture having failed, he heads home to England. On the way, he confides his troubles to a stranger, who tells him that he was wrong to leave his wife; what she was in the past should matter less than what she might become. Angel begins to repent his treatment of Tess.
[edit] Phase the Seventh: Fulfilment (53–59)
Upon his return to his family home, Angel has two letters waiting for him: Tess's angry note and a few cryptic lines from "two well-wishers" (Izz and Marian), warning him to protect his wife from "an enemy in the shape of a friend." He sets out to find Tess and eventually locates Joan, now well-dressed and living in a pleasant cottage. After responding evasively to his inquiries, she finally tells him her daughter has gone to live in Sandbourne, a fashionable seaside resort. There, he finds Tess living in an expensive boarding house under the name "Mrs. d'Urberville." When he asks for her, she appears in startlingly elegant attire and stands aloof. He tenderly asks her forgiveness, but Tess, in anguish, tells him he has come too late: thinking he would never return, she yielded at last to Alec d'Urberville's persuasion and has become his mistress. She gently asks Angel to leave and never come back. He departs, and Tess returns to her bedroom, where she falls to her knees and begins a lamentation. She blames Alec for causing her to lose Angel's love a second time, accusing Alec of having lied when he said that Angel would never return to her.
The landlady, Mrs. Brooks, tries to listen in at the keyhole, but withdraws hastily when the argument becomes heated. She later sees Tess leave the house, then notices a spreading red spot—a bloodstain—on the ceiling. She summons help, and Alec is found stabbed to death in his bed.
Angel, totally disheartened, has left Sandbourne; Tess hurries after him and tells him that she has killed Alec, saying that she hopes she has won his forgiveness by murdering the man who spoiled both their lives. Angel doesn't believe her at first but grants his forgiveness—as she is in such a fevered state—and tells her that he loves her. Rather than head for the coast, they walk inland, vaguely planning to hide somewhere until the search for Tess is ended and they can escape abroad from a port. They find an empty mansion and stay there for five days in blissful happiness, until their presence is discovered one day by the cleaning woman.
They continue walking and, in the middle of the night, stumble upon Stonehenge giving the illusion of Tess as a sacrificial victim to a society that shunned her. Tess lies down to rest on an ancient altar. Before she falls asleep, she asks Angel to look after her younger sister, Liza-Lu, saying that she hopes Angel will marry her after she is dead although this, at the time, would have been illegal and seen as a form of incest. At dawn, Angel sees that they are surrounded by policemen. He finally realises that Tess really has committed murder and asks the men in a whisper to let her awaken naturally before they arrest her. When she opens her eyes and sees the police, she tells Angel she is "almost glad" because "now I shall not live for you to despise me". She is allowed a dignified death through the fact that Angel listens to her (he hasn't throughout the rest of the novel) and through her parting words of "I am ready".
Tess is escorted to Wintoncester (Winchester) prison. The novel closes with Angel and Liza-Lu watching from a nearby hill as the black flag signalling Tess's execution is raised over the prison. Angel and Liza-Lu then join hands and go on their way.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Major characters
- Tess Durbeyfield — The protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family; a fresh, pretty country girl.
- Angel Clare — The son of a clergyman; Tess's husband and true love. He considers himself a freethinker, but his notions of morality turn out to be fairly conventional: he rejects Tess on their wedding night when she confesses that she isn't a virgin, even though he, too, has engaged in premarital sex. He works at the Talbothay's dairy to gain practical experience because he hopes to buy a farm of his own.
- Alec Stoke-d'Urberville — The libertine son of Simon Stoke and Mrs. d'Urberville. He either rapes or seduces Tess when she is no more than seventeen years old, and later pursues her relentlessly until she agrees to become his mistress again.
- Jack Durbeyfield (Sir John d'Urberville) — Tess's father, a carter in Marlott (based on the Dorset village of Marnhull) who is lazy and given to drinking. When he learns that his family is descended from nobility, he works less and less and starts pretending that he is an aristocrat.
- Joan Durbeyfield — Tess's hardworking mother who has a practical outlook on life. This includes being prepared to use her daughter for her own gains.
[edit] Minor characters
- Mrs. Brooks — Landlady of The Herons, the seaside boarding house where Tess murders Alec.
- James Clare — A charitable and moral clergyman; Angel Clare's father.
- Mrs. Clare — Angel Clare's mother, a kindly woman. She wants Angel to marry a pure, virtuous, and true Christian woman.
- Felix Clare — Angel's brother, a priest's assistant.
- Cuthbert Clare — Angel's other brother, a classical scholar.
- Mercy Chant — The young lady that Angel's parents had thought to be the perfect wife for him. She later marries Cuthbert.
- Richard Crick — The owner of the Talbothay Farm for whom Angel and Tess work.
- Car Darch (Dark Car) — One of Alec's former mistresses, discarded in favour of Tess.
- Eliza Louisa (Liza-Lu) Durbeyfield — Tess's younger sister, who closely resembles her. Shortly before her arrest, Tess asks Angel to marry her. Tess says she has "all the best of me, and none o' the bad".
- Farmer Groby — Tess's employer at Flintcombe-Ashe, a churlish man who knows about her relationship with Alec. Groby is knocked down by Angel in their sojourn before their wedding, Angel thinking Groby had offended Tess' honour. Groby says to his friend afterwards that he "didn't have the heart" to tell Angel the truth at the time. His recognition of Tess sparks her fears, and reintroduces the threat of her past into the tragedy.
- Jonathan Kail — A Talbothays dairyman who informs Angel and Tess in the D'Urberville mansion right after the marriage, that Retty Priddle tried to commit suicide, Marian got "dead drunk", and that Izz Huett is walking around depressed.
- Abraham, Hope & Modesty — The son and daughters of the Durbeyfields.
- Mrs. Stoke-D'Urberville — The wealthy mother of Alec, a blind widow.
- Izz Huett, Retty Priddle, and Marian — Dairy maids at the Talbothay Farm. Izz is sensible, Retty sensitive, and Marian stolid, but all are in love with Angel Clare and fare poorly after he marries Tess.
- Parson Tringham — An elderly parson from whom John learns about his noble ancestors.
- Sorrow — The illegitimate child of Tess and Alec who lives only a few weeks. Tess loves him, despite her painfully conflicted feelings about the circumstances of his conception. She christens him herself on the night he dies.
[edit] Symbolism and themes
| | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
Hardy's writing often illustrates the "ache of modernism", and this theme is notable in Tess. He describes modern farm machinery with infernal imagery; also, at the dairy, he notes that the milk sent to the city must be watered down because the townspeople can not stomach whole milk. Angel's middle-class fastidiousness makes him reject Tess, a woman whom Hardy often portrays as a sort of Wessex Eve, in harmony with the natural world and so lovely and desirable that Hardy himself seems to be in love with her. When he parts from her and goes to Brazil, the handsome young man gets so sick that he is reduced to a "mere yellow skeleton." All these instances are typically interpreted as indications of the negative consequences of man's separation from nature, both in the creation of destructive machinery and in the inability to rejoice in pure nature.
Another important theme of the novel is the sexual double standard to which Tess falls victim—despite being, in Hardy's view, a truly good woman, she is despised by society after losing her virginity before marriage. Hardy plays the role of Tess's only true friend and advocate, pointedly subtitling the book "a pure woman faithfully presented" and prefacing it with Shakespeare's words "Poor wounded name! My bosom as a bed/ Shall lodge thee." However, although Hardy clearly means to criticise Victorian notions of female purity, the double standard also makes the heroine's tragedy possible, and thus serves as a mechanism of Tess's broader fate. Hardy variously hints that Tess must suffer either to atone for the misdeeds of her ancestors, or to provide temporary amusement for the gods, or because she possesses some small but lethal character flaw inherited from the ancient clan.
From numerous pagan and neo-Biblical references made about her, Tess can be viewed variously as an Earth goddess or as a sacrificial victim[citation needed]. Early in the novel, she participates in a festival for Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, and when she performs a baptism she chooses a passage from Genesis, the book of creation, over more traditional New Testament verses. At the end, when Tess and Angel come to Stonehenge, commonly believed in Hardy's time to be a pagan temple, she willingly lies down on an altar, thus fulfilling her destiny as a human sacrifice.
This symbolism may help explain Tess as a personification of nature—lovely, fecund, and exploitable—while animal imagery throughout the novel strengthens the association. Examples are numerous: Tess's misfortunes begin when she falls asleep while driving Prince to market, thus causing the horse's death; at Trantridge, she becomes a poultry-keeper; she and Angel fall in love amidst cows in the fertile Froom valley; and on the road to Flintcombe-Ashe, she compassionately kills some wounded pheasants to end their suffering.
[edit] Tess in popular culture
- Art Garfunkel named his first post-Simon & Garfunkel solo album Angel Clare after the character of the same name.
- American writer Christopher Bram wrote a novel entitled In Memory of Angel Clare (1989).
- The British comedy troupe Monty Python mention Tess of the d'Urbervilles on their 1973 comedy record album Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief on the track "Novel Writing", in which Thomas Hardy writes Return of the Native before a live audience.
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles is mentioned towards the end of M.R.James' short ghost story 'The Mezzotint' (1904).
- Tess of the D'Ubervilles is also referred to in Margaret Atwood's short story entitled My Last Duchess, published in Moral Disorder (2006).
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Theatre
The novel was successfully adapted for the stage twice.
- 1897: A production by Lorimer Stoddard proved a great Broadway triumph for actress Minnie Maddern Fiske, was revived in 1902, and subsequently made into a motion picture in 1913, but of which no copies remain.
- 1946: An adaptation by playwright Ronald Gow became a triumph on the West End starring Wendy Hiller.
[edit] Opera
1906: An Italian operatic version written by Frederic d'Erlanger was first performed in Naples, but the run was cut short by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When the opera came to London three years later, Hardy himself attended the premier, at the age of 69.
[edit] Film
The book has also been filmed at least seven times, including three for theatrical release and four television productions.
- Theater:
- 1913: The 'lost' silent version, mentioned above (in theatre), starring Minnie Maddern Fiske as Tess and Scots-born David Torrence as Alec.[1]
- 1924: An extant silent version made with Blanche Sweet (Tess), Stuart Holmes (Alec), and Conrad Nagel (Angel).[2]
- 1979: Roman Polanski's film Tess with Nastassja Kinski (Tess), Leigh Lawson (Alec), and Peter Firth (Angel).[3]
- 1952: BBC TV, directed by Michael Henderson, and starring Barbara Jefford (Tess), Michael Aldridge (Alec), and Donald Eccles (Angel).[4]
- 1960: ITV, ITV Play of the Week, "Tess", directed by Michael Currer-Briggs, and starring Geraldine McEwan (Tess), Maurice Kaufmann (Alec), and Jeremy Brett (Angel).[5]
- 1998: London Weekend Television's 3-hour mini-series Tess of the D'Urbervilles, directed by Ian Sharp, and starring Justine Waddell (Tess), Jason Flemyng (Alec) and Oliver Milburn (Angel), the latter himself Dorset-born.[6]
- 2008: A 4-hour BBC adaptation, written by David Nicholls, aired in the United Kingdom in September and October 2008 (in four parts),[7] and in the United States on PBS Masterpiece Classic in January 2009 (in two parts).[8] The cast included Gemma Arterton (Tess), Hans Matheson (Alec), Eddie Redmayne (Angel), Ruth Jones (Joan), Anna Massey (Mrs. d'Urberville), and Kenneth Cranham (Reverend James Clare).[9][10]
[edit] Notes
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Graphic, XLIV, July-December, 1891
- Morgan, Rosemarie. "Thomas Hardy (Guide to the Year's Work)", Victorian Poetry, September 22, 2006 (Full Text)
[edit] References
- ^ Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913). - IMDb.
- ^ Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924). - IMDb.
- ^ Tess. - IMDb.
- ^ Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1952) (TV). - IMDb.
- ^ ITV Play of the Week - "Tess" (1960). - IMDb.
- ^ Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1998). - IMDb.
- ^ Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy's classic novel for BBC One. - BBC. - 21 January 2008.
- ^ Wiegand, David. - "Compelling performances rescue 'Tess'". - San Francisco Chronicle. - January 2, 2009.
- ^ Tess Of The D'Urbervilles – vibrant young cast line-up for dramatic adaptation of Hardy classic for BBC One. - BBC. - 17 March 2008.
- ^ Tess of the d'Urbervilles (2008). - IMDb.
[edit] External links
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles at Project Gutenberg
- Cliffs Notes analysis of Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- A hypertextual, self-referential, complete edition of Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the film version, at IMDb.com
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles free MP3 audio recording from LibriVox.
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| THE TOP MINDS AT A PROFIT - A dissenting note to the Yash Pal committee report | ||
| Kaushik Basu | ||
The broad ideas outlined in the main report of the committee to advise on renovation and rejuvenation of higher education in India — such as forming an apex body for managing India's higher-education sector, nurturing inter-disciplinarity and extending university education to much larger and diverse segments of the population — are commendable. My apprehension, however, is that without more detailed plans of action and sharper targets, these broad aims will remain unfulfilled, like so many well-meaning previous pronouncements. There are many areas where we need reform and which have been dealt with in the main report. What I mention here are items which, in my opinion, deserve consideration, but are omitted or not emphasized in the report, and also some fine points on which I have a difference of opinion. Till a few decades ago, India's higher education system stood out for its excellence, not only in comparison to developing countries but also to some industrialized nations. The high economic growth that India has witnessed since 1994 has several causes; one of them is our good higher education. Unfortunately, this sector is now faltering. Several nations that trailed India on this score are now ahead of it. This is not because India has changed, but because India has not changed while others have. If our nation's development is to be sustained and we want to be a progressive and enlightened nation, then it is imperative that we reform our system of higher education. First, the main report speaks about the need for greater autonomy for colleges and universities. However, one stumbling block for this objective is the huge power vested in the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education. There is need for these organizations to divest themselves of some of this power. Also, there should be a refocusing of their main function. It is the responsibility of the UGC to maintain the quality of our higher education and research. However, this must be achieved by nurturing excellence instead of spending a disproportionate amount of energy creating barriers to entry and preventing new colleges and universities from coming into existence. The latter has led to the creation of what is effectively a 'licensing system' in higher education. Just as India gave up on industrial licensing in the early Nineties (and thereby unleashed growth), the reformed UGC and AICTE should give up on the licensing of higher education. At times, we forget that the market, with all its faults, does perform certain functions reasonably well. Poorly performing colleges and educational institutes, if information about their performance is made easily available, will be competed out of existence by the pressures of the market. For this reason, one principal activity of a revised UGC should be to rate universities and institutes of higher education. As we know from the modern industrial sector, good-quality rating is vital for the economy, and successful nations spend a lot to collate information and rate corporations. The UGC should, likewise, produce and publicize ratings of and information about all universities and institutes of higher education. This should be a detailed, annual exercise and be prominently available on a website. While the United States of America has arguably the world's greatest universities, it also has many sub-par ones. The existence of the latter does not harm the reputation of the US as a nation of academic excellence. If there was a perfect way for the state to efficiently weed out the bad, I would be for it. But as we learnt from our experience with industrial licensing, often the effort to weed out the bad by using bureaucratic control can do more harm than good. Second, we have to recognize that it is not possible for any government, let alone the government of a developing nation, to run over 300 universities with equal generosity. Such an agendum is bound to cause either a fiscal breakdown or doom the university system to mediocrity. It follows from this that we have to reconcile ourselves to the differential treatment of institutions and universities and also of individuals. This has to be based on a transparent system of objective evaluation, so that every individual and every university has the same opportunity. But to expect the outcome to be the same across individuals and universities is to court failure. This takes us to the touchy topic of salaries and research support. The old system of a flat scale, where every professor was supported in the same way across all the over-300 universities, was once an attractive idea. It is no longer feasible. On the one hand, most nations are switching over to the system of special salaries and research budgets for 'star' researchers and professors. This began with the US. Now other nations, including Britain and even China, have switched to this. On the other hand, corporate salaries have gone through the roof. Given these facts, if we want to attract top talent to research and teaching, we have to allow for pay differentials. The exact modality of this will entail discussion and debate. Two ways of doing this are: first, designating, say, 20 universities, as centres of excellence and putting them on a higher funding scale. The list of top 20 should be evaluated and revised every three years so that all universities stand a chance of getting there. The second option is to select a small number of professors in each field from the entire nation and place them on a higher salary and research support. By 'higher salary' I do not mean 5 or 10 per cent higher, but three or four times the regular professorial salary. This will create incentives for academics to work harder and also attract top minds that would have gone to the corporate sector to come into academics and research. If this system is properly managed, it can transform the quality of India's higher education. Further, this can be achieved with no additional fiscal burden. The average salary of all professors all over India can be held constant and this achieved by simply creating a graded salary system. Third, we should allow private-sector money to come into higher education. Surreptitious privatization is already a fact of life. It will be better to let this happen openly; there can then also be open monitoring. The purely private colleges should of course not be subsidized by the State. They should be allowed to set college fees as high as they choose (as long as this is made transparent). It is true that such private colleges will end up teaching mainly commercially viable subjects and cater to relatively rich students. There is no harm in this and some advantages, since the State will now be able to allocate more money to the colleges and universities under its charge and provide good education to the remainder at a lower cost. There is an additional question: should we allow these private colleges to be profit-making organizations, that is, allow the owners or the shareholders to openly keep the profit to themselves? A common presumption is that if someone is interested in profit, that person will not be interested in providing good education. This is a fallacy. It is like assuming that if Tata Motors is interested in making profit, it will not be interested in producing a good small car. However, in reality, its interest in producing a good small car could be because it is interested in making profits. Likewise, in education. If a profit-making company wants to start a university, there is no reason why we should not allow this. This is an idea that should at least be on the table. There are not too many examples of such universities in the world. This can be a pioneering effort on the part of India and, if successful, can cause a huge infusion of funds into our higher education system. Finally, this is the time to consider steps to make India into the world's major hub for higher education. Given our historic (though eroding) advantage in higher education, our strength in the English language and our low cost of living, it is possible for India to position itself as a major destination for students from around the world, not just from poor countries, but rich, industrialized nations, such as Korea, Britain and even the US. One reason why an African student goes to the US to study is to then acquire the right to stay on there and work. Attracting such a student will not be easy. But consider an American student who anyway has the right to go back to the US and work there. In the US, each year of education costs approximately, $50,000 or Rs 25 lakh. If India can build some good universities with high quality residences for students and advertise globally, India can give this market tough competition. If India charges tuition fees of Rs 5 lakh per annum from foreign students, then with all other overheads a student can get quality education for Rs 8 lakh per annum, which is a third of the cost in the US. There is clearly a huge comparative advantage in this and the scheme can attract lots of students to India. This can bring in a large infusion of money, which can make it possible for the Indian government to subsidize the higher education of Indian students and vastly expand the number of Indian students who get university education. | ||
| The author is professor of Economics at Cornell University and was a member of the Yash Pal committee on higher education |
Budget 2009 brings not much respite for the retail sector
However, as expected, the budget could not bring relief to all the sectors of the economy, including the retail sector. Retail is the second largest sector in India after agriculture and has its own sets of demands to achieve its true potentials and have global best practices.
There were many expectations of the retail sector form the budget. However, Budget 2009 leaves the retailers wanting for more as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made no mention of reforms in the retail sector which could have contributed significantly to the retail arena.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister emphasized the importance of foreign investment for the growth of our economy. Even the economic survey for 2009-10 recommended introduction of FDI in multi brand retail by making a start with food retailing. However, no policy announcements or references were made towards the long standing demand of reforms in the retail sector for liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) in single brand retail and opening of multi brand retail. Further, no clarifications have been brought out on the applicability of recently introduced Press notes 2, 3 and 4 of 2009 on prohibited sectors, including multi brand retailing, leaving the same ambiguous.
Also, there was an expectation for granting Industry status to the Indian retail sector which would help in development, granting fiscal incentives, availability of organized financing and establishment of insurance norms.
Also, among the wish list of the retailers was the opening up of the external commercial borrowings (ECB) route for meeting the constant funding needs of the retail players. However, no policy announcement on this has been made by the FM.
Electric cars could dominate US roads in 2030
A company called Better Place and emerging rivals plan to offer pay-per-mile plans, similar to cell phone minutes. A family would buy a car but Better Place would own the battery, offer charging stations, and swap out batteries as needed to extend the driving range.
The cost of building charging systems will be more than $320 billion over the next couple of decades, although health-related savings due to less vehicle pollution could be $210 billion, according to the study by economist Thomas Becker.
The main benefit to drivers would be cars with price tags and operating costs similar to or less than gasoline models.
Renault-Nissan is making cars for the Better Place project. Better Place has said its system would be cheaper than using gasoline. The Berkeley analysis predicted the per-mile cost of making and charging batteries, including the cost of building a charging system, would be similar to or sharply less than a gasoline car, depending largely on whether prices of petrol rise.
Jyotiraditya Scindia also said there was no proposal to implement full capital account convertibility as of now.
| It's infrastructure season for investors 13 Jul 2009, 0413 hrs IST, Dhirendra Kumar,
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| With the budget and without, this is infrastructure season for investors. In fact, in one way or another, it has been infrastructure season for
Before the budget, it became a sort of a consensus that the budget will contain something that will absolutely set fire to all manner of stocks that can somehow define themselves as infrastructure. Of course, what actually happened after the budget is too painful a story to bear repeating, but the wind has definitely not gone from the sails of infrastructure investments. Among mutual funds, the most successful new fund launch in many months has been Reliance's Infrastructure fund, which has collected a hefty Rs 2500 crore, making it one of the larger such funds around. In all, there are 18 (?) infrastructure funds in India that are between them managing a good Rs 15,000 crore of assets. In general, the last few years have seen these funds take a high mindshare among fund investors, along with the infrastructure theme in general. However, when I look at these funds' investment portfolios, I'm reminded of a PJ from my school days. A student mugs up an essay on 'Cows' for an exam. However, the essay topic that actually comes in the exam is 'Grass' . So he starts the essay, 'Grass is generally eaten by cows,' and then proceeds to write the essay on cows that he had expected. Infrastructure is to these funds' portfolios what cows were to that student's answer sheet. If I were to classify the thirty Sensex companies as infrastructure or non-infrastructure on this basis then 20 of them, totalling no less then 75% of the total value, would be infrastructure. With a few exceptions like IT and pharma, almost the whole of Indian business seems to qualify as infrastructure . And of course, it isn't difficult to construct an argument as to why such a wide variety of businesses qualify as infrastructure. In reality, this situation is the product of the marketing imperatives of the mutual fund business. To sell, they need new funds and it is far easier to construct a compelling message around what sound like well-defined idea than it is for a general fund. The result is supra-sector 'themes' like infrastructure which on close examination are a minor variation on general diversified funds. There's another insidious affect that comes up with any specialised funds. The choice of an investment theme or sector absolves the fund manager of some of the blame of poor performance. When you invest in a truly diversified fund, the fund's investment manager is responsible for everything. But if you invest in a sector or thematic fund, then you, the investor, are part fund manager. The sector is your choice, the fund manager is responsible only for the choices within the sector. | ||||||||
| The limits to decoupling 13 Jul 2009, 0122 hrs IST, Ruchir Sharma,
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| China's role in the global economy is currently similar to that of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dyke to avert disaster. It is However, the boy could only stem the tide up to a point and fortunately other men soon arrived on the scene to fix the problem. As was the case in the Dutch legend, the global economy too needs the developed world to start contributing to world growth again for a broad-based recovery to materialise. And that in turn requires the US consumer to spend at least a small part of the stimulus funds pronto. Even China is betting on the US consumer making some sort of a comeback. While Chinese policymakers are indeed attempting to reorient the economy by encouraging more domestic consumption, such structural changes take a long time to pan out. Boosting infrastructure spending is the quickest way to shore up demand in the short-term and that's what China has done over the past few months. A large part of the Chinese stimulus has gone towards increasing fixed asset investment even though investment as a share of GDP is already at abnormally high levels of more than 40%. China essentially remains the world's main manufacturing base. And herein lies the problem with the global economic recovery story. It will be very difficult for China to maintain its 8% expansion pace if its export growth does not pick up by the end of the year as there's a limit as to how much investment it can add to its already large and increasingly idle manufacturing base. The rise in economic optimism since March this year has largely been due to a turnaround in the manufacturing sectors in many countries, starting with China. Manufacturing activity that declined across the world by more than 15% in the year to March 2009 began to stabilise in the first quarter of 2009 with Asian countries taking the lead. Expectations rose that the snapback in industrial activity could be quite sharp as firms had aggressively cut production and their workforce late last year following the credit crisis. Some developing countries are indeed on track to post eye-popping growth numbers for the second quarter. Many Asian emerging markets probably recorded economic growth in excess of 10% on an annualised basis in the April-June 2009 quarter. For the developed world as well economists are projecting positive growth in the July-September quarter with the rate of inventory liquidation having peaked in the first half of 2009. Global equity markets were on a tear since March, tracking the sharp improvement in economic sentiment. But after pricing in all the positive developments on the global manufacturing front, the stock market rally stalled in June and is now showing signs of fading as the realisation dawns that any rebound in manufacturing activity may just be a short-term phenomenon if final demand does not resurface. Unfortunately, the news on the consumption front has been discouraging of late. It appears that the US consumer has used all the additional income from the stimulus packages to just rebuild the savings pool. The household savings ratio has risen from virtually zero in late 2007 to 6% currently. That's a huge swing in a short span of time although it is still below the historical norm of 8%. No meaningful global economic recovery can shape up as long as the US consumer stays completely focused on increasing the savings ratio. After all, consumption drives growth, not manufacturing activity as the latter is undertaken only in anticipation of final demand. The most important data then to track in the weeks and months ahead are US retail sales numbers. While the US consumer is unlikely to return to the spendthrift ways of the past two decades for a long time to come, a modest increase in retail sales is now required to create some sort of a virtuous economic cycle. Over time, the US consumer needs to work off the excessive leverage and gradually increase the savings rate while the rest of the world makes the necessary structural adjustments to the growth model. In the long-run, final demand trends of the developed world will play a less significant role and the growth leadership has to be provided by the emerging market consumer. But decoupling is an incremental process and given the trade and capital flow linkages, developing countries cannot pull away from the developed world too far, too quickly. The decoupling theme staged some sort of a comeback this year after being derailed by the economic crisis in 2008. This is reflected in the relative performance of emerging markets versus developed markets: the gap between the indices of the two blocs is back at the levels last seen at the peak of the decoupling mania in late 2007. Equity market performance merely tracks economic sentiment on a real time basis and the large performance gap between the emerging and developed market indices indicates the differential in sentiment is stretched from a historical perspective. To be sure, there's nothing to suggest that the differential can't get wider. The valuations of stocks in developing countries are currently similar to those in the developed world after long trading at a discount and a case can be made that emerging market equities should trade at a premium as their future growth prospects are brighter. In the near-term however, it's hard to justify much of a premium as the export dependency and the reliance on external capital to fund some of their growth is still high among many developing economies. Ironically, both the performance and valuation gap between the developing and the industrialised world could further widen in the coming months if risk appetite in the US and other developed countries rises. That in turn will lead to an even greater inflow of capital into emerging markets. For that to happen though economic optimism in the US must improve. It's then all down to the US consumer to determine whether a global economic recovery gains traction by moving beyond the inventory rebuilding stage. If the US consumer remains in a funk and keeps on saving any additional income the world economy will at best follow an L-shaped economic path, implying that the cyclical bull market in equities is over. But even a modest revival in US consumer activity will be enough to create a positive feedback loop between production and consumption and extend the cyclical bull market in stocks till at least early 2010 when fresh challenges will emerge as the stimulus effects fade and excessive leverage in the system remains a drag. The bears argue that the consumer will keep on retrenching this year as the economic wounds of the past year are still raw and the debt overload high. They do have history on their side: it has typically taken around three years for the US economy to find its footing after suffering a major crisis. The first phase of the Great Depression lasted three years from 1929 to 1932. In a disturbing parallel, the stock market rallied by 30% in early 1931 as industrial activity seemed to be stabilising following a market crash of nearly 50% in the previous year. But the consumer deleveraging process continued unabated that subsequently took the economy and the markets for a deeper dive. Even during a mild recession in 2001 following the tech boom-bust cycle, it took till mid-2003 for consumer spending to accelerate despite industrial activity having bottomed in late 2001 and showing a rebound in early 2002. Of course, the difference this time around is that the world has never seen so much money thrown at a problem. The bulls are banking on that cash infusion to launch a sustained global recovery. China's policymakers have already succeeded in stimulating their economy but beyond a point, it too needs the largest buyer of its goods — the US consumer — to start spending again. If that doesn't happen soon enough, then the global economy faces the prospect a relapse. (The author is head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management | |||||||
| Other stories in this section |
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana provides for medical care (insurance) to poor families below poverty line. More than 46 lakhs such families have been issued biometric smart cards, which provide them the freedom to choose hospitals from an extensive list; thus, making quality healthcare facilities available to them. Till now the coverage of this program was limited to certain states. It is now proposed to extend the coverage of this program to all below poverty line families. Towards this end, additional budget allocation of INR 350 crores has been made, which is a 40 percent increase over last year. The Finance Minister has also increased the budget allocation for the National Rural Health Mission (a body with its primary focus to improve availability and accessibility of quality healthcare to the poor, women and children especially to the rural populace) by INR 2,057 crore over the INR 12,070 crore provided in the Interim budget.
On tax front, basic customs duty on certain drugs (and bulk drugs for their manufacture)/ vaccine has been reduced from 10 to 5 per cent. Levy of excise duty/ additional customs duty on the same have been removed. Also, for certain medical devices the basic customs duty has been reduced from 7.5 to 5 percent, with a concurrent reduction in excise/ additional customs duty to 'Nil' (where it was applicable). These should help in reducing cost of other wise expensive ailments such as heart diseases, cancer and arthritis – Again a benefit to the common man.
Whilst, the rich may take some brunt with the introduction of service tax on cosmetic and plastic surgery services meant to preserve or enhance physical appearance or beauty and increase in excise duty on contact lenses from 4 to 8 per cent.
The global pharma industry is at cross roads today. With shrinkage of pipeline of new durgs and increasing costs, although India has not yet lost its charm, acceleration for increased growth is nonetheless imperative. On the top industry's wish list were fiscal and tax incentives for new product development, contract manufacturing, clinical trials and exports. If the industry wish list was paid any heed, it could have gone a long way to give India a better competitive edge in the global market. However, the same remains undone.
The recent growth of telecom services, largely led by wireless services, both globally and in India, underlines the strategic role of spectrum in national economies. Proper institutional mechanisms and instruments are required to manage this precious resource.
Given the global nature of today's businesses and the highly competitive context of their operations, it becomes important for operators to achieve economies of scale. This can be made possible only if devices and equipment that are designed for service provision use spectrum bands in a harmonised manner across different countries. Thus, besides domestic issues of optimal allocation and management, there are issues of international coordination or harmonisation that national regulators have to deal with.
Spectrum is a central input for wireless services. Since other inputs required for service delivery (interconnection arrangements, QOS, tariffs, etc) are governed by the telecom regulator, there is no logic for spectrum to be governed by a separate regulator. In most countries, spectrum management is an integral part of telecom regulator's domain.
However, spectrum management was a critical aspect which had been specifically left out of Trai's purview in the Trai Act 2000. This was possibly because DoT wanted control over key aspects of telecom regulation. In the US, Federal Communications Commission is responsible for commercial spectrum.
In the UK, until 2003, the Radio Communications Agency, an executive agency of the department of trade and industry was responsible for the management of the non-military radio spectrum. It was merged in to Ofcom in December 2003.
That spectrum, a critical resource, has been treated in an ad-hoc manner in India is obvious from the lack of a national strategic framework that provides a long-term vision and plan for spectrum. Countries that have adopted such plans have not only been able to leverage the benefits of new technology
For example, by switching to digital broadcasting in a well planned manner, countries such as the US, UK and Malaysia have been able to release spectrum that wastefully used analog technologies. This is just one example of benefits that could be operationalised. It goes without saying that rapid technological developments in this domain make it imperative to have a responsive and accountable national policy and framework.
Most countries are moving progressively away from "command and control" to reliance on market mechanisms and greater use of license-exempt bands. To do this, the FCC set up a Task Force Spectrum Management that presented its report in November 2002. Ofcom came out with a Spectrum Framework Review in June 2005.
(http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/sfr/sfr2/). New technologies do not necessarily require exclusive allocation and use; spectrum may be shared by various users (for example, wi-fi).
| Budget 2009: NPS needs further impetus to interest investors 9 Jul 2009, 1223 hrs IST,
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| By: Avan Badshaw & Jay Unarkar On May 1, 2009, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced the NPS for all Indian citizens to endeavor pre-arranged support in the evening years of life. This was indeed acknowledged as a milestone achievement for the Indian social security system. However, there were certain hindrances that the Government was required to clear to make the NPS a popular investment instrument and ensure that the objective of its introduction is accomplished. Tax incentives continue to play a crucial role in attracting investor attention in India. The offer document for investment into NPS indicated that the tax benefits would be applicable as per the IT Act as amended from time to time. Prior to the budget, no specific provisions had been introduced specifically providing for the tax treatment of the income earned by investing in the NPS or for the tax treatment of the NPS Trust itself. Like all long term savings schemes, the NPS also has 3 stages where tax could potentially be levied: contribution, accumulation and withdrawal. Reports suggested that the NPS would be subject to the E-E-T method of tax treatment i.e. exempt at the time of contribution, exempt at the stage of accumulation of income and taxed at the withdrawal stage. With a view to clear the haze around the tax treatment of the NPS, including the income accumulation stage, the Finance Budget, 2009 has proposed the following amendments to the IT Act: Tax treatment for the NPS Trust • Income received by any person for or on behalf of the NPS Trust to be exempt from tax. • Dividend paid to the NPS Trust will be exempt from Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). • Purchase and sale of equity shares and derivatives by the NPS Trust will be exempt from payment of Securities Transaction Tax (STT). • NPS Trust to receive income without tax deduction at source. Tax treatment in the hands of the individual • Currently, pension contributions made by employers/employees to NPS are covered under section 80CCD of the IT Act. Now, this deduction has been extended to all individuals, including the self-employed class, contributing to the NPS. • Section 80CCD has also been amended to provide that any amount standing to the credit of the individual along with accruals, if any, used for purchasing an annuity plan in the same financial year will not be deemed to be received by the individual. In other words, while such amount used for purchasing annuity plans in the same financial year is not subject to tax, pure withdrawals will be subject to tax. Consequent to the above changes, investments in the NPS covered under section 80CCD along with other long term saving instruments/retirement products under sections 80C and 80CCC (including contribution to approved superannuation fund, savings certificates, purchase of annuity plans from the LIC, pension plans of insurance companies) would be subject to a cumulative deduction capped at Rs 100,000. On the other hand, introduction of a tax provision with specific limit for investment in pension products/NPS could have acted as a stimulant for the common man investor for subscribing to the NPS, also giving it a much awaited head start. However, no specific limits for investment/ separate provisions in respect of contribution to NPS/ pension products have been introduced in the Finance Budget, 2009. Post Budget Analysis: Infrastructure and Power 8 Jul 2009, 1315 hrs IST, Samir Kanabar, The Honorable Finance Minister, in his speech attempted to rekindle a sense of optimism when he announced a growth estimate of 9 percent per annum. The Finance Minister, laid emphasis on increasing budgetary allocation towards the primary growth drivers, infrastructure and power. Access to low cost funding has been a challenge for the infrastructure sector till date. To this end the following measures in this regard were announced in the Budget: • Indian Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited (IIFCL) to evolve, in consultation with banks, a "takeout financing" scheme to facilitate incremental lending to the infrastructure sector. IIFCL will refinance 60 percent of commercial bank loans for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and along with banks support infrastructure projects involving a total investment of INR 1000 billion. • The Government will increase allocation during the year to National Highway Authority of India for the National Highways Development Program by 23 percent over the 2008-09 estimates. The above measures would ensure easier access to funds by various project companies executing large and medium scale projects leading to faster execution. However, raising the tax rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) from 10 to 15 percent would negatively impact infrastructure companies, which otherwise enjoy tax holiday benefits. Essentially, this would result into larger cash outflow, the benefits of which would be available after a period of 10 years (currently, 7 years). By extending the period to claim/ set off MAT credit to 10 years, the companies enjoying 10 year tax holiday will be able to claim the MAT credit; earlier, such companies lost the benefit of MAT credit for 3 years. Also, the definition of 'inputs' under the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 is amended to exclude cement, angles, channels, CTD (Cold Twisted) or TMT (Thermo Mechanically Treated) bars and other items used for construction of shed, building or structure for support of capital goods. This will result in overall increase of project cost. The power sector has been given a mild impetus with some positive measures announced in the budget: • The budgetary allocation has been increased by 160 percent to INR 20 billion for the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Project, aimed at reducing the gap between power demand and supply • To facilitate transportation of gas across the length and breadth of the country, the Government has proposed to develop a blueprint for long distance gas highways leading to a National Gas Grid.
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Kapil Sibal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kapil Sibal | |
 Kapil Sibal at 2007 World Economic Forum | |
| | |
| In office May 22, 2009 -Incumbent | |
| Preceded by | Arjun Singh |
|---|---|
| Constituency | Chandni Chowk |
| Union Minister of Science and Technology | |
| In office May 22, 2004 - Incumbent | |
| Union Minister for Ministry of Earth Sciences | |
| In office May 22, 2004 - Incumbent | |
| MP from Chandni Chowk | |
| In office 2004-Incumbent | |
| | |
| Born | 8 August 1948 (1948-08-08) Jalandhar, Punjab |
| Political party | INC |
| Spouse | Late Nina Sibal |
| Children | 2 sons |
| Residence | New Delhi |
| Website | http://www.kapilsibal.com |
| As of July 9, 2008 Source: [1] | |
Kapil Sibal is a prominent Indian politician and former lawyer and is currently the Union Minister for Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences in the Government of India. The later two ministries, he also held in the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet 2004-2009.
Previously he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in July 1998 [1], and remained Additional Solicitor General of India, (December 1989 – December 1990) and President, Supreme Court Bar Association, on three ocassions (1995-96,1997-98 and 2001-2002) [2].
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Early life and education
Kapil Sibal was born in Jalandhar, Punjab on 8 August, 1948, to Hira Lal Sibal and Smt. Kailash Rani Sibal, his father was a renowned advocate, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006. Later he moved to Delhi in 1964, and obtained his M.A. in History from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Delhi and LL.M (Master's in Law) from Harvard Law School, USA in 1977. In his time at Harvard Law School, he demonstrated himself to be a good scholar, the ultimate "reasonable man" in discussions, and a more than passable chef.
[edit] Career
He joined the Bar association in 1972. A year later in 1973, he qualified for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and was offered an appointment, but declined the offer and instead he decided to set up his own law practice [2][3]. He was designated as a Senior Advocate in 1983. He has been the Additional Solicitor General of India between 1989 and 1990. [4][2].
In August, 2008 an Anthology of Kapil Sibal's poems titled "i witness" was published by Roli Books, New Delhi. He has also contributed several articles on various prominent issues such as security, nuclear proliferation, terrorism etc., in national dailies and periodicals. He won a landslide victory in the constituency of Chandni Chowk for the Indian National Congress against popular TV star Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Over the years, he has held several important positions in the Government of India and the Society, such as : Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989-1990) ; Member, Board of Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University (1993) ; President, Supreme Court Bar Association (1995-96, 1997-98 and 2001-2002) ; Member, Rajya Sabha (July 1998) ; Member, Executive Council, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (July, 2001) ; Member, Business Advisory Committee (August, 2001) ; Member, Committee on Home Affairs (January, 2002) ; Co-chairman, Indo-US Parliamentary Forum (2002) ; Member, Board of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2002) ; Member, Programme Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Indian AIDS initiative (2003) ; Member, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention set up by the Human Rights Commission, Geneva.
Kapil Sibal has visited several countries such as the USA, Canada, Switzerland, China, Bhutan, Vietnam, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and several South East Asian Countries, throughout Europe and North Africa.
Kapil Sibal led the first Indian expedition to the Arctic and was responsible for setting up an Indian Research Station 'Himadri' there in July, 2008. Kapil Sibal was the first Indian Minister to have traveled to the icy continent of Antarctica and stayed at the Maitri base in sub-zero temperatures, for getting a first hand experience about the hardships being faced by the Indian scientists. Kapil Sibal announced an upgrading of India's scientific facilities at the Maitri, besides augmenting the fleet strength of the piston bully vehicles required to travel on ice. Kapil Sibal visited laboratories near Maitri, besides carrying out a final assessment on India's proposed third permanent base.
He represented India in the Annual Meetings of the World Economic Forum in 2005 and 2009 held at Davos, Switzerland. He led the Indian delegation to the Annapolis Conference, USA, held to gather International support for establishment of a Palestinian State and the realization of Israeli–Palestinian Peace during November 2007. He led the Indian delegation to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Bali in December 2007.
[edit] Personal life
He married Nina Sibal on April 13, 1973. She had studied English literature and law in Delhi University and taught in Daulat Ram College before she joined Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1972. After postings in New York and Cairo, she was appointed India's Ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, and later represented UNESCO at the United Nations in New York. She had three books to her credit: Yatra (1987), The Secret Life of Gujjar Mall and Other Stories, and The Dogs of Justice (1998). She died in 2000, after a prolonged illness, at the age of 51.
The couple had two sons, Amit and Akhil, having both studied at Cambridge University, received degrees from the prestigious Harvard and Stanford Universities respectively are now practicing law in India.
[edit] References
- ^ SHRI KAPIL SIBAL Rajya Sabha website.
- ^ a b c Minister for Earth Sciences, Govt. of India: Shri Kapil Sibal Ministry of Earth Sciences website.
- ^ Kapil Sibal Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
- ^ Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Ministry of Science and Technology
[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kapil Sibal |
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Shri Kapil Sibal meets DG UNESCO; discusses Mahatama Gandhi Institute 
More students crossing the Indian shoresTimes of India - 11 hours ago BANGALORE: As the debate on reforms in Indian higher education rages, the Global Education Digest 2009 compiled by Unesco has thrown up a noteworthy ... Sibal consults school principals on education reformsTimes of India - Jul 2, 2009 NEW DELHI: HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday initiated the consultation process through an open house on school reforms with principals of 30 Delhi ... Sibal confident over his education reform plans IBNLive.com Sibal urges school principals to make "some sacrifices"Hindu - Jul 2, 2009 The Minister stated that this was the beginning of the consultation process and he would set up a group for interaction on education reforms and some school ... Reform proposals open for debate, says Sibal Times of India Sibal ready to debate on proposed educational reforms IndiaEduNews.net Sibal's education reforms has PM's backingTimes of India - Jun 27, 2009 NEW DELHI: The surprise professed by a couple of Congress leaders notwithstanding, the government's proposals on education reform are the result of ... Education reforms top priority, says Sibal Economic Times Special ArticleThe Statesman - - Jul 11, 2009 The neo-liberal economic reforms in India started with a downgrading of fiscal policies for economic stimulation and an undue dependence on changes in the ... International: The Indian Budget 2009-10 by Madhukar S. Rana Telegraphnepal.com Economic Survey 2008-09: Major reforms likely in education sectorTimes of India - Jul 2, 2009 NEW DELHI: A paradigm shift in the education sector is in store if big-ticket reforms promised in the Economic Survey are implemented. For the first time, ... Economic Survey sees recovery in Q3 Livemint Hint of action-packed budget Calcutta Telegraph Budget must avoid bloated expectations financial sceneHindu - 12 hours ago Even if it has, over the years, been embellished with various policy statements including the more recent ones on economic reforms, its original purpose ... 'People say I am moving too fast, but I am 18 years late (in ...Indian Express - 10 hours ago Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal says reforms in the education sector should have started with the economic reforms. ... Consult states on educational reforms: BJPTimes of India - Jul 1, 2009 "Since India has a federal structure, it is upto state governments to accept any such proposal as education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution. ... |
No winners in degree place fightBBC News - - 6 hours ago In short, the "free tuition/no loan" policy could seriously damage equal opportunities, undermine the push towards widening participation, and increase the ... ICT changing the face of higher education eGov monitor Cuba Education Gains-ContradictionsHavana Times - - 10 hours ago The achievement of parity in education is considered among the main indicators of promoting woman's empowerment and equality between the sexes, ... Minister says children don't get equal chance in schoolsThe Local - Hamburg - 2 hours ago Children in Germany do not get equal opportunities for success in education, German Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen told daily Bild on Monday, ... Top pros dish out career adviceTimes of India - Jul 12, 2009 As Bangalore University vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev put it at a career seminar organized by Education Times, a supplement of The Times of India: "A career ... MOVE TO TRANSLATE SCIENCE & TECHNICAL MATERIALS TO BM UNTENABLEMalaysia Star - 8 hours ago ... to ensure all students are given equal opportunity to master the english language . Politicians should not meddle with education of future generation . ... Your first 100 days in office have produced some commendable ... The Malaysian Insider Maths, science to be taught in Bahasa Malay Mail Educate girls & fight povertyTimes of India - - Jul 10, 2009 The mis sion of UNFPA is to promote the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. Presenting the Union Budget ... World Population Day Has Never Been More Relevant SOS Children's Villages Canada World Population Day 2009 PR Web (press release) Inquirer Visayas Equal opportunity is a myth for the deafInquirer.net - - Jul 3, 2009 Some could not find their voices because of circumstances: extreme poverty, abuse, neglect, lack of education, lack of opportunities. ... Italy's Minister for Equal Opportunities, Mara Carfagna. Photo ...Brisbane Times - Jul 8, 2009 Mara Carfagna, the Minister for Equal Opportunities, will stand in for his estranged wife. Ms Cafagna, 33, a former topless model, will look after the likes ... Council for coordinating vocational technical education ...Times of Central Asia (subscription) - 2 hours ago The Apprenticeship Council for Coordination of Joint Actions on the Vocational Technical Education Development Programs has been set up at the Khorog Campus ... Stay up to date on these results:
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Higher education sector in a state of fluxTimes of India - 12 hours ago In the current scenario of globalisation and mushrooming of educational enterprises, the higher education sector worldwide is in a state of flux. ... Higher education gets boost but has miles to go Business Standard Jharkhand Guv stresses quality educationTimes of India - 4 hours ago RANCHI: Governor Syed Sibtey Razi on Sunday asked Ranchi University (RU) students and teachers to focus on quality higher education and help build a new ... RU courses on cards Calcutta Telegraph 'Spirituality should be included in education'Times of India - Jul 12, 2009 MANGALORE: Minister for primary and secondary education Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri said the education system introduced by the British still in vogue in the ... Kageri promises 'all' facilities to pets Express Buzz New rules will up promotion chances: Kageri Times of India Ailing resident doc also gets noticeTimes of India - 13 hours ago The 26-year-old resident is one among the 195 residents who were served expulsion notices by the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER). ... World Bank to fund secondary education programmeHindu - Jul 11, 2009 The Bank at present also supports the government's flagship programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which aims at universalisation of elementary education. ... Plan budget for higher education increased by Rs 2000 croreEconomic Times - 16 hours ago 12 Jul 2009, 2207 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Government has proposed to hike the overall plan budget for higher education for the next fiscal by Rs 2000 crore. ... Plan budget for higher education increased by Rs.2000 crore Press Information Bureau (press release) No registrar postings for IAS, IFS officersTimes of India - 4 hours ago Limbavali, chief guest at a convention on higher education, organized by Federation of University and College Teachers' Association in Karnataka (FUCTAK) ... DoE decision on govt schools soonTimes of India - 4 hours ago PANAJI: Education minister Babush Monserrate has asked for a decision by the directorate of education (DoE) on single teacher government primary schools ... Answer to single teacher schools issue in a week Herald Publications Obama calls for higher education revamp in USHindu - Jul 12, 2009 Washington (PTI): Weeks after highlighting the need to improve US education system to compete with kids from India and China, President Barack Obama on ... |
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