“Since children lack both the political resource of ‘voice’ and the consumer resource of ‘choice’, they are ignored by the state, ill-used by the market, and made invisible by society.”
Manabi Majumdar, professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata (www.thewire.in, July 2)
“The IT industry has created bonded labour for years together, making money through labour arbitrage and destroying engineering talent in India by turning them into overpaid clerks. And now they talk of talent crunch!”
Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM-Kozhikode, responding to Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy’s comment on talent crunch (Outlook, July 9)
“This preferential treatment to an Ambani University that does not yet exist is shocking. Particularly, when several first rate private universities have been bypassed. Are they being punished for the brilliance and independence of mind of their scholars?”
Ramachandra Guha, author-historian, on the yet-to-be promoted Jio University being awarded the Institute of Eminence tag by the Union HRD ministry (twitter, July 10)
“With change in the political dispensation at the Centre/state, school textbooks often come in the limelight, becoming a readily available tool for political manipulation. In the past few weeks, the right-led government at the Centre has made more than 1,000 changes in textbooks developed by the NCERT between 2005 and 2009.”
Disha Nawani, dean, School of Education, TISS, Mumbai on rewriting of textbooks (Economic & Political Weekly, July 21)
“I think the autonomous character of an institution like the University Grants Commission should be maintained. The draft law recognises the importance of autonomy, but it is not a question of the autonomy of colleges and universities, it is also that of the commission.”
Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, former UGC chairman, on the newly proposed Higher Education Commission of India (India Today, July 23)