The Hindu Editorial Newspaper Analysis Free PDF

Table of Contents

Rogue(दुष्ट) nation?

 West must find some means to bring
Russia to the negotiating table
 Russia made headlines for all the wrong reasons this week
 InAfghanistan, accused Russia of armingTaliban militants;
 On North Korean crisis helping Pyongyang avoid UN sanctions;
 EU last year voted to extend into 2018 sanctions – Crimea
 In Syria, Iraq
 U.S. expelled more than 100 (EU also)- Its diplomats and
intelligence officers
 Nerve agent attack on a Russian spy and defector to the U.K.,
Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury on March 4
 ColdWar-West, perhaps led by the U.S. or the EU, find some
means to bring Mr. Putin to the negotiating table

A game – changer for higher education

 Union Cabinet’s decision recently to not only continue with the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha
Abhiyan (RUSA) Centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2013
 Ground realities
 India is estimated to have over 800 universities (over 40,000 colleges are affiliated to them).
 About 94% of students of higher education study in 369 State universities.
 But the Central slant toward premier institutions has continued ever since the 11th Five
Year Plan (2007-12), where in spite of a nine-fold increase in Budget allocation State institutions
 have been left to fend for themselves with funding mainly directed towards starting more Indian
Institutes ofTechnology , Indian Institutes of Management and Central universities
 150 Centrally-funded institutions (less than 6% of students study in them) corner almost the entire
funding by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
 Make things worse, investment by State governments has been also dwindling each year as higher education is a low-priority area.
 The University Grant Commission’s system of direct releases to State institutions which bypasses
State governments also leads to their sense of alienation.
 Address these critical concerns that the MHRD launched RUSA.
 Conditional release of funds linked to reforms in the key areas
 Governance,
 Learning-teaching outcomes,
 Reaching out to the unreached and
 Infrastructure support.
 Unlike other schemes which are foisted on State governments in a one-size-fits all manner, under
RUSA, States and institutions have to give an undertaking expressing their willingness to the
idea of reform – RUSA is a process-driven scheme
 Its design and conceptualisation were finalised through extensive consultations with all
key stakeholders, especially State governments.
RUSA can prove be a real game changer for higher education in the country.
It has not only reprioritised country’s needs, from funding just a few premier institutions
to reaching out to institutions at the bottom of the pyramid, but has also changed the way
regulators need to function.
However its litmus test will be in how impartially scheme is administered by MHRD.

THE WEDNESDAY INTERVIEW | ROMILA THAPAR

“History is not written by committees but by indivi
dual historians‟

Committee formed by Ministry of Culture
Secularism is not something external to our lives that
we can do away with as and when we choose.
It is an attitude towards other people
What worries me most is the consistent effort to
destroy the content of education.
The very backbone of a society is based on education
But the act of questioning should not become more
important than what is being questioned.

Map Practice

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

Honour killing guillotines liberty: SC
Upholds choice of consenting adults to love and marry as part of their fundamental rights.

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

Karnataka will vote on May 12
Results to be declared on May 15.

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

Talks revived to consider impeachment of CJI
Some Opposition parties have revived the process of discussing the moving of an
impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra
With just a few days remaining in the Budget session
Not a single data breach in seven years, UIDAI tells SC
GST collections dip marginally

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis