Alternate title: UPA Government's Mixed Signals --Part II: The Curious Case of Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development
Back in 2009, a review committee set up by MHRD classified RGNIYD as one of the institutions which, "neither on past performance, nor on their promise for the future, have the attributes ... to retain their status as universities." [Source; 18MB pdf].
In Budget 2011-12 presented yesterday, the same institution has been lavished with a largess of Rs. 20 crores, as "special grants to recognise excellence in universities and academic institutions." [Paragraph 101 of the Budget Speech; 867 KB pdf].
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This case is much worse than the WTF-inducing episode involving SRM University (see Part I) for at least two reasons.
The Tandon Committee saw SRM as "merely" deficient, but blacklisted RGNIYD as, shall we say, irredeemable.
Moreover, with SRM, it was only a case of a couple of high functionaries in the government "merely" participating in its convocation; but with RGNIYD, what we have is a blacklisted institution being recognized for its excellence and lavished with lots of money.
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Thanks to Subrahmanya Katte for the Buzz.
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ReplyDeleteReally strange. Thanks for pointing out.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, interesting to see a committee report on higher education written by four professors liberally citing wikipedia -- an open source non-academic source!!
ReplyDelete@Skeptic: What are you talking about? Any links?
ReplyDelete