Chennai, January 3
Stressing on providing access to educational opportunities to all, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal today said his ministry was insisting the universities to ensure that what is taught is relevant and at global levels.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the 98th Indian Science Congress at SRM University, near here he said the National Innovation Council (NIC) would prepare a road map to create an inclusive and sustainable innovative Indian ecosystem.

“The gross enrolment ratio in higher education today is around a mere 15 per cent. Changing labour markets and demographics are driving a new demand for higher education. This has come mainly from two groups that traditionally were not known to attend universities, a rising lower-middle class and women. This will necessitate many more universities and colleges to be opened in the years to come.”

Focusing on broadening skills base beyond a few centres of excellence and foster innovation on a national scale, Sibal said: “We need to create and enhance our competitive edge. For this to happen, quality and merit-based education for the entire population is a must.”

The ministry had taken several steps to reduce the supply-demand gap in higher education and for gross enrolment in higher education, he said and added that an effective quality assurance system would be in place and provide a common frame of reference for students and others to obtain credible information on academic quality across institutions, domestic as well as international.

The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2010, had been introduced in Parliament to provide mandatory accreditation and creation of an institutional structure for the purpose. This was in accordance with the general principle of moving from an “inspection approval” based mechanism of recognising institutions to a “verification assessment” method, he said.

A National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) would be set up to regulate higher education. An Education Finance Corporation would also be set up to refinance educational loans to students.

New Delhi, January 3
India will be short of a whopping 9.54 lakh doctors by 2031 if the levels of student intake to medical colleges across the country remain what they are at present. India currently has one of the poorest doctor-population ratios in the world with one medic available for 1700 people, the ratio being 1:296 in Germany.

Medical teachers will also be in acutely short supply as the additional faculty requirement in the country is projected to touch 35, 740 in the next 30 years when India aspires to be a major knowledge economy and global power. Much of this faculty is nowhere in sight with the existing shortage of teachers across medical disciplines already being a high of 6340.

Even in the critical disciplines like anatomy and physiology, the current teacher shortfall in colleges is 1000 each; projected requirement in these two disciplines will be 3000 each by 2031. The highest current and projected shortfall of faculty is in the discipline of forensic medicine where colleges have 1500 teacher vacancies; additional need in this discipline by 2031 would be 3500, the highest among all streams.

These first-time projections of manpower crisis in the health sector have been made by the Medical Council of India’s Board of Governors through the working group they constituted to review the trends in undergraduate medical education and propose reforms. The projections are based on population growth over the decades at an annual rate of 1.4 per cent.

The report’s findings are shocking and in terms of the doctor-population ratio they place India ahead of only Somalia and Pakistan among the 12 countries compared.

India has one doctor for 1700 people as against Somalia and Pakistan which have one doctor for every 10,000 and 1923 people respectively. But Egypt (with a doc-people ratio of 1: 1484) and China (1:1063) are better than India as are Korea (1:951), Brazil (1:844), Singapore (1:714); Japan (1:606), Thailand (1: 500), UK (1: 469), USA (1: 350) and Germany (1:296).

Given the projected population growth up to 1.54 billion by 2031 and 1.69 billion by 2041, the MCI panel concludes: “The targeted doctor-population ratio in India should be 1: 1000 by 2031 if the Government’s committed goal of Health for All is to be achieved. Existing medical colleges will be unable to meet this target unless the current intake and critical mass of doctors is doubled.”

India has 330 medical colleges (the highest in the world) with an annual intake of about 35000.

To rein in the crisis of doctors’ shortage, the MCI committee is for upgrading the existing district hospitals into community medical colleges through public private participation. “This must be done in three years and in five years we should build new medical colleges and hospitals in under-served areas,” says the document “Vision 2015” the MCI has developed for reform in UG medical education.

Teachers — a critical resource — are already in severely short supplies. The MCI proposes dual appointments and even employment of retired teachers to meet this challenge. Only recently, the government advanced the retirement age of doctors from 65 to 70 years.

Mumbai, January 3
Subash Lalla, a former IAS officer and member of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission, today resigned from his post after his name figured in the Adarsh Housing Society scandal.

Lalla, who along with Maharashtra Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari were asked to resign from their posts last week by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, had so far refused to do so on the grounds that they held constitutional posts and were not answerable to the political leadership.

However, following threats by Chavan that the Maharashtra government was examining legal options to sack the two officials, Lalla submitted his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan at Raj Bhavan this morning.

According to Raj Bhavan officials, the governor has accepted Lalla's resignation.

Lalla's mother and daughter owned one flat each in the controversial society. Lalla was secretary in the office of Chief Minister Ashok Chavan when the flats were allotted to them, according to sources.

In his resignation letter to the Governor, Lalla said he was resigning to maintain the dignity of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission. He, however, reiterated that he done nothing wrong in obtaining membership of the Adarsh Housing Society.

Lalla said his father was originally given membership to the Adarsh society because he retired from the Military Engineering Services

while he was based at Kamptee Cantonment, Nagpur. After his demise, the membership was transferred to his mother Sushila Shaligram, Lalla stated. Later on Lalla's daughter also applied and got membership of the society as she hailed from a defence family, Lalla said in his letter.

Lalla went on to say that his mother obtained membership in the society in 1998 while his daughter was admitted in 1999 before he joined the Chief Minister's office as secretary.

Lalla, Tiwari and other serving bureaucrats who were allotted houses in the project had been asked to submit their replies to Chief Secretary J P Dange. However the procedure to take action against serving bureaucrats is cumbersome and the government chose to first exercise the easier option of cracking down on retired officials holding important posts, say observers.

Meanwhile pressure is mounting on State Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari to resign as well. Tiwari met with senior bureaucrats including Chief Secretary J P Dange over the past two days, according to sources. Tiwari, who was former Urban Development secretary has a flat in the Adarsh Society in the name of his son, Omkar.

Ghaziabad, January 3
A Special Court here today asked the CBI what was the “hurry” in filing the closure report in the Aarushi murder case. It, however, turned down an appeal by Aarushi’s parents against the probe agency’s decision to close the case.

The court stated that Talwars’ appeal was premature, and that it (court) wants a chance to go through the CBI’s closure report - filed last week. Special Judge Preeti Singh also fixed January 7 as the next date of hearing for examining the controversial report and directed the CBI to submit all documents pertaining to it.

The judge asked the CBI lawyer as to what was the reason behind filing the closure report in such a ‘hasty’ manner. CBI lawyer RS Saini told the court that the probe agency has to file closure reports by December 31 in cases in which it feels there were no chances to proceed further. This was routine followed by the CBI every year, the lawyer said. The court was told that the CBI has a ‘suspect’ but no further evidence, which could lead to conviction.

The judge also read the application of Aarushi’s dentist parents --- Rajesh and Nupur Talwar --- opposing the CBI's move for closing the case but rejected the same saying that their plea was not “maintainable” at this stage and asked them to appear before the court on January 7. The Talwar’s application has stated “it's a heinous case’ and in the “interest of justice” should not be closed. The 30-page report lists Aarushi's father, Rajesh Talwar, as the only suspect in the double murder case, but says that the agency could not find enough evidence against him, or establish a motive.

The CBI had on December 29 filed a report to end the probe in the murder case of Aarushi and Hemraj clearing the names of three servants -- Raj Kumar, Krishna and Vijay Mandal. Teenager Aarushi was found murdered with her throat slit at the Talwar’s residence in Noida near Delhi on the morning of May 16, 2008. The body of Hemraj was found on the terrace the next day. (With PTI inputs) 

New Delhi, January 3
Rajiv Takru, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was today vested with all powers of the CEO of Prasar Bharati by its board following the suspension of BS Lalli last month on charges of impropriety.

At a meeting held here, the board decided that Takru, who is a nominated member of the board, would exercise all such powers and discharge all such functions vested with the CEO until further orders and work continually under the overall direction, control and supervision of its chairperson.

In order to ensure the smooth and effective functioning of Prasar Bharati, the board also decided that the three-member panel, which has been running the day-to-day affairs of the public broadcaster be dissolved with immediate effect. It has also set up five additional committees dealing with the subjects of finance, personnel, production and content, project monitoring and implementation and strategy and vision. — TNS

Chandigarh, January 3
The outgoing Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Mukul Mudgal, was today given a warm sendoff laced with Punjabi tadka.

The Punjabi spirit was at its best, as the High Court staff broke into a bhangra, but not before placing a pink turban on Chief Justice Mudgal’s head.

Emotive sendoffs to the outgoing Chief Justices are not uncommon, as they leave the High Court on elevation to the apex court or after attaining the age of superannuation.

Emotional scenes were also witnessed when a leaving party was organised for Chief Justice Mudgal’s predecessor Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur. But this is the first time, at least in recent past, that the farewell celebrations were organised in true Punjabi style.

As the reverberating beats of dhol echoed against the bright and cheerful pillars of justice in the High Court building, the cold January afternoon turned cosy with enthusiasm. Clad in customary bhangra attire, about six to seven employees broke into the traditional dance soon after Chief Justice Mudgal said “thanks” to the employees for making his stay memorable. They, in fact, escorted the Chief Justice, who retired today upon attaining the age of superannuation, to his official car. They continued to twirl all around the concrete floor, even as several judges gave the customary gentle nudge to his car as a farewell gesture.

Witnessing the event were hundred of High Court employees gathered around the dais. Nudging their way through the jostling crowd they tried to move ahead to bid Chief Justice Mudgal goodbye, even as the police gently tried to keep them at bay. Staff members unable to find place near the dais found their way to the ramps overlooking the portico.

The ceremony began with the employees’ union president Hemant Singh Walia doling out praises for the outgoing Chief Justice.