Sonepat, March 21
President Pranab Mukerjee today gave a call to raise the quality of teaching, faculty and research in the universities in the country to match international standards. He said it was a cause of concern that "out of 659 degree-awarding institutions and 33,023 colleges, not even a single Indian university is ranked among the top 200 universities in the world as per an international survey."

"Redefining the way the education is imparted in the country, there is a need to establish world class universities," Pranab Mukherjee said while inaugurating a three-day international conference on "The Future of Universities in India: Comparative Perspectives on Higher Education Reforms for Knowledge Society" at OP Jindal Global University (JGU) here today.

Stressing the need to raise the quality of teaching, faculty and research in the universities, the President suggested the setting up of industry incubation parks, enhancing the coverage of research students by fellowships, promoting inter-disciplinary research through inter-university and intra-university collaborations and empowering centres of excellence.

Asserting that the progress of the nation would be determined by the capacity to innovate, he said India's performance indicators in this segment were discouraging. India, which represents about 17 per cent of the global population, had filed only 2 per cent patent applications in 2011. India filed about 42,000 applications while more than five lakh patent applications were filed by America and China.

The President also expressed concern over the poor enrolment of 7 per cent in higher education in India. It was up to 21 per cent and 34 per cent in Japan and the USA, he said.

Mukherjee said India had a large proportion of young population and we should to harness its potential. "If we fail to channelise their productive energies, it may visit us with terrible and negative consequences," he said.

Stressing the need to involve Indian scholars working overseas for research and teaching positions as short-term assignments in Indian universities, Mukerjee said it would facilitate dissemination of knowledge and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

He also called for the universities to encourage grassroot-level innovators and play the role of mentors.

The President also stressed the need for making education affordable to all sections of society. Scholarships, education loans and self-help schemes should be liberalised for deserving students and technology harnessed to promote education.

He said the National Knowledge Network had linked 955 out of 1,500 institutions through the high speed broadband and the balance should be connected on priority.

Pointing out that the vacancy of teachers in central universities was around 38 per cent, he said, "We cannot expect to impart quality education without teachers who are equipped to provide guidance to students."

He said the private sector could play a vital role in the higher education sector, but care should be taken that there was no dilution in education standards.

Sonepat, March 21
MM Pallam Raju, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, today called for more allocation for “research and development” as it was less than 1 per cent of the GDP in India. China was far ahead in providing quality higher education and facilities for research and innovations.

“In the present scenario, private industrial houses can collaborate with universities and a proper regulatory framework should be in place for research activities”, he said while speaking at the seminar on higher education at Jindal Global University here.

Lauding Jindal for setting up a ‘non-profit’ university, he urged the private sector to participate in a big way in supplementing the government efforts to improve the standard of education

“O. P. Jindal Global University offers a shining example of such an initiative and other corporate houses can follow suit”, the minister said

Governor Jagannath Pahadia said “while a university must produce professionals to join industry, what we truly need is practical articulation of objectives of the education community”.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda stressed the need for attracting the best of brains to education and teaching, making students opt for the science and maths streams and making adequate investment for improving the standard of education and stop brain drain. He said youth must be encouraged to take to sciences, mathematics and English language. “Apart from learning physical sciences, we need to inculcate scientific temper in our younger generation”, he said

Reiterating his commitment to bringing global curriculum to classrooms, MP and Chancellor of the university Naveen Jindal said : “ It is an initiative towards building nation by building universities of international standards as quality higher education contributes to the economy and human development.”

A number of national and international experts are participating in the conference.

Chandigarh, March 21
District and block Congress presidents of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) today took on the Hooda Government and bureaucracy for their alleged role in ignoring the grassroot leaders.

Presided over by BK Hariprasad, general secretary in charge for Haryana affairs, and attended by acting HPCC chief Phool Chand Mulana, the meeting, which was meant to pass on the directions of the party high command to grassroots leaders ahead of next year’s polls, turned to be a stormy affair with leaders airing their grievances and raising ‘inconvenient’ issues .

While the issue of regional bias in development, raised by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s detractors -Union Minister Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha member Birender Singh-was only obliquely raised at the meeting, the neglect of the party rank and file by ministers and the unbridled bureaucracy dominated the meeting.

Hariprasad tried to mollify the agitated party leaders and counselled them to raise “contentious” issues within the party fora. He wanted the partymen to be ‘battle-ready’ for next year’s parliamentary and state assembly elections.

While many delegates wanted the party high command to ensure ‘uniform’ development in the state to dispel the impression that development projects were concentrated only in a few districts surrounding the Chief Minister’s home district, Rohtak, the delay in the appointment of chairpersons and members of various boards and corporation rocked the meeting.

“In the absence of chairpersons of various boards and corporations, the bureaucracy ruled the roost. We virtually have nobody to turn to and even district and block presidents were at the mercy of state functionaries for even routine works. If we raise our voice against the “insensitive” party leadership, the bogey of party indiscipline was raised by the leadership,” a block president alleged.

Hariprasad tried to play down differences within the party on a variety issues, claiming that a difference of opinion was apparent in a healthy democracy.

When asked about the airing of views against the Hooda government on “development divide” by three MPs, Kumari Selja, Rao Inderjit Singh and Ishwar Singh, the AICC general secretary said everything should be discussed within the limits of party discipline.

He said such meetings would be a regular affair as part of the Congress’ new strategy under new Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to reach out to the grassroots workers.

Sirsa, March 21
Haryana Youth Congress president Amit Sihag today termed former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his sons, Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh, as power-hungry people who had no faith in democracy or democratic institutions like judiciary.

Addressing a series of public meetings on the second day of his “Yuva Sandesh Yatra” , Sihag alleged INLD leaders were out misleading people on the Chautalas' conviction in the JBT recruitment scam.

He said the state government had started the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) for which Rs 37 crore had been provided in the budget.

The scheme would provide insurance cover of Rs 30,000 on natural death, Rs. 37,500 on partial permanent disability in an accident and Rs. 75000 on death or total permanent disability in an accident, he added.

Sihag addressed meetings in over 10 villages, including Alika, Masita, Maujgarh, Lakhuana, Gidarkhera, Ganga, Modi, Munnawali, in the Dabwali constituency.

Jind, March 21
Dozens of residents of Gatauli village in the district are in the grip of hepatitis-B, better known as jaundice, thanks to the alleged contaminated drinking water and non-availability of a medical facility in the village.

A team of doctors of the health department visited the village for the second day today for check-ups and to know the cause of the epidemic which has left several persons affected in the past few days.

While the villagers blame contaminated drinking water for the disease, officials of the department concerned apprehend that the use of non-sterilised syringes by quacks operating in the village might be responsible for the spread of the disease.

The village has a population of around 15,000 but there is no Primary Health Centre (PHC) or Community Health Centre (CHC) there or nearby. The nearest CHC is at Julana town, around 20 km away, said Pardeep, a local resident.

Over 60 persons are believed to have contracted hepatitis-B in the village, though the doctors on Wednesday checked around 25 patients.

"The supply of water from the local waterworks in the village is perhaps the prime cause of the outbreak as a pipe of the water tank is damaged and water has accumulated at several places’’, said Zile Singh, a member of the gram panchayat.

Admitting the outbreak of the disease in the village, Dr Rajender Prasad, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the district, said he had deputed a senior medical officer to conduct an enquiry into the causes that led to the problem.

He said all measures were being taken to control the disease and to provide medical help to the victims.

contaminated water to blame? cttoconWhile the villagers blame contaminated drinking water for the disease, officials of the department concerned apprehend that the use of non-sterilised syringes by quacks operating in the village might be responsible

Sirsa, March 21
Owing to uncaring attitude exhibited by the authorities in Chaudhary Devi Lal University Kalpana Chawla Hostel here, a hosteller had to lose a toe last night .

An MSc (physics) student injured a toe when a door closed on her foot when girls were playing Holi last night.

The girl was left with a profusely bleeding foot with her toe almost detached .

Her friends informed the attendant and requested her to arrange a vehicle to shift the girl to some hospital but the attendant allegedly took it lightly and did not move.

The girls alleged that they contacted hosal warden Ranjit Kaur repeatedly, but she did not make any arrangements to shift the injured girl to hospital.

Later, frantic calls were made on chief warden Vikram Singh's mobile but he, the girls alleged, switched off his mobile after responding once.

Even a messenger, who went to Vikram Singh’s house on the university campus, returned empty- handed as the latter did not open the gate of his house.

Other girls shifted the hapless girl to a hospital after two hours. Doctors said her toe could have been restored had she been brought in time.

Angry girls boycotted their food and held a demonstration in front of Registrar Manoj Siwach’s office today.

Ranjit Kaur, warden of Kalpana Chawla Hostel, did not respond to the calls made on her mobile.

Vikram Singh, chief warden of the university, blamed the girl for her injury.

He denied all allegations but admitted that the driver could not reach in time.

Manoj Siwach, Registrar, said he had assured the girls that their attendant would be replaced, a nurse will be appointed for the hostel and a full-time driver would be provided for the hostel vehicle so that such an incident did not recur.

Rewari, March 21
With the arrest of two gangsters, identified as Navin and Vishal, both residents of Delhi, the police today claimed to have cracked the murder of Jagat Singh Yadav (22), a student of Government Polytechnic College, Lisana. A resident of the nearby Gokalgarh village, he was shot dead on Sunday night.

They were today produced in a local court which remanded them in police custody for three days.

Navin and Vishal and their two accomplices were virtually apprehended in the early hours from a hideout on the bypass here by the CIA police, Rewari, when they were reportedly planning to loot passersby.

They were handed over to the Rohrai police which is investigating Jagat’s murder.