Higher education

The article ‘Going beyond borders’ by Shelley Walia (May 14) emphasises the need to enrich the academic atmosphere of universities by holding exchange programmes with global institutes and by relaxing admission bottlenecks for enrolling overseas students.

The cosmopolitan environment thus created will evolve global competitiveness not only in curriculum designing but in the expectations and skill development endeavours of students. This will bring about a transformation in the overall educational setup from the state-of-the-art infrastructure to a world-class faculty. This internationally charged mood will provide a required impetus to our otherwise sluggish higher education and improve the overall standard of excellence in education in the country.

NARESH GARG, Kaithal

HP’s bad roads

Crumbling road infrastructure in most parts of Himachal Pradesh has become a nuisance for commuters. We know that 90 per cent of the state area is hilly, which means driving on broken roads is a risky affair. These pathetic roads account for 25 per cent of the total number of road accidents.

If the government doesn’t take steps to renovate these, business activities, transportation of goods and flow of tourists will be greatly affected. One hopes that the Congress will take the problem seriously and re-lay bad roads on priority.

SUBEDAR-MAJOR KC SHARMA (RETD), Kangra

China’s war of nerves

China has territorial and other disputes with almost every country surrounding it. One also knows that the reason behind its arrogant, quarrelsome and overbearing attitude is its huge military might. It has boundary disputes with Japan in East China Sea as well as Vietnam in South China Sea.

Apart from playing a war of nerves by raising territorial disputes from time to time with India, it is also providing roads, shipyards, ports, and so on to our neighbouring countries with doubtful intent. Be it Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar or Sri Lanka, it never misses an opportunity to incite them to keep India on tenterhooks.

TEK CHAND, Una

Slave to trends

The article ‘Divorced before marriage — media and culture’ (May 7) by Vandana Shukla was a thought-provoking piece. Obviously, the media’s total submission to market trends, just like every other institution, including those in the sphere of education and healthcare, owes much to the cultural chaos in the present times. However, the role of artistes/writers, too, has not been worth appreciating. For, they too, exceptions apart, fell prey, rather willingly, to the bazaar that is but a mirage of “fifteen-minute world fame” that Andy Warhol had predicted in the late 1960s.

BALVINDER, Chandigarh

Clarification

Apropos news item 'PSEB officers facing graft charges go scot-free' published on July 10, 2006. The news was published on the basis of information provided by a senior official of the PSEB. On enquiry, it was found that there were no graft charges against Engineer Rajit Sharma. Any damage caused to the reputation of the official due to the news was unintentional and is regretted.

TB's cause

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria and not virus as was inadvertently stated in the report 'New strain of drug-resistant TB virus a major challenge'; (Jammu and Kashmir page, May 17).