Junior Digest

The TSR Subramainan committee’s recommendation comes after months of unrest at top university campuses such as Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Hyderabad and Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India.

Critics of these anti-government protests say the demonstrations are often led by students who stay on after overshooting their stipulated period of finishing degrees, implying that falling academic standards contributed to the unrest.

“One frequently hears of ‘students’ who continue for seven or eight years or more, enrolled in the university, and occupying the hostels – in general should there not be some guidelines or time limits for enrolment in a particular course or for occupation of hostels?” the committee noted.

The committee felt that students overstaying at universities start “owning” the campus and have an undue influence on the course of non-academic activities.

The panel made a host of other recommendations, including a uniform national test for admission to undergraduate courses and nearly doubling the government expenditure in the education sector.

The committee said Class X examinations in Mathematics and Science should be in two levels – Part B at a basic level and Part A at an advanced level.

“Students who wish to complete their studies at Class X need, by choice, to appear in Part B,” the panel said. Those who want to continue after Class X will take the Part A examination.

 The committee also recommended restricting political activity on campuses and proposed doing away with student groups explicitly based on caste, religion or political parties.

HRD minister Smriti Irani declared this at a ‘National Seminar on Yoga’ where she also called upon heads of technological institutions to help in providing empirical evidence on the benefits of yoga.

“A decision has been taken that from the year 2016-17, new or revamped yoga departments would be opened,” she said, adding that “in a year’s time this number would be raised to twenty.”

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand, Visva Bharati in Shantiniketan, Central University of Kerala, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Amarkantak, Manipur University in Imphal and the Central University of Rajasthan would begin these departments from the next session.

The action is in line with recommendations of a panel headed by headed by HR Nagendra, also regarded as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s yoga guru, that had suggested various kind of courses ranging from certificate courses to Bachelor’s, Masters and PhDs for yogic sciences. Nagendra was also present at the seminar.

In her speech, Irani said that modern science depends on empirical evidence and asked heads of technological institutions to provide research to back the claims related to the benefits of yoga.

“Today I call upon all those professors researchers and academicians who can help us quantify empirical evidence with regard to the benefits of yoga and yogic sciences,” Irani said adding that this would provide a boost to this area.

She referred to a paper brought out at IIT Kharagpur on the resonance of the word ‘Om’ through yogic science and its scientific value.

In her speech, the minister also said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) is considering including NET exam for yogic sciences to address the issue of finding teachers for this subject.

At the event, secretary, higher education in the human resource development ministry VS Oberoi said that three-day yoga festivals will be held in several institutes and Universities across the country on the occassion of International Day of Yoga.

@Agency report.

The ruling overturned a controversial suggestion by the censor board seeking 13 cuts to the movie which it had deemed offensive to people’s sensibilities and a threat to the country’s integrity.

Besides asking the producers to delete a scene which shows the lead character, a drug-addicted rock star played by Shahid Kapoor, urinating in public, the court also ordered modification of a disclaimer by deleting a reference to Pakistan.

 “Do not act like a grandmother. Change as per the times now,” a bench of SC Dharmadhikari and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said in its order, which was hailed by the film fraternity as a “landmark judgment”.

Addressing a special event at the London School of Economics (LSE) to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Dalit rights activist Babsaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Sen said: “One issue that keeps coming up in India is people being branded as ‘anti-national’ for not toeing a certain line”.

“I would say caste is anti-national because it divides the nation. We want to be national, not anti-national, for which it is important to eliminate all divisions,” the 82-year-old economist and philosopher said.

Referring to Ambedkar, a former LSE student, as a “great social revolutionary and an intellectual powerhouse”, he added: “It is through education we can truly bring about change in the world. That is the vision which Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us for a united nation.”

‘Dr Ambedkar’s Relevance Today and in the Future’ was organised by the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK (FABO UK) in collaboration with the Inequality and Poverty Research Programme, department of anthropology at the LSE and the India Observatory at the LSE to coincide with the centenary of Dr BR Ambedkar joining the LSE.

@Agency report.

The makers of Udta Punjab have been at loggerheads with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) after it reportedly suggested 94 cuts to the film. Since then, many known celebrities from the entertainment industry have come out in strong support of the film while demanding the removal of CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani.

 Baljeet, who has written, produced and directed Dhee Punjab Di, slated to release on August 19, says his film is not anti-Punjab community. “CBFC has cleared my film with a ‘U’ certificate. When I took my film to them for certification, they just asked me to cut one particular scene where a young boy snorts drug,” said Baljeet.

Though the government has repeatedly cracked down on the separatist leadership in Kashmir in the recent past, the seminar took place without any restrictions. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq – leaders of the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference – and representatives of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) attended the event.

However, JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who was released on bail on Saturday after a week-long detention in a case related to the 1987 elections, was arrested again the same night.

For the first time in eight years, Geelani, Farooq and Malik had come together last month and forged an issue-based united programme. Later, Mirwaiz and Malik went to Geelani’s home and held a closed-door meeting for about 90 minutes.

Political observers said it was “unexpected” that the government allowed Sunday’s seminar because in the recent past, it has been continuously trying to prevent such events called by the Hurriyat. Also, the seminar saw the coming together of the new ‘joint’ separatist leadership.

The seminar titled ‘proposed separate colonies and the ambiguous policies of the government’ saw participation from Hurriyat leaders as well as civil society members. Talking about the seminar, spokesperson of the Geelani-faction of the Hurriyat, Ayaz Akbar, said the joint leadership decided that it would completely oppose the construction of Sainik and Pandit colonies by the government.

“The leaders said the government was ambiguous on the issue and was not saying clearly what exactly the matter is,” Akbar said. He added that the leaders said the construction of Pandit colonies was nothing but an attempt to give Kashmiri Muslims a bad name on communal lines.

“Geelani has said instead of Rs 20 lakh, the government should give Pandits Rs 30 lakh each for rehabilitation but they should come back to their original places and not separate colonies,” Akbar said.

Earlier, the PDP-BJP government in the state had made it clear that there will be no separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits but transit accommodation will be provided to them till they are comfortable returning to their native places. CM Mehbooba Mufti had also said the Sainik colony was proposed to be established only for “the state subject ex-servicemen”.

@Agency report.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will participate in the meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and try to iron out differences over the new regime that will subsume all indirect taxes and create one national market under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“The meeting on June 14 and 15 will discuss the model GST law, which will be adopted by the Centre and all states. Union finance minister will attend the meeting on June 14,” an official said.

The Centre is planning to roll out the indirect tax from the next financial year beginning April 1, 2017, but the GST bill has been pending in Rajya Sabha because of stiff opposition from the Congress party.

Once the Constitution Amendment Bill to roll out GST is passed by the Parliament, the Centre and states will have to adopt their own laws to give effect to the new indirect tax regime.

The Central GST (CGST) will be framed based on the model GST law. The states will draft their own State GST (SGST) based on the draft model law with minor variations incorporating state-based exemptions.

Besides these two laws, the Centre and states will have to approve the integrated-GST law or iGST, which will deal with inter-state movement of goods.

The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers is headed by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, who took over the chairmanship in February.

The government has proposed to take up the GST Constitution Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament.

The reform of the indirect taxation was initiated by the Kelkar Committee in 2003, following which the UPA government in 2006 proposed the GST Bill.

The GST Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by Lok Sabha in May last year and has been pending in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA does not have the majority.

@Agency report.

Besides, it has also planned to re-employ retiring personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces as master yoga trainers in order to create a constant resource pool of teachers for about 9 lakh personnel of CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and BSF.

The two decisions were taken at a meeting attended by top officers of these forces and the Union home ministry recently where it was resolved that close to 30,000 personnel will take part in IYD in various state capitals and other prominent cities.

@Agency report.