Daily PT Capsule Apr 5

India University Rankings 2016

Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani released the ‘India Rankings 2016’ on 4th April Monday.

IIT Madras, IIM Bangalore, IISc Bangalore and Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal, topped the engineering, management, university and pharmacy categories, respectively.

While Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Hyderabad Central University (HCU) were judged the third and fourth best universities, better than Delhi University, which stood at rank 6, AMU and Visva-Bharati were ranked 10th and 11th, respectively. Jamia Millia Islamia was ranked 83 out of 100 universities.

Analysis

What is the criteria for the rankings? – The criteria for ranking included teaching/learning resources, research, graduation outcomes, outreach/inclusivity and perception. The data for the first four parameters, which account for 90% of the weightage, was submitted by the institutions and verified by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), a body constituted by the HRD ministry last year to conduct annual surveys.

For the perception criterion, various stakeholders including parents, teachers, and alumni were engaged to give their feedback. More than 3,500 top higher educational institutions are under consideration for the ranking. No ranking is being given in the ‘Colleges’ category since the response has been poor.

An independent agency, the National Bureau of Accreditation, working with the government was responsible for validating the voluminous data submitted by the Institutions. The framework for ranking was launched in September 2015.

Why is there a need for Indian rankings? – Indian universities rarely occur in the global ranking surveys done by organization like TIMES and FT. The reason why Indian universities do not appear in the top world ranks is because the parameters that are used for rankings are highly skewed towards citations, publications in top notch journals, presence of Nobel prize winners, availability of large endowments, presence of international students and faculty, online-based popularity surveys and so on. While many of these parameters are important, for a country like India, with a huge young population, it is important that Indian universities  ..

Therefore Indian government decided to come up with National Institutional Ranking Framework.

Source: TheHindu, TheIndianExpress, HindustanTimes

Minority status for AMU does not hold sway

The government would not challenge a Allahabad high court order for denying Aligarh Muslim University the minority status. This is opposite to the response of the previous UPA government which challenged the Allahabad High Court order.

The Azeez Basha versus Union of India verdict of a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had denied AMU protection under Article 30 of the Constitution. Article 30 provides minority communities the fundamental right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The verdict was criticised as AMU was not even a party to or heard in that case.

In 1981, Parliament restored the minority status to the university. But the Allahabad High Court in January 2006 struck down the provision of the AMU (Amendment) Act, 1981, according minority status to the university.

Analysis

What does Art 30 say? – All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

What are the other provisions for religious freedom?

Article 25. Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion. Article 26. Freedom to manage religious affairs.

Article 27. Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.

Article 28. Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain education institutions.

Source: TheHindu,  IndianKanoon

PM announces key Nuclear Security measures

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced several key initiatives taken by his government in the area of nuclear security and nonproliferation, including countering nuclear smuggling and deployment of technology to deter nuclear terrorism,at the Nuclear Security Summit in USA.

India will continue to accord a high national priority to nuclear security through strong institutional framework, independent regulatory agency and trained and specialized manpower.

The plan includes development and deployment of technology to deter and defend against nuclear terrorism.

These include physical and cyber barriers, technological approaches, setting up a facility for medical grade ‘Moly-99’ using low enriched Uranium and using vitrified forms of vulnerable radioisotopes such as Ceasium-137.

India will counter nuclear smuggling and strengthen the national detection architecture for nuclear and radioactive material, a dedicated counter-nuclear smuggling team has been set up.

Further, India will support IAEA’s central role in nuclear security by a further contribution of USD1 million to the nuclear security fund. A workshop with IAEA experts on International Physical Protection Assessment Service (IPPAS) will also be held in India.

India, will join trilateral initiative of NSS chairs circulated at IAEA by subscribing states as the joint statement on strengthening nuclear security implementation.

India will also join three gift baskets for this summit in priority areas of countering nuclear smuggling, nuclear security contact group in Vienna, and sharing of best practices through Centres of Excellence such as India’s own.

India’s export controls list and guidelines have been harmonized with those of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and India looks forward to strengthening its contribution to shared non-proliferation objectives through membership of the export controls regimes.

In 2005, India enacted the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems Act, 2005. This gives effect, inter alia, to India’s obligations under the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1540.

Finally India will host a meeting of Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism in 2017. An international conference on countering nuclear smuggling is also being planned with Interpol.

Analysis

What is the Nuclear Security Summit? – The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) is a world summit, aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism around the globe. The first summit was held in Washington, D.C., United States, on April 12–13, 2010.

Forty-seven countries and three international organisations participated in the first Nuclear Security Summit, held in Washington in 2010 at the initiative of President Obama. The aim of the summit was to improve worldwide nuclear security by enhancing cooperation and to make concrete agreements aimed at better securing nuclear materials and facilities. The results of the summit were set down in the Washington Work Plan in the form of concrete plans and action points, and the Washington Communiqué, which contains commitments and declarations of intent from the participating countries.

Source: TheHindu, Wikipedia

China to export electricity along new Silk Road

China is aiming to position itself a net exporter of electricity along the silk road. The plan is to sell as far as Germany in Europe and to India in the neighbourhood.

Two factors are driving Beijing’s ambitions of emerging as a regional electric supply hub. First, China is already a surplus power producer following a decade of continuous investments at home in all forms of energy. Since 2004, when it suffered chronic outages that threatened to restrain its manufacturing, the Chinese went into overdrive, investing heavily in hydro and coal-fired plants, apart from escalating development of nuclear and renewable energy.

Second, China has mastered ultra–high voltage (UHV) technology, which has allowed State Grid, China’s state-owned power behemoth, to transmit electricity from production centres in West — in places such as Xinjiang — to coastal industrial centres in the faraway east.

China has the technical capacity to increase the voltage to 1500 kilovolts, so that it can transport power 8,000 km away. And it is financially viable to expand.Now, with Xinjiang in western China as the hub, China has the proven technological heft to transmit electricity as far as Germany.

Analysis

What is the silk road? – The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the West and East by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time.

The New Silk road is an initiative to revive the old silk road through massive investment in infrastructure to promote trade and investment.

What is ultra-high voltage technology? –  Ultra-high-voltage (UHV) electricity transmission has been used in China since 2009 to transmit both AC and DC electricity over long distances separating China’s energy resources and consumers.

Implementation of the UHV grid enables the construction of newer, cleaner, more efficient power generation plants far from population centres. Older power plants along the coast will be retired.This will lower the total current amount of pollution, as well as the pollution felt by citizens within urban dwellings.  Implementation of the UHV grid enables the construction of newer, cleaner, more efficient power generation plants far from population centres. Older power plants along the coast will be retired.This will lower the total current amount of pollution, as well as the pollution felt by citizens within urban dwellings.

Source: TheHindu, Wikpedia

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