Dr. Samta Jain and Prof. Rajini Anand say that facilitation techniques when professionally used with excellent reflective learning methods in institutes of higher education will enable creation of better leaders and technocrats for the corporate world. Teaching in higher education until recently has been characterised with emphasis on lecture method and monologue. This has led to rote learning in a passive environment inhibiting the learners’ thrust for curiosity and knowledge awakening. The teacher-centric approach has several pitfalls. The learners’ ability to imbibe, synthesise and apply knowledge in the practical environment is hindered. The monologue hampers effective development of communication skills…
Author: oiop
Women farmers in India’s hinterland are not merely content with doing the lion’s share of farming work; they are ready to demand the right to take charge of decision-making, writes Ajitha Menon. Agriculture is hard work. And contrary to the general perception, women, rather than the men, do most of the farm work. In fact, their contribution to India’s total agricultural production is about 60 percent. From helping to prepare the land, to sowing and harvesting the crop, to looking into its processing and storage, Gouri Mondal, 45, of Pathar Pratima village in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal…
Odissi is characterised by simplicity of grace and redolent with sculpturesque poses which are reminiscent of the glorious stone sculptures of Konark and other temples, writes Dr. Kanak Rele. A 7th century A.D. text Vishnudharmottara Purana says, “Vinatu nrityashastrena chitrasootram sudurvidam”. The sage propounding this text says that without the knowledge of dancing, the other plastic arts cannot be comprehended. This very clearly shows the corelationship of sculpture and dance. It is said that dance is a mobile sculpture and sculpture is a frozen dance. In this context, the classical dance style Odissi from Orissa is a shining example. Exposition…
Justice B H Marlapalle started his practice before the Bombay High Court in 1986. He specialised in labour, service and constitutional laws. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court for two years in 1997, and then got confirmed as a judge. Justice Marlapalle has been one of the most outspoken and distinguished judges of the Bombay High Court who set a new benchmark not only for other members of the judiciary, but even for high-ranking bureaucrats by vacating his official quarters and surrendering his vehicle, exactly a day after his retirement. Justice Marlapalle is currently…
It is difficult to conceive a pan-Indian policy for agriculture that will cut across all regional specificities and peculiarities, says Dr. D Narasimha Reddy. In his view, a nature-friendly agricultural production is the only answer to the challenges brought in by climate change. Farming has evolved over thousands of years with the farm as the basic unit of local community and culture. Its practice was shaped everywhere by geography and the creative skills of the farmer, to be optimally productive. In India, agricultural sector has been facing increasing problems of resource constraints – geographical, human, natural and economical resources. At…
In August, when the monsoons begin to abate, there’s feverish activity in the coastal villages of Kerala, that are home to the famous chundan vallam or snake boats. The boats are repaired, oiled and decorated to participate in vallamkali or boat races, one of the main attractions of the harvest festival of Onam. Boat racing is symbolic of the seafaring and martial traditions of the early inhabitants of Kerala. The chundan vallam is so called because it resembles a long snake. Its stern looks like the raised hood of a snake. More than 60 metres long, it can accommodate a…
Greenpeace India and other similar NGOs are simply asking that we protect our natural resources, and that we avoid repeating the development mistakes others have made. Going by our Intelligence Bureau (IB) and some of the voices in the government, anyone asking for the protection of the country’s forests, its rivers or its coasts is anti-national and destroying the country’s economy. I have spent the better part of my life working to save India’s natural wealth from the assault of development (largely in vain it often seems). I have told successive governments that the hundreds of big dams planned in…
Dr. P M Kamath talks about the serious long-term consequences of caste-based reservation. Maharashtra will shortly be going for state elections to elect a new Legislative Assembly to form a new government. Maharashtra’s ruling Congress Party sent only two MPs to National Parliament while its coalition partner, Nationalist Congress Party could elect four of their MPs. The Congress Party having suffered a humiliating defeat at the national level, wants to avoid such a scenario in the ensuing state elections. Therefore it could think of only one of trodden step of capturing its vote bank by extending reservation to Muslims and…
Most political parties are keen to recruit rabble rousers and those with dubious pasts as they come in handy during election time for intimidating voters and securing votes. Indian politics can be slotted in different categories and this has nothing to do with their political affiliations. Some of them, alas a microscopic minority are sincere and honest and are in politics to serve the people. The politician who spells disaster for the nation is the one who preaches the doctrine of violence and who irrespective of the office that he or she holds uses every single opportunity to incite gullible…
The dauntless colonel (1919-1979) Lt Col Hari Chand was born on 16 February 1919 in village Atwala in Punjab. He was commissioned into 8 Gorkha Rifles (GR) on 8 November 1942. His father, Shri Babu Ram had served in the army in the Middle East in World War 2. In 1947, Gilgit which was on lease to the Government of India was handed back to Jammu and Kashmir state. It passed into the hands of the raiders due to the treachery of British officers and Muslim soldiers of the state. Lt Col (later brigadier) Sher Jang Thapa proceeded to Skardu…