Spotlight

New Delhi, 14 February 2007

CONGRESS LEADERS SEEK  DECISION ON TELANGANA

HYDERABAD, February 15 (INFA): More than a dozen Congress MPs and MLAs from all the three regions of Andhra Pradesh---Telangana, Rayalseema and Andhra---have sought from the party High Command an early decision on the Telangana’s Statehood demand. At a meeting in Hyderabad the other day, the leaders have suggested bifurcation or even trifurcation of the State in an amicable manner.

Some leaders have even warned the High Command and the State Government that any delay on the issue would harm the party not only in Telangana but also in the other two regions of the State.

Virtually ruling out an immediate solution to the Telangana issue, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has urged the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, to set up the second SRC and ensure that it makes its recommendations in a specific timeframe. The contentious issue must be resolved expeditiously since the prevailing uncertainty would only benefit those who raked up the issue and harm those who are sorting it out.

At present, hardly anyone has the inclination to discuss the shortcomings in the schemes, programmes and policies pursued by the Congress Government and the strategies needed to galvanise the party organization and make it battle-worthy for the 2009 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. ---INFA

SEMINAR ON BEST PRACTICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

NEW DELHI, February 15 (INFA): A National Seminar on “Best Practices in Higher Education with special reference to colleges of North-East India” was organized by IQAC (Internal Quality Assessment Cell) of Jagannath Barooah College, Jorhat, Assam recently.  The two-day seminar had technical sessions which discussed at length on various topics on “Identification and Implementation of Best Practices”, “Dissemination of best practices” “Institutionalization and Internalization of Best Practices”.

More than 20 papers were presented in three sessions by teachers as well as students from the north-eastern region. The technical sessions were followed by a group discussion and participants were divided into three groups under a group leader. Each group took up on topic corresponding to each of the technical session. At the end of the seminar, recommendations were framed to initiate followup actions.

Another National Seminar on ‘Developing Quality Culture in Higher Education: Innovations and Initiatives’, was organized in Allahabad. The NAAC-sponsored seminar evinced participation from West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Uttaranchal.

Prof. R.G. Harshe, Vice Chancellor, Allahabad University, in his presidential address, insisted on teaching which is essentially, dialogic; which means continuous interaction between teachers and students. This would create harmony and consequently lead to blooming of inherent intelligence of the student.---INFA