Solutions to Change

Is it the problem with the shoes? No, we had made it even without shoes in the London Olympics in 1958. Then is it an issue with our physique? No, if not for that, we would never have competed in major league tournaments of tennis, hockey and wrestling which requires great physical strength and control. Then is it the problem with poor funding? According to Sports Ministry estimates, India has spent Rs 55.22 Crore for the 46 medal prospects in 2012 London Olympics which means Rs 1.2 Crore per person. Not bad compared to Rs 105 Crores spend by Great Britain (GB) taking into account the Gold Medals the Country expects from 28 of its majors. Meanwhile, the Australian Olympic Committee President, John Coates informed that the Rs 168 Crores spend by Australia is not enough for their sportpersons to compete in the Olympics!! So what are we lacking? Is it the will power, don’t ever say that. In a country where 42 percent of the children are malnourished (Global Hunger Index 2012), around...

By D.Dhanuraj Kerala's recent history dealing with higher education (?) courses and colleges is not so praiseworthy. Everyone looks at the development with suspicion and no one wants to discuss and collectively learn from the experiences.  While we have a history of revolutionizing school education which has helped us to attain 100 percent literacy, it seems that we lost track with the developments in higher education field. Everyone in Kerala was forced to believe for a quite long time that it is the responsibility of the Government to run education institutions of excellence.  This was happening while private aided schools were serving the majority of population for many decades. At last, the Government took a decision to open up higher education to private players. Here, I am not going into the merits of the stated policies of the then Government on this regard. I want to explore the remedial measures to fix the problems that the higher education secto...