The University and the Development Agenda
نویسنده
چکیده
This article argues that a knowledge and practice defi cit, and the inability of higher education institutions to professionalise development are key lacunae which need to be overcome. However, this will need the university to reinvent itself and for elite institutions to develop a more accessible notion of knowledge and rigour. The people of India must add a hot summer, a defi cient monsoon, and a bone-chilling winter to the usual list of hardships in making ends meet, along with a host of macroeconomic factors such as poor employment opportunities, poor returns on education, and underperforming developmental services such as bijli (electricity), sadak (roads), paani (water), and health. Government after government has focused on the provisioning of such services through various missions and programmes, the latest being the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. However, the outcomes of many of these missions remain poor. Take for example, cooking energy and drinking water. As per the 66th round of the National Sample Survey Offi ce (NSSO) survey, three in four rural households still use fi rewood and chips as their primary source of cooking energy, and they burn this in smoky chulhas (stoves) of doubtful effi ciency. More over, this number has not changed in the preceding 25 years. For drinking water (see NSSO’s 69th round), about one in seven rural households and one in 10 urban households do not have year-round access to drinking water. These numbers are worse than what NSSO’s earlier round found. Such living conditions have a serious consequence on livelihoods, migration, and health. The crucial point is that these numbers have not budged despite, for example, spending over Rs 10,000 crore every year for the last fi ve years, on drinking water alone. Despite fl agship programmes such as the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the involvement of experts of the World Bank, and an activist member of the Planning Commission, the situation remains bleak.
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تاریخ انتشار 2015