What does one do if one has friends who want to spend some money and have nice time? Very Simple. Give them some money and ask them to have nice time, if possible.
On June 02, 2005, all the major Indian news agencies reported about National Knowledge Commission constituted by Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India. The seeming importance of the Commission can be understood by the first paragraph of those reports:
"In a major step to prepare the country to meet knowledge challenges in the 21st century, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today constituted a National Knowledge Commission to be headed by tech czar Sam Pitroda."
The reports went on to talk of how this Commission will advise the PM on knowledge production, knowledge use and knowledge dissemination. So far, so good. What is its agenda? We have to wait for another few months assuming it will be made public - The Commission would identify its action programme by October two this year and complete its work by October two, 2008.
Who are the other members? The eight-member commission will have P M Bhargava as the Vice-Chairperson. The other members are Nandan Nilekani, Deepak Nayyar, Ashok Ganguly, Andre Beteille, Jayanti Ghosh and Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
Ah...Who said the Lefts do not apply any pressure on Manmohan Singh? What can a Committee do if it has a person who supports religious conversion and a person who writes on how to politically combat Hindutva? I hope few visionaries present in the Committee should be able to get their ideas pass through. I have my own doubts about this Commission's efficacy but one has to wait atleast till they announce their mission and vision before making any critical comments. I hope the Commission's action programme will be made public whenever it gets ready. Unfortunately, in the popular media, there are no special articles, and editorials discussing what this Commission should look into it, what sort of knowledge dissemination they talk about, etc. Please let me know if I have overlooked any articles. Or am I giving more importance to something which no one is serious about?
1 comment:
Hope we will be able to see their action programme in October, explaining all those vague and all-encompassing terms.
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