Karnataka - Bangalore   

Nariman makes out a case for quota in higher education

Staff Reporter

`Higher education needs to act as an equaliser'

BANGALORE: Affirmative action in education will result in a win-win situation for the under-privileged as well as the country's economy, said Fali Nariman, senior Supreme Court advocate, on Saturday.

Delivering his address at the 42nd convocation of Bangalore University, Mr. Nariman, quoting America's youngest college president Anthony Marx, said that higher education needed to act as an equaliser as no society could progress with inequality.

Making out a case for reservation in higher education, Mr. Nairman said, "The truly meritorious are only the ones who are better exposed. Young people who are poor are not talented because they are not exposed in an obvious way," he said.

Addressing the students, Mr. Nariman urged them to go abroad to pursue further studies, if they wanted. "But do not forget to come back to India. Not because India needs you, but because you need India," he said.

Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University H.A. Ranganath proposed that the university could acquire a TV channel of its own for educational purposes. "The proposed TV channel could be used to beam not only formal lectures related to syllabi but also used as a novel platform to expose the students to special lectures by foreign scientists visiting Bangalore," he said. He also proposed the establishment of a central scientific instrumentation centre by pooling the state of art instruments for research and training. "The Centre would provide the infrastructure to train research scholars to update their skills in tune with contemporary academic and professional requirements," he said.

Twenty-one-year old Aruna Ranganathan of MES College won the maximum number of 13 awards and also secured the first rank in Bachelor of Science in May 2006 examination. She attributed her success to her parents and friends. Asha, a visually challenged student from NMKRV college, won the M.S. Ramaiah prize for being the best among blind students to secure the highest marks in any discipline at the degree level. Twenty-three-year old Ashish Gupta, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, said that he wanted to join the civil services, but his father wanted him to practise law. He has secured the first rank in the five-year Bachelor of Law course.

Earlier, three eminent personalities were awarded honorary doctorates. Veteran actor B. Saroja Devi and Right Livelihood winner Ruth Manorama were honoured with degrees of Doctor of Letters and Rashtrakavi G.S. Shivarudrappa was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature.

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