Page 28 - EW December 2023

Education News

Prof. Saha. To set the record straight, 2023 was 13 MoUs signed
I said nothing that glorified Hamas. between several state and
I did not even mention Hamas in my foreign universities, with
talk,” says Deshpande. investment promises of
Although Prof. Saha was unavail- Rs.1,676 crore for K-12
able for comment, IIT-B faculty has education and Rs.3,060
closed ranks around her and con- crore for higher education.
demned the “tarnishing of the reputa- Partnership agreements
tion and physical threats to one of our were signed between
colleagues via anonymous phone calls renowned education insti-
and posts on social media platforms.” tutions, industry leaders,
Nevertheless this contretemps and technology innovators
prompted the IIT-B management to to transform the state’s
issue “guidelines” against staging of educational landscape.
lectures and seminars by students Banerjee inaugurates Bengal Global Business Summit However, academics
and faculty that could be “potentially in Kolkata caution that
political.” The guidelines established kicked Tata Motors out of Singur signing of MoUs and investment
a Review Committee which will clear where the company had established pledges are ceremonial statements of
all lectures and seminars involving a motor-car manufacturing facil- intent rather than binding contracts.
“external speakers.” ity, to address the state’s ballooning Ground conditions and the invest-
Meanwhile an interim guidelines unemployment problem. One of the ment climate — obligations of the
circular issued by the IIT-B Registrar initiatives she has urgently taken is state government —have to be right
says that “while the institute encour- to recruit and appoint government for statements of intent to translate
ages free and open discussions on primary-secondary school teachers into on-the-ground projects.
educational subjects, it must remain statewide despite high court orders n this connection, West Bengal’s
apolitical in its endeavours. There- staying recruitment because of exam Ipost-independence history has
fore, it is imperative that students, scams. Another is to attract invest- been disastrous. From the mid-1960s
faculty and staff stay away (sic) from ment in industry and business. onward, communist parties — CPI
activities/events that may invite socio- On November 21-22, she hosted and CPM — dominated West Bengal
political controversies, diverting IIT- the seventh edition of the Bengal politics and during the uninterrupted
B from its primary mission, or may Global Business Summit (BGBS) rule of the latter for 34 years (1977-
bring disrepute to the institute.” 2023 which attracted participation of 2011), runaway state-backed trade
In short, IIT-B students should re- 5,000 national and 400 internation- unionism prompted sustained flight
vert to being tunnel vision techies. al delegates (700 more than BGBS of capital and destroyed the state’s
Nasrin Modak Siddiqi (Mumbai) 2022) from 40 countries including industrial base, resulting in mass
the US, UK, Japan, Poland, France, unemployment. Unfortunately since
WEST BENGAL Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Ban- then, extortionist CPM youth-wing
Election fever frenzy gladesh and Fiji. members have switched sides and
During the two-day event 188
have continued to create law and
MoUs (Memoranda of Understand- order problems as youth wings of
lthough the next legisla- ing) and Letters of Intent were TMC, the incumbent ruling party.
tive assembly election in signed between the state govern- This unchanged status has made
AWest Bengal is in the distant ment, and foreign and domestic com- domestic and foreign investors wary
future (2026), three-term chief panies and education institutions. of investing in West Bengal.
minister Mamata Banerjee (who in a If they translate into implemented However according to Banerjee,
classic case of nepotism has groomed projects they would result in a mas- Rs.10 lakh crore of Rs.15 lakh crore
her nephew Abhishek to take over sive inflow of Rs.3.76 lakh crore into worth of investment proposals made
after her) has less than six months the state’s economy and generate 4 in the last six editions of the Summit,
to make good her promise to bag all million jobs in the state which has have already been invested creat-
42 Lok Sabha, Delhi seats in General 7.6 million registered unemployed ing 23.6 million jobs. But Central
Election 2024. youth. Notably, Reliance Industries government data drawn from the
Therefore, she is pulling out all chairman Mukesh Ambani pledged department of policy and promotion
stops to restart the state’s engines of to invest Rs.20,000 crore in West indicates that only 4.16 percent of
economic growth which have been Bengal over the next three years. the Rs.15 lakh crore investment pro-
idling since 2011 when she famously A significant feature of BGBS posals from several BGBS editions

28 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2023