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From the

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE Editor

Volume X XI No.4

BOARD OF ADVISORS T his letter is being written from our editorial office in Bangalore
on the tenth day after the March 25 national lockdown pro-
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan, Anand claimed by the Central government following the global outbreak
Sudarshan (Bangalore); Dr. F.C. Kohli, Mala of the novel Coronavirus aka, Covid-19 pandemic. During this
Ramadorai, Adi Godrej, Dr. Augustine Pinto,
Krishan Khanna, Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala, period of disruption and enforced idleness, the EW team has
Kirit Mehta (Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); been fully engaged in putting this issue together, despite unprec-
Dr. Geeta Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. edented logistics and infrastructure problems. We have a proud record to
Parth Shah, Jeroninio Almeida, Premchand Palety
(Delhi); Robindra Subba (Kurseong); Sanjeev Bolia maintain. EducationWorld has been published uninterruptedly every month
(Kolkata); Dr. Achyuta Samanta (Bhubaneswar); since November 1999, and we are determined to maintain this record.
Shyama Thakore (London) In a timely Covid-19: Challenge and Response report, we present the

initiatives of several education institutions and edtech companies that have
EDITOR speedily responded to the challenge of maintaining continuity of teaching-
Dilip Thakore
learning in schools and higher ed institutions across the country. Moreover
MANAGING EDITOR on a wider canvas, your editor with over four decades of experience in law,
Summiya Yasmeen
industry and business and education journalism suggests ways and means
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR to mitigate the Covid-19 crisis pain of 150 million low-income households.
Sundar Anand
Paromita Sengupta, Jeswant J.M, Gopi Chand Check out our editorials in this issue.
N, Shraddha Goled (Bangalore), Autar Nehru Re our cover story, how many readers are aware that 747 of India’s 39,931
(Delhi) 9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) arts science and commerce (ASC) undergrad colleges are autonomous
9836491981, Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai) 4380 institutions conferred wide academic, administrative and financial free-
0085, Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) 9920243111
dom? Under India’s complex and complicated higher education regulatory
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 system, an overwhelming majority of the country’s ASC colleges are non-
autonomous. However, provisions of the University Grants Commission Act,
MARKETING 1956, empower the commission to award autonomous status to high perfor-
West: Tejas Pattni (General Manager) 9022487997
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in mance colleges that are at least ten years old and have been awarded A grade
Pooja Sharma 9004379735 certification by the Bangalore-based National Assessment and Accreditation
South India: S. Vijaya Lakshmi 98456 80696 Council (NAAC). Clearly autonomous colleges — private and government —
Poonam Shah 9731966373
North: Hannan Ahmed 9810302768 are a class apart and above. Therefore they need to be — and are — ranked
separately in this issue of EducationWorld.
GRAPHICS
Suresh K. Unsurprisingly, the waters of post-independence Soviet-inspired India’s
SUBSCRIPTIONS higher education system are murky. Some of the country’s most respected
Nisha Thomas: 9108225694 undergrad colleges including St. Stephen’s, Shri Ram College of Commerce,
Ajay Kumar: 080 43711141 Lady Shri Ram, Miranda House which should have been conferred autonomy
sub@educationworld.in decades ago, are not autonomous. They are still tied to the apron strings of
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.1700 their affiliating universities which in turn, are strictly controlled by UGC.
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD95 Like I said, it’s complicated.
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media &
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore Be that as it may, being made aware by Mumbai-based educationist
EDITORIAL Balkishan Sharma, director of the Nest Academy, that private autonomous
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza and (totally unsung) government autonomous colleges are a class apart
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. and above, we have ranked them separately in the EW India Higher Educa-
Tel: 080 22480880; Fax: 2227 5962; tion Rankings 2020-21, Moreover we have also ranked the Top 100 non-
E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in
Website: www.educationworld.in autonomous ASC and Top 100 private engineering colleges separately to give
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf the public and school-leaving students in particular, a clear picture of the
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. status and standing of India’s Top 500 colleges. In the next (May) issue the
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- country’s Top 100 private and government universities and B-schools will be
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published rated and ranked.
at 703-704, Devatha Plaza, 132 Residency Road.
Bangalore 560 025.
Editor Dilip Thakore.
RNI No. KARENG/1999/00234

4 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2020