Problems facing Technical Education

(Transcript of a note dated 1.1.1975) Introductory: During the last three decades, India has built dams, powerhouses, steel plants,  roads, railways and industries and a host of other things, leading to the development of an infra-structure and technological capability, usually associated with top few developed countries of the world. It is really an anomaly,  that, … Read more

The Malady

The Credibility Gap: Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru often remarked in utter exasperation, that, the central secretariat was an administrative jungle. With all his power, charisma, mass appeal and intellect, he was unable to rid himself from the clutches of the bureaucrats. Ironically, he always played in the hands of the very people, whom he shunned … Read more

Teaching Staff

Polytechnics: The directorate of technical education was established in Rajasthan in 1957 followed by the establishment of three state government polytechnics at Jodhpur, Udaipur and Ajmer in 1958. Kota Polytechnic  had started functioning in 1960 followed by polytechnics at Bikaner and Alwar in 1961. There was an acute  shortage of technical manpower at that time … Read more

Technical Education in Rajasthan

Background: MBM Engineering College was the first government engineering college established at Jodhpur by Principal Vinayak Govind  Garde. Directorate of Technical Education Rajasthan  started functioning at Jodhpur in 1957, with Principal Garde as the ex-officio Director of Technical Education and Chairman of the Board of Technical Education. The services of Principal VG Garde, as principal … Read more

Emergency

Emergency: Internal emergency was clamped in the country on the night of 25 June 1975. Emergency is a serious, unexpected and potentially dangerous situation needing immediate action. It is very difficult to say, whether, the emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975 was good or bad. Her election to the parliament in 1971  from Rai … Read more

Events leading to Emergency

Lal Bahadur Shastri:  India became independent, when Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first prime minister of India,  raised the national  flag on the ramparts of red fort on 15 August 1947. He was responsible for initiating the process of industrialization and planned development of the country. Chinese aggression on the northern border in 1962 was … Read more

Some recollections of the bygone days

Admissions to the Polytechnic: I had joined Jodhpur Polytechnic in July 1962. The process of admissions for that year was over by then.  At that time, there was tremendous rush for admissions in the polytechnics  and a large number of  students from neighbouring states of United Provinces and Punjab had applied  for admission to Jodhpur  … Read more

Indo-Pakistan War of 1971

Beginnings of the war: I was travelling from Delhi to Jodhpur by Jodhpur mail on the night of December 3, 1971. Suddenly all lights went off and the train continued its run in utter darkness. Sometime later, we were told that the war between India and Pakistan has broken out. Next day, the morning newpapers … Read more

Trip to USA

Fellowship: It was sometimes in the month of May 1971, that, I was offered a fellowship for a study visit to USA. The fellowship was sponsored by National Science Foundation of USA and US Agency for International Development. The fellowship was absolutely open ended. The duration of the trip was three months and we were  … Read more

Summer Programmes

Computer Programming: Computers and computer programming had started making some ripples in 1968. It was the time of main frame computers and the access to computers was not available to the common man. However, the stories about, what computer is and what computer does and what computers can do, were taking rounds and everybody was … Read more