does kapil sibal pat his kids through the internet? or does he need private partners to do it?

using the internet to improve access to education in villages. what an idea sirjee!

look at the problems. for instance, the minister or his boss can't go to lalgarh without a few hundred soldiers going in first, before them. and there are over 200 such districts across the country. so the internet is the safest way to travel in india these days. or teach.

cynics would say: if in the last sixty years, more teachers had travelled to those villages- would the army be there now?

what was the minister for education trying to do on television today? making an admission that the government of india has given up on the people of india. thrown in the towel. we're inviting any and every kind of entrepreneur (or snake oil salesman or rural warlord or dotcom veteran or religious warrior) to become the indian state's private partner in... . education? do whatever, but come tell us you're doing education in the villages and hand in your vouchers etc and collect your money. we want to forget about the whole business, okay?

we're done with it. we've many more revolutions to cook- many new universities and elite institutions to set up, more loans to give away to rich kids, more regulating of higher education to be done. so many new tasks for babus and so much new business for corporate india. and it isn't going to be all fun, i promise you. schools are no longer our business.

in a few more years, hopefully, another 200 districts in the country would also be accessible only through the net. and we'll expand education in those parts too.
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when it comes to schools, who's the bigger prophet of the free market: milton friedman or the government of india? in my view, that isn't really a tough question to answer.