MISCELLANY

Not a single university from the Muslim world figures in the list, nor is there a single university from India and for that matter whole of South Asia.

In August 2006, the Newsweek conducted a survey of universities worldwide and ranked them in order of their global acceptability. It took into consideration how global is their reach in seeking students, how diverse are the students in their values and cultures, how their courses of study address the challenges of an inter connected world and collaborative programmes in research to advance science for the benefit of all humanity.

The Newsweek evaluated schools on some of the measures used in wellknown rankings published by Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Times of London Higher Education Survey. Fifty per cent of the score came from equal parts of three measures used by Shanghai Jiaotong the number of highlycited researchers in various academic fields, the number of articles published in Nature and Science, and the number of articles listed in the ISI Social Sciences and Arts Humanities indices. Another 40 per cent of the score came from equal parts of four measures used by the Times the percentage of international faculty, the percentage of international students, citations per faculty member (using ISI data), and the ratio of faculty to students. The final 10 per cent came from library holdings (number of volumes). Not a single university from the Muslim world figures in the list, nor is there a single university from India and for that matter whole of South Asia where our country (i.e., India) is a key player.

Here is the list of 25 top universities from the Newsweek ranking
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Yale University
4. California Institute of Technology
5. University of California at Berkeley
6. University of Cambridge
7. Massachusetts Institute Technology
8. Oxford University
9. University of California at San Francisco
10. Columbia University
11. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
12. University of California at Los Angeles
13. University of Pennsylvania
14. Duke University
15. Princeton Universitty
16. Tokyo University
17. Imperial College London
18. University of Toronto
19. Cornell University
20. University of Chicago
21. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
22. University of Washington at Seattle
23. University of California at San Diego
24. Johns Hopkins University
25. University College London For complete list log on to www.ntu.edu.sg/home/eylu/
univ/Newsweek_top100_
2006.pdf

India recorded 32,719 murders during 200708. India leads the list of murder offences. The United States recorded 16,692 murders during the same period while our neighbour Pakistan, registered 9,631 murders which is significantly high for a country which has onesixth of Indias population. South Africa ranks next to India with 30,960 murders. Austria had just 148 murders whereas Israel registered 177 such incidents. However, the rate (per lakh population) of murder and other crimes in India was much less as compared to other countries. The murder and rape rate in India is three and four (per lakh population) respectively, whereas South Africa recorded the occurrence rate in murders and rapes with 65.27 and 115.8 respectively. The number of rape cases were maximum in the US which recorded 93,934 such assaults followed by South Africa, 54,926 and India 18,359.
(Sources Statistics compiled by National Crime Records Bureau and released by the Union Home Ministry.)

The United States which feels no qualm in accusing certain (Muslim) countries of aiding terrorists, spent as much as 547 billion last year as military expenditure. This is nearly half of what the entire world spent on defence and war machinery. Britain, China, France and Japan follow the US, but lag far behind it, accounting just about four to five per cent of the world military cost each. Even in terms of growth in military expenditure, US registered 65 per cent over its expenditure in 2006. By 2007, the US spending was higher than at any time since world war II, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) noted.

The study notes that 63 of the 100 top weapons manufacturers are based in the United States and Western Eruope, accounting for sales of 292 billion in 2006.

In 2007, the total military expenditure stood at 1339 billion.

The report said 14 major conflicts raged around the world in 2006. In 2001,this number was 20.

Dubai The World Memon University will have a capacity to teach 5000 students and will have courses and programmes in the areas of agriculture, accountancy, engineering, biology, computer sciences, costume and fashion designing, home science, management and Mass media and Healthcare. This was announced by Haji Abdur Razzaq Yaqoob, President of the World Memon Union which held its 7th annual general meeting on May 25 here. The Organisation also announced allocation of 5 million for the charities in the field of healthcare, education around the world.

Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRWUK) India Project Manager,. Danish Aziz distributed the first orphan sponsorship payments to 32 widows towards their childrens education and conducted a Back to School programme by distributing school bags to orphan children. Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRWUK) is an international relief and development charity, which aims to alleviate the suffering of the worlds poorest people. It is an independent NGO based in the UK and works in India through its primary partner OFFER based in Kerala. IRWs local partner Affus Woman Welfare Association will assist in selection of beneficiaries and operation of the project.. The Orphans Sponsorship Programme was initiated in 1997. At present, more than 1000 orphans are sponsored across the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Farida Khan is President, AWWA. ( awwa2kgmail.com) Ph 0836 2267786.or 09480052867.

According to the latest NSS (National Sample Survey) figures, overall female literacy in age group seven and above for Gujarat is 64.5 per cent, with 55.6 per cent female literacy in rural areas and 73.4 per cent in urban areas. The NSS data shows that though there are 55.6 per cent literate rural women (in seven and above age group) in the state, there are 10 out of the 23 major states in the country which fare better.

Also, in terms of urban female literacy in the aboveseven age group, Gujarat is below the National average. Here, 17 states have registered better female urban literacy rate. The National Sample Survey provides data on the socioeconomic status in a state.

Kerala tops the table with 91.9 per cent female literacy and Bihar is at the bottom with only 47 per cent literate women. The states which have fared better than Gujarat in terms of female literacy include Assam (82.4), Tripura (82.3), Manipur (81.4), Himachal Pradesh (80.3), Maharashtra (72.8), Punjab (72.7), Tamil Nadu (72.2), West Bengal (70.9) and Karnataka (66.2).