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Thirty five of the universities from the Middle East, from Turkey to Egypt, find a mention in this year’s QS World Universities Ranking 2011/2012 which has produced a list 740 top universities around the world. 
They may be at an early stage in their development, but investment schemes of Middle Eastern nations are beginning to pay dividends, says Martin Ince of the QS World University Ranking.
Across the Middle East, nations large and small are developing plans for higher education. Some have immeasurable sums of oil wealth to spend on this ambition, but even those that lack billions of petrodollars see no reason to be left behind.
Some Middle Eastern nations want universities for the new knowledge they generate, with an eye on replacing oil money with high technology employment. But others are aware of the soft power potential of universities in the struggle for world prominence. They would like universities that are good enough for their elites not to assume that their children have to go to Harvard or Oxford to complete their education.
The World University Rankings for 2011 are an early test of Middle Eastern plans for academic excellence. They show that the region, from Turkey to Egypt and the Gulf, has 35 universities in the 740 that we rank. At nearly one in 20 of the total, this group far exceeds the Middle East's share of world population. This figure does not include the five Israeli universities that are ranked, which for political reasons are highly disconnected from the rest of the region’s educational culture.
The most heavily-publicized university ambitions in the Middle East belong to Saudi Arabia, and their success is seen in the seven Saudi universities in our rankings. These include King Saud University at number 200 in the WUR, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (see picture) at 221. These two are the region's top-ranking universities by some distance.
More striking is the progress which these seven are making in the QS World University Rankings. Of last year’s contingent, King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) rose from the 401+ to rank at 370, and Umm Al-Qura University at Makkah is still in the 501-550 band. But King Faisal and King Khalid universities are new entrants, the second of them entering immediately into the 451-500 zone. The other four have all risen, for example from 221 to 200 for King Saud.
The only nation in the region with more ranked universities than Saudi Arabia is Turkey with eight. Bilkent (see picture) is highest-placed in our 401-450 grouping. Both it and the Middle East Technical University appear in our citations rankings and attract international faculty, but no Turkish university impresses global employers or academics. Beyond these two nations, Egypt has five universities here but no other nation manages more than two.
Middle Eastern nations have chosen a variety of ways of developing their higher education. Qatar, which has one university here, is also home to Education City, a development zone that houses local branches of Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, HEC, Texas A+M and other US and European universities. It is difficult to capture this development in rankings such as ours. Qatar is also committed to spending 2.8 per cent of GDP on research, probably the highest figure in the world.
We cannot yet tell what effect the events of the Arab Spring will have on education in the region, although students and professors have been enthusiastic participants. But it is axiomatic that universities reflect the society they belong to, which suggests that change is inevitable.
(Source: QS World’s Top Universities)

The probability of dying before the first birthday is called ‘infant mortality’. The probability of dying between the first and the fifth birthday is called ‘child mortality’.
Over 3.9 million children die globally every year within the first four weeks of births. Of these more than 50% die in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Democratic Republic of Congo. India alone accounts for death of nine lakh children.
However, despite the large number of deaths of children, a new study finds that the number of deaths of new-borns is coming down. It used to be 4.6 million in 1990. Most newborn deaths are caused by premature delivery, asphyxiation and severe infections.
The first four weeks are critical for the new-born. If a child is provided required warmth and milk, protected from cold and provided clean hygienic surroundings, the deaths could be minimized.
(Extracted from report by World Health Organisation, Save the children and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.)

Proper policing requires 200 police personnel for every one lakh population, if the norms set by the United Nations are to be believed. But several Indian states, particularly those along the international borders are heavily over-policed while several others are under-policed.
According to the Union Home Ministry, Mizoram has 1,084 policemen for every one lakh people. The number is 1,034 in Nagaland, 936 in Tripura, 656 in Jammu and Kashmir, 632 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, 602 in Sikkim, 574 in Manipur and 568 in Arunachal Pradesh. The number dips drastically in Southern states with Tamil Nadu having just about 135 policemen for one lakh people. For Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, the number is 134, 114 and 122 respectively. It plummets to almost 75 in Uttar Pradesh and 53 in Bihar. In capital Delhi, the ratio stands at 390 police personnel to one lakh people.

The historical clock tower, Satkhanda will soon regain its pristine glory. The Hussainabad and Allied Trust (HAT), which is the custodian of historical monuments in Lucknow has taken up the task to restore the Satkhanda tower. An expert group comprising Prof. N.M. Bhandari, representatives of INTACH and Archeological Survey of India (ASI) are assisting the administration for restoration of Satkhanda. However, as conceived, Satkhanda will not have seven floors, but the existing four floors will be restored. A dome with a brass minaret will be added on the top for aesthetic purpose. “We started the restoration work in 2009 and now we have reached a critical stage. Another two years and Satkhanda will be the centre of attraction,” said secretary, HAT, O.P. Pathak. Satkhanda was constructed by the third King of Awadh, Mohd Ali Shah in 1837. It was meant for moon sighting by the clerics. However, Mohd Ali Shah died in 1842 and his descendants took the under-construction Satkhanda tower as a bad omen. No efforts were made to complete it and it was left with only four under- construction floors. Slowly, with the passage of time, it was encroached and people started defacing it. In 2008, the encroachment was removed and a boundary wall was constructed around it. The restoration work was started in July 2009. The total cost of restoration so far is Rs 26.40 lakhs, while another 30 lakhs is expected more on the restoration which will be completed by 2013.

Ever wondered how that enticing, full page advertisement in the magazine made you buy a huge flat screen TV against your better judgement? Ads brainwash you in two ways. There is just the factual type, called ‘logical persuasion,’ or LP (this car gets 20 km to a litre). Then there is the ad that bypasses conscious awareness, called ‘non-rational influence’ or NI (a pretty woman draped over a car). Now, researchers at the Universities of California - Los Angeles and George Washington have shown that ads evoke different levels of brain activity, based on LP or NI influence, reports the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics. Ian Cook, professor of psychiatry at California University, and colleagues found that brain regions involved in decision-making were more active when people viewed ads that used LP than when they viewed ads with NI. Put simply, ads structured on logical persuasion were acceptable only after they made sense to an individual, after he or she subjected them to a thorough analysis. But the ads based on non-rational influence appealed to a more emotional side of the potential target, by tempering or dazzling them into buying it. “The findings support the conjecture that some advertisers wish to seduce, rather than persuade, consumers to buy their products,” concluded Cook, according to a California statement. The study was based on a group of healthy adults, both men and women, who viewed 24 ads in magazines and dailies, as the electrical activity in their brains was recorded.