Actor-turned-politician Paresh Rawal’s wife Swarup Sampat and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, an entrepreneur who runs leading portals like jeevansaathi.com and naukri.com, are the new entrants in the reconstituted Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) — the highest advisory body on education in the country. Anirban Ganguly, Director of Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Research Foundation, which has BJP affiliations, is also figured in the list of 19 nominated members of the CABE headed by HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
The nominated members also include Swami Atmapriyananda, Vice-Chancellor of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur Math. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a known follower of the Ramakrishna Mission sect and had travelled to the Belur Math in May this year during his visit to West Bengal.
While Atmapriyananda has been nominated under the category of ‘eminent academicians’, Sampat has been nominated under the category of ‘creative arts’. Besides, CABE comprises heads of some central institutes such as vice-chancellor of Central University of Gujarat Syed A Bari and vice-chancellor of Uttarakhand University Jawahar Kaul, considered close to the HRD Minister. They have also figured in committees constituted by the Ministry.
Among nominees representing languages is Pankaj Trimbak Chande, former vice-chancellor of Uttarakhand Sanskrit University, Haridwar, as well as Naheed Abidi, a Padma Shri awardee. Vice-chancellor of National Bal Bhawan Indumati Rao, founder secretary of Drishti Stree Adhayayan Prabodhan Kendra, Pune, Anjali Deshpande and co-founder of Team lease India Manish Sabharwal have also been included as nominated members.
Sabharwal’s firm has reportedly placed more than half a million people in temporary and permanent jobs since 2002. The nominated member under the category of ‘media representative’ is Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah.
Actress Kajol to be Board member of Prasar Bharati
New Delhi: Bollywood star Kajol, singer Anoop Jalota, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s media adviser Ashok Tandon and journalist Minhaz Merchant are learnt to be on the list of seven persons, from which new part-time members for the Prasar Bharati Board would be chosen. According to sources, the Ministry of Home Affairs has recently given security clearance to the list of seven names which had been forwarded to it by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.