Privatization of Higher Education and its Implication in India

Developing nations like India having a unique trajectory of traditionally hierarchical society with a specific socio-political and economic context, with escalating cost on one hand and increasing needs on the other as the high population, higher studies has become a scarce resource. It shows that there has been a continuous elite domination on the one hand and perpetual marginalization on the other, over the accessibility of this scarce resource. Critical evaluation on the impact of education would show that only a section of elite groups benefited, contradictory to the fact that a huge subsidization made at the cost of the poor. Although India made huge investment in higher education; its returns have not been impressive. It has been projected that private returns are higher than social returns from higher education. It faces other challenges as to bring more you young people into the higher education fold, as well as to significantly focus on building quality and global competitiveness to produce educated and skilled labor force to keep pace with the growing Indian economy. Private funding is highly required and welcome to fill up this huge gap. Increasing democratization would gradually change elite domination in higher education. But sometimes consequences of massive privatization are commodification of knowledge; social values of education eventually be replaced by market values, alarming rate of unemployment, social unrest, slow economic growth and economic disparities.  Therefore privatization is required in a controlled fashion and private education providers are required to be adherent to some legal framework.

Secondary conformation of short lysine- and leucine-rich peptides assessed by optical spectroscopies: effect of chain length, concentration, solvent, and time.

International audienceSolution secondary structures of three synthetic cationic peptides, currently used in antisense oligonucleotide delivery into living cells, have been analyzed by means of circular dichroism (CD) and Raman scattering in different buffers as a function of concentration and time. All three peptides are of minimalist conception, i.e., formed by only two types of amino acids (leucine: L and lysine: K). Two of these peptides contain 15 aminoacids: N(ter)- KLLKLLLKLLLKLLK (L(10)K(5)), N(ter)-KLKLKLKLKLKLKLK (L(7)K(8)), and the third one has only 9 residues: N(ter)-KLKLKLKLK (L(4)K(5)). The conformational behavior of the 15-mers in pure water differs considerably one from another. Although both of them are initially disordered in the 50-350 microM range, L(10)K(5) gradually undergoes a disordered to alpha-helix transition for molecular concentrations above 100 microM. In all other solvents used, L(10)K(5) adopts a stable alpha-helical conformation. In methanol and methanol/Tris mixture, nonnative alpha-helices can be induced in both KL-alternating peptides, i.e., L(7)K(8) and L(4)K(5). However, in major cases and with a time delay depending on peptide concentration, beta-like structures can be gradually formed in both solutions. In PBS and methanol/PBS mixture, the tendency for L(7)K(8) and L(4)K(5) is to form structures belonging to beta-family. A discussion has been undertaken on the effect of counterions as well as their nature in the stabilization of ordered structures in both KL-alternating peptides