Hats off to the author for unmasking the duplicitous conduct of doctoral research fellows in the rich world outsourcing their fieldwork elsewhere (“Research assistant wanted: The outsourcing of intellectual labour reveals academia’s colonial roots”). It is sad a situation in countries like ours where a PhD has become an adornment awarded by umpteen varsities on frivolous subjects in the humanities. No wonder such scholars are available to work for Western universities. The New Education Policy that derecognised MPhil courses should also tighten the criteria for doctoral scholars, besides banning exploitation of Indian scholars. – G Srinivasan

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This is a great article and the author’s writing is admirable. – Sujith Thiyagarajan

Export doctors

But a degree from India makes them eligible for foreign jobs after passing their eligibility tests (“Readers’ comments: Medical colleges are producing graduates like a factory line”). Soon, we will become major exporter of doctors and caregiver. – Harinarayanan Thamattoor

India and semiconductors

The semiconductor industry in Japan and Taiwan succeeded because of the private sector’s participation in efforts to address a growing electronic components market (“Like Chandrayaan, India’s semiconductor push aims for the moon, but success is not guaranteed”). The recent efforts of India could succeed if the government encourages private sector to enter the field of electronic components manufacturing. – Rajeev Vadjikar

Same divine presence lives in us all

It is sad that there is a push to wipe out the history of Muslims and everything they made (“Architectural history exposes the false claims about Goa’s mosques and temples”). But such people forget that they are themselves bowing to the divine omnipotent god whose spirit lives within us all – the “rooh”. Some may not know, but namaste means to bow with folded hands to the divinity, who lives within us all. – Azra Kazi

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We all know that god is in each one of us (“‘There is no god in that temple, said the hermit’: Rabindranath Tagore wrote this poem in 1900”). God is in everything and is everywhere. How does it matter to anyone else where one wishes to find the omnipresent one? How does it matter to anyone else how one wishes to address the omniscient one? – Jayashree Mundkur