About the Book : Higher Education in India is in deep crisis and deplorable condition. It is being examined and suitable remedial measures are being taken at every level to set right the maladies. Yet one could see the fall of institutions and institutional leadership and more particularly the fall of moral stature of leaders of higher education starting from the Ministers of Governments to the Vice-Chancellors of the Indian Universities. The sudden expansion of higher education in India to meet the market needs has created such a havoc to the higher education in India. In the name of expansion quality is the casualty. Exploitation of the people by the private sector in education is the order of the day. Barring the premier public institutions and a few private institutions, all are not in a healthy condition to produce quality man- power needed to the market. But the private sector has been making unlimited profit in higher education. The above issues have been analysed and remedial measures are suggested in this small volume. In the same way, yet another problematic dimension of the higher education is extension or outreach programmes of the Indian Universities. How extension is important? What potentials are available in the higher education institutions for extension? How extension activities could be carried out? and what is the status of extension in Indian Universities are analysed and explained based on his own personal experience in carrying out the outreach activities in this book.

About the Author : G. Palanithurai is an academic activist served in Annamalai University and the Gandhigram Rural Institute for about 34 years in teaching, research and outreach activities integrally. He held several managerial positions form the Head of the Department to in-charge Vice-Chancellor. He has to his credit 73 books, 22 edited volumes, 95 monographs, 42 chapters in edited volumes, 136 research articles in refereed journals and 394 popular articles in newspapers and magazines in English and Tamil in his area of specialization local democracy and development. He has prepared 42 research reports for international and national research agencies and both the governments. He has evolved innovative training modules to build the capacity of the elected representatives of the people in rural local bodies. He has trained 8000 gram panchayat presidents and of them 5000 are women and dalits. He was the Professor in Rajiv Gandhi chair for Panchayati Raj studies in the Gandhigram Rural Institute. He closely worked with state and centre planning commissions for preparation of research reports. He was a visiting professor in cologne university Germany for a semester. He introduced two innovative master programme M.A development administration and M.A. governance and development. He was awarded fellowships by Shastri Indo Canadian Institute, World Academy of Art and Science USA, the Toolkit Foundation, Netherland to visit abroad to conduct studies and to write books. He organized and participated innumerable workshops, seminars, conference at regional, national and głobal level. He received awards including Ram Reddy Award, V.R. Krishna Aiyar Award and Seven Generation Award for the outstanding activities done in the field of Panchayati Raj. Currently he is the Director of Rural Development Division (SARVAM) of Sri Aurobuido Society, Puducherry. Email: [email protected], Mobile: 9159099809