Not to pile on Mysore University but
What the hell are they thinking?
Today The Times of India reports that Mysore University is among the four Indian universities which have entered into a confidential pact with Nestle, a global baby food and commercial food giant, to promote “nutrition awareness programmes for adolescent school-going girls in government-run village schools.”
I am all for Universities partnering with other public and private institutions especially to create welfare and developmental programs. But these partnerships have to be transparent, and ideally, perhaps not always, non-commercial in nature. This seems to be a program where there is no transparency and in fact when the activists of the
Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) filed an RTI request, Nestle didn’t want to provide any details of the program, claiming: “The contents of the programme are of commercial and confidential nature and the disclosure of which may harm our competitive position.”
We can surmise what Nestle is thinking but what the hell is wrong with the Mysore University? Does anyone read MOUs in the Crawford Hall and do they get any legal advice before signing agreements like these?
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