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Observer
a day ago
- Science
- Observer
SQU advances 28 places, ranks 334 in QS World University Ranking
Muscat: Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) has continued its progress in the QS World University Rankings 2026 for the second consecutive year, advancing by twenty-eight places to reach the 334th position globally. This marks a new achievement for the university in this ranking and reflects SQU's continuous efforts to continually improve its performance and progress. The number of universities included in this year's QS ranking reached 1,503, out of a total of 8,467 universities worldwide, with the addition of 112 new universities this year. The indicators for academic reputation, employment outcomes, research citations, and international research network have shown clear progress this year. This reflects SQU's strong commitment to graduating highly competent students and its continuous efforts to advance the research sector and support its researchers—making them exemplary figures cited across various research fields. HH Sayyid Dr. Fahad bin Al Julanda Al Said, SQU Vice Chancellor, stated that 'this achievement is a reflection of reality and the result of dedicated efforts and continuous commitment to making Sultan Qaboos University among the best globally in various fields. It also embodies the leadership we aspire to in order to enhance the quality of education. Furthermore, it fulfills one of the key objectives of Oman Vision 2040, which includes, among its indicators, the goal of having at least one Omani university ranked among the top 300 universities worldwide by the year 2040. We hope to continue this dedication and progress toward achieving these goals for the benefit of the university and its members.' SQU has made significant progress in the QS World University Rankings by Academic Programs 2025. Its petroleum engineering major reached 25th place globally, while its nursing major reached 32nd place, making it one of the top 50 majors globally. These achievements affirm SQU's commitment to continuing its leading academic and scientific journey in higher education and research, and to strengthening its status as a prestigious global academic institution.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CFP Board Appoints Barry Gersten as Head Technology Officer
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CFP Board today announced the appointment of Barry S. Gersten as its Head Technology Officer. Gersten will oversee CFP Board's information technology and digital initiatives. As Head Technology Officer, Gersten plays a critical role in shaping the technology vision and aligning information technology (IT) capabilities with the organization's mission, strategic objectives and operational needs. He also provides leadership in evaluating the utility of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. "In this era of rapid technological change, Barry's leadership will elevate our digital readiness and help us remain at the forefront," said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. "His decades of strategic IT leadership expertise will be instrumental as we continue to drive innovation, enhance collaboration and build resilient, adaptive systems that not only support CFP® professionals, certification candidates and the public, but also strengthen the digital experience for our education and CE partners." Gersten joins CFP Board from his independent consulting practice. During his time as a consultant, he helped lead IT strategy and operations at various organizations, including CFP Board, conducting comprehensive assessments of IT systems, infrastructure and vendor services. Prior to this, Gersten served as the Chief Technology Officer at the American Nurses Association, where he led digital transformation initiatives, resulting in a 30% increase in operational efficiency and a 20% reduction in IT infrastructure costs. He also served as Vice President of Information Technology at The Aspen Institute and Chief Information Officer for the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department. "I'm proud to be part of CFP Board's culture that truly values continuous improvement and innovation," said Gersten. "It's exciting to be in a role where I can apply my experience to make a real impact — using technology to help move both the organization and the financial planning profession forward." Gersten holds an M.S. in business administration from Johns Hopkins University and earned his bachelor's degree in information systems management from the University of Maryland. Based in CFP Board's Washington, D.C., headquarters, Gersten will report to CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. He starts his new role on June 16. ABOUT CFP BOARD CFP Board is the professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. CFP Board consists of two affiliated organizations focused on advancing the financial planning profession for the public's benefit. CFP Board of Standards sets and upholds standards for financial planning and administers the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® certification — widely recognized by the public, advisors and firms as the standard for financial planners — so that the public has access to the benefits of competent and ethical financial planning. CFP® certification is held by more than 100,000 people in the U.S. CFP Board Center for Financial Planning addresses diversity and workforce development challenges and conducts and publishes research that adds to the financial planning profession's body of knowledge. View source version on Contacts Joseph Feese, Director of Public Relations, P: 202-379-2305, E: media@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Gary Payton Questions Luka Doncic's Willingness To Become A Defensive Player
Gary Payton Questions Luka Doncic's Willingness To Become A Defensive Player originally appeared on Fadeaway World. Hall of Famer and 1996 Defensive Player of the Year Gary Payton has weighed in on the lingering question that continues to follow Luka Doncic: Will he ever become a competent defender? Advertisement During a candid conversation at the BUDX NBA House event in Mumbai, Payton, renowned for his elite perimeter defense and relentless tenacity, didn't mince words. He didn't question Doncic's talent, he questioned his will. "Like I said, basketball is different than when I played because I could put my hands on them and I could hand check. We'll talk about Luka. You have to be dedicated to play defense. You have to be dedicated. Maybe that's not for him." "He's a scorer. He can do it. Now, if he gets his mind to it, I tell every kid that I go and do camps with, I say there's a mindset to play defense. Not just say you want to play defense. You can't do that unless you have a mindset to do that." "You have to have great hands and feet to do that. You have to be able to move. You have to be willing to take sacrifices to do things. And that's just the way it goes. I don't think Luka is a defensive player. I think he's a scorer. He's not one of that. But now, if he wants to, yes, he can get his mind to it to do it. But does he want to do it?" Advertisement "That's left up to him. That's not left up to us. He's an athlete. He's got great ability. Now, if he wants to go and change it and prove people wrong that he can't play defense, if that was me, I would change it." "I would say, yeah, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to try to defend somebody. And I'm going to get in shape. I'm going to do the things that I need to do. And I'm going to do that." This statement cuts to the heart of one of the biggest critiques of Luka Doncic. Offensively, there's no doubt he's a generational savant, a wizard with the ball, capable of scoring and facilitating at historic levels. But defensively, he's often compared to a traffic cone. In the 2025 Western Conference first-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Doncic was repeatedly exposed in one-on-one matchups. Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley blew past him with ease, and clips of Luka conceding straight-line drives went viral. Advertisement Paul Pierce openly criticized Doncic on national television after the series, declaring that he has to learn how to play defense. Kendrick Perkins was even more direct, calling Doncic 'the worst defensive star in modern basketball.' And those criticisms had real-world consequences, they played a role in the Dallas Mavericks' shocking trade that sent Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis. Mavs GM Nico Harrison defended the move by saying, 'Defense wins championships,' subtly implying that Doncic's limitations on that end were incompatible with their championship goals. Harrison believed Davis, despite being older and more injury-prone, gave Dallas the elite defensive anchor they lacked with Luka. The Boston Celtics also schemed Doncic into oblivion during the 2024 NBA Finals, targeting him relentlessly in pick-and-roll actions. The results were brutal: open looks, exposed rotations, and layups, all courtesy of Luka's sluggish foot speed and delayed reactions. Advertisement However, there are signs that Doncic is finally taking the criticism seriously. This offseason, photos surfaced of a slimmed-down Luka, reportedly after undergoing a modified diet and focused indoor training regimen. Now with the Lakers, he seems more determined than ever to shed the perception that he's a one-way player. Sources close to the team say his conditioning has vastly improved, and his attention to detail during film sessions has been sharper than in years past. Whether that transformation translates to better defensive results on the court remains to be seen. But as Gary Payton emphasized, defense isn't about talent, it's about choice. Doncic has all the tools to become a passable, even respectable defender. But only time will tell if the new-look Lakers star finally develops the mindset required to back it up. Advertisement Related: Luka Doncic Predicted To Take $63 Million Hit On Lakers' Contract Following $100 Million+ Loss In Mavericks Trade This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
The Print
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
DM position is outdated. It's a personality cult, not leadership
As far as I am concerned, I am immensely proud to have once been an IAS officer. There is no aspersion cast on the competency of any individual who joins the service; anybody selected through a three-tier process, which narrows down a field of nearly a million aspirants to a triple-distilled cohort of 150 individuals, is bound to be competent and can be justifiably proud of being a member of this elite group. However, that pride does not translate into blind loyalty to the IAS tribe or to the unequivocal acceptance of the mythology and group-speak of the service. Criticism of the IAS's conservative clinging to outdated institutions does not denote a lack of pride; rather, It draws attention to the crying need for introspection, without bias or slant. This observation of mine, recorded by ThePrint's Sanya Dhingra in a report published this week, did not sit well with some of my former colleagues. One of them asked me why I was 'demolishing' the service and contrasted my approach with that of the armed forces, where any criticism is met with a 'warrior-like front' and a show of 'pride' in the service. The concentration of administrative powers in the district magistrate is an impediment to development. The IAS circle has carefully cultivated the myth of the collector's infallibility and has pushed a narrative that citizens must be kept under check, lest they step out of line. A comparison between the civil service and the armed forces is inappropriate. A civil service is not a uniformed service. Those who join the armed forces must be indoctrinated to do something unnatural: to kill and to die. They have to be trained to suppress the natural instinct of rational human beings, which is to live and let live, and to preserve themselves. Such training aims to suspend the natural tendency not to kill and to preserve one's own life, during the dire circumstances of war, as a professional imperative. In contrast, the civil servants are not expected to kill or to die. In most circumstances, we are not dealing with an enemy; we are dealing with fellow citizens. We are expected to serve the people by following the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India and the laws and rules of the land, which flow from it. Our notions, biases, and group interests ought not to come in the way of that primary task. The bald fact of the matter is that the position of the district collector (also called district magistrate or deputy commissioner), created by the British to rule over a potentially irresponsible and mutinous people—the subjects of a foreign imperialist power—continues even today, with a huge concentration of powers in it. India underwent fundamental economic reforms and liberalisation 30 years ago, alongside sweeping constitutional amendments to give local elected governments constitutional status and a functional space. However, while market reforms have demolished many previously held outdated notions, the antiquated idea of district administration being handled by an overworked single officer has not been shed. This mindset has become a millstone around the neck of India. The district collector is not a facilitator of development; he or she is a bottleneck. Such a concentration of powers concerning both regulation and service provision in one position is institutionally irrational and administratively inefficient. Also read: Deportations, conversions to waqf, the ever-increasing powers of district magistrates in India A 1980s Karnataka 'model' stands ignored The 15th report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission did a sample count of the number of committees headed by the district collector in Andhra Pradesh and Assam; the numbers were 50 and 43, respectively. What is more, the commission observed that the list was incomplete and that there may be many more committees of which the collectors themselves may not even be aware. The situation today is probably worse than it was when the ARC report was written 15 years ago. Why does it not strike the IAS that this level of concentration of power is absurd? Do they think they can do justice to all these responsibilities? It is humanly impossible for a district collector to give quality time to all of his or her tasks. Protestations to the contrary apart, and cherry-picked examples notwithstanding, in reality the country suffers because the development of the district is left not to reason but to whimsy. An overloaded officer is left to decide, as he or she sees fit, what the priority area will be for exercising their mind. One reason why the notion that the single position of the district collector is necessary to act as the fulcrum of district development persists is that there are only a few counterfactual examples. In Karnataka, from 1987 to 1992, Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde and rural development minister Abdul Nazir Sab directly confronted the IAS's mental block against diminishing the powers of the district collector in their endeavour to establish empowered Zilla Parishads. They made the position of the deputy commissioner junior to that of the chief secretary of the Zilla Parishad, and the former was divested of responsibilities for local development. In spite of dire warnings from the IAS that citizens would be confused and mayhem would ensue from this rejigging of district administration, nothing of the sort happened. On the contrary, people quickly understood the roles assigned to the two officers. The IAS officer senior to the district collector placed as chief secretary of the Zilla Parishad, was answerable to the elected body and worked under the control and supervision of the president of the Zilla Parishad. The creation of dispersed local infrastructure in many sectors accelerated, as local representatives were consulted and contributed to planning and implementation. Local discretion, no longer impeded by state ministers, MLAs, and deputy commissioners, enabled better tailoring of development initiatives to people's needs. Sure enough, this was not liked at all by MLAs, higher-level politicians, and the IAS at large. State-level departments felt disempowered because decisions that had to come to Bangalore were now being taken at the district level. At the earliest opportunity in 1992, when the terms of the elected Zilla Parishads came to a close, the district collector took over as administrator of the Zilla Parishads. Senior officers were once again posted as DMs, and the chief secretary posts of the Zilla Parishads were abolished, replaced by downgraded posts of CEOs. In the eyes of the IAS, the natural order was restored. The example of Karnataka from 1987 to 1992 is now ignored by reformers within the IAS, who intend to reform everything else except their own hallowed institutions. Antipathy to empowered local governments Many IAS officers, articulate and suave as they are, attempt to deflect or diminish their role in fostering the long-standing antipathy to empowered local governments. 'It's not we who are standing in the way of strengthening local governments; higher-level politicians and MLAs are to be blamed, as they stand to lose power,' they say. Let us not be so naïve as to believe that. Throughout one's service, one sees that the majority of IAS officers articulate policies and write up the fine print of centralisation. True, higher-level politicians do not want to devolve power to local governments. But the operational process of such subversion is crafted by IAS wordsmiths. It is they who repeatedly utter the cliché of the 'lack of capacity' of local governments and create parallel structures such as separate societies, mission bodies, companies, and the like—each giving some supervisory role to the district collector and all aimed at bypassing the constitutional intent of devolving local functions to local governments. Ever wonder why Smart City Projects are implemented at the municipal or metropolitan level, not by the elected municipalities, but by a private limited company headed by an IAS officer who is not locally accountable through the municipal body for his actions? That policy is written up by an IAS officer. It is fascinating to observe how deep this suspicion of local power and initiative runs, and how repetitive the weak arguments that IAS officers use to delay or sabotage meaningful devolution of power. Even those with the highest integrity have a blind spot when it comes to sincerely supporting local governments. They argue that decentralisation of power will only result in local elite capture or excessive corruption. This argument is ironic, as it ignores the fact that the IAS itself constitutes a powerful elite, which often looks the other way when higher political levels engage in grave acts of corruption. Another overlooked phenomenon is the political control exercised over the post of the district collector by higher-level politicians. On the one hand, the IAS supports the immense concentration of power in the hands of the district collector. On the other hand, this same post hardly acts independently of the minister or the MLAs. The question to ponder is: if the district collector or any other high-ranking district official is to be subordinated to a political person, why not be subordinated to the Zilla Parishad president or the mayor of the municipal corporation concerned, who is elected from the district to head constitutionally mandated local governments? In what way is that subordination unacceptable when subordination to the minister or MLAs is accepted without question? Sadly, all that I say will continue to be a voice in the wilderness. The paradigm of muscular, personality-oriented leadership is now here to stay, at least in the short term. This leadership style is replicated at every level of government, and the outdated position of the district collector lends itself well to such personality-cult-based leadership. There is no political push for collegiate and participative governance; it doesn't create the grand spectacle of individual leaders striding forward with obedient subjects following them. What needs to be done—establishing truly functional local governments with constitutionally devolved powers—is clear as daylight to everybody. However, in the absence of any real political push for it, all government actions at the district level will remain constrained by the need to be supervised by the district collector. The country will stand to lose, in wasted time. TR Raghunandan is a former IAS officer. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
Hindustan Times
28-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Bathinda: Dismissed constable sent to 2-day VB remand
A Bathinda district court on Tuesday sent the dismissed Punjab Police senior constable Amandeep Kaur, an accused of a drug trafficking case, to a two-day vigilance bureau remand. The controversial cop was arrested by the vigilance bureau on Monday from Badal village in Muktsar for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income. She was earlier arrested with 17.7 gm of heroin from Badal Road in Bathinda city on April 2 while driving in a black SUV. Amandeep was released on bail in the case. She was arrested by the VB in a corruption case on Monday. She was produced in the court amid tight security. VB deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Kulwant Singh while speaking to reporters at the court complex that the bureau has secured a warrant to search Amandeep's residence. 'The accused will be produced before the court on May 29. Our team will make a financial assessment of the household belongings of the accused. We are examining the source of the financial transactions made to her bank accounts. As the probe is underway, VB has no further comment to offer at this point,' said the DSP. Properties frozen Earlier in the day, Bathinda district police officials reached the Virat Green Colony in the city to serve an official notice freezing Amandeep's residence. Following a go-ahead from the competent authority, dismissed cops' movable and immovable assets worth ₹1.35 crore have been frozen under the smugglers and foreign exchange manipulators (SAFEM) (Forfeiture of Property) Act. According to the VB, details of her movable and immovable properties acquired between 2018 and 2025 were scrutinised during the investigation along with her salary, bank accounts and loan records. The probe revealed that Kaur had a total income of ₹1.08 crore during the said period while her expenditure stood at ₹1.39 crore which is ₹31 lakh more than her known sources of income, and that amounts to 28.85% beyond her legitimate earnings. A case was registered on May 26 based on these findings under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act at Vigilance Bureau Police Station Bathinda range.
