Mr. President - no need to rue

...At the same time, I feel it necessary to share with you my sense of dismay on seeing, in recent reports, that not a single Indian University or institute of higher learning, including the premier IITs figure in list of 200 top rated Universities of the world. Now you may question the survey, but to my mind the more important question is, why? Why are we, a "rising economic superpower", not able to promote our standards to be rated, indisputably, among the top ten or even top fifty or hundred? ...

ybrems
*Who said that India is a rising economic superpower? Mr. Pranab Mukherjee may be day-dreaming.

*India has become a market with great demand because of high population growth. Demand, naturally, spurs some growth. Some foreign countries may want to exploit the demand-full markets of India. The Governments, Heads of State and Ambassadors of such countries may be praising India as a rising economic super power, whereas the fact remains otherwise.

*Public Sector Universities in India are filled with lethargic Professors, with degrees and without desire to perform. They have become white elephants and non-performing assets of the Universities. UGC pampers them, despite non-performance.

*Private Sector Universities in India do not perform because, performance does not attract students. It is the publicity and advertising which attracts students. Private Universities employ consultants and counsellors to market their courses. They conduct many seminars and meetings to attract international attention, but do not match the seminars and speeches with performances.

*The institutions which rank Universities world-wide, they have their own agenda. They have to make quick-money. Besides, they have country biases, color and race biases, continental biases and what not. In this capitalist world, justice never gets its proper place. We have a proverb in my mother tongue, Telugu: "karra gala vADidi barre." It roughly translates as: "Whoever owns the stick, also owns the buffalo."

*Indian Universities need no rating. Quality, quantity, and reasonable fee structure, can attract both national and international students. We cannot obstruct sunlight by using our palms. Nobody can, likewise, obstruct the progress of a University which has quality.

*Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is kind enough to get an allocation of Rs. 2 billion for the I.I.T., Khargpur, because it belongs to his State West Bengal. We, Indians, do not rue it. But, Mr. Mukherjee should have asked I.I.T., Khargpur, to show some results in the area of solar energy. I.I.T.s gulp our higher education funds greedily. Why can't they do something in the area of solar energy. We have plenty of heat and sunlight in India, throughout the year and the Government of India is threatening people periodically with increases in prices of petroleum products.

*Mr. President has quoted from the first Prime Minister of India's speech of 1956, at the same IIT, Khadgpur.

Pandit Nehru's thoughts which he shared here in the 1956 convocation, come to my mind, that "There is no greater joy in life than to work for a great purpose and gradually to see the realisation of that purpose...."

It is not clear, what great purpose, did the IIT Khadgpur work for! How it helped India's poor!