India needs to invest in research and doctoral education, says Yale don

For India to become a brain bank, it has to become a source for first class scholarship where new theories, products, and ideas are generated for itself and the rest of the world.

India may exude a great deal of confidence in its technological capabilities today.

“Confidence is a big plus, but misplaced confidence brings catastrophe,” cautioned Prof Shyam Sunder, Yale University.

To build a strong future, it is important to know at which level of knowledge do India’s IT or other industries operate in.

Referring to the instance of Infosys which said only 2 per cent of 1.3 million job applicants are acceptable, he said the quality of education in India is below average. Almost two thirds of universities and 90 per cent of colleges in the country are rated as below average on quality parameters.

“Unless India invests heavily in research and doctoral education today, the quality of its higher education will continue to decline, with serious consequences for its economy,” he said.

rethinking

Speaking at a Round table on higher education reforms in India, organised here by the Great Lakes Institute of Management, he said India lags in innovation, and needs to seriously rethink the future of innovation and original research in the Indian economy.

He pointed out that no institution can offer quality education with profits as its prime agenda.

The business community in India largely see higher education as a new entrepreneurial frontier for making money, he said.

Teaching & research

Money matters, but is not the only factor.

There are thousands of engineering colleges in the country, but who teaches there, he asked, and said, “Someone who passed out just a couple of years ago and could not land any other job.”

Giving the analogy of the farmer who saves the best grains for seed, he said India must attract a sufficiently large number of its talented youth for teaching and scholarship.

“PhD programmes are the seed farms for national intellect to instruct, expose, explore, innovate and inspire the youth,” he said.

According to him, what needs to be done is that the Indian economy and higher education must be viewed not merely in relation to its own past, but also relative to its neighbourhood and the world.

ravikumar.ramanujam@thehindu.co.in

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