Page 44 - Education World November 2022

Cover Story

ties attract huge donations, bequests ty also ranked India’s #1 private varsi-
and largesse and have built massive ty by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the
endowment corpuses because they highly reputed London-based global
employ professional fundraisers with universities ranking agency.
sophisticated marketing skills to per- Implicit in Dr. Raj Kumar’s con-
suade wealthy individuals and fami- tention that private philanthropy on
lies to accord top priority to investing scale is the “only hope” of establish-
in education institutions for societal ing globally comparable higher edu-
and national development. cation institutions in India, is advice
U NFORTUNATELY because government tax incentives and educa-
that ground conditions — by way of
ideology
tors’ project management and execu-
of
socialist
and mindset which has
deeply permeated the tion skills — have to be created for
philanthropists to invest their sav-
academy, intelligentsia and society in ings into nation-building education
the past seven decades since indepen- institutions. Although risk-averse
dence, there’s a bad odour about pri- Left academics drawing comfortable
vate enterprise and wealth creation, Seventh Pay Commission salaries
and conversely over-dependence Raj Kumar: tax incentives call with minimal accountability, tend to
upon the State to subsidise higher believe that tax-paying HNIs and in-
education at the expense of primary well-educated, high productivity tax- dustry tycoons are obliged to donate
and secondary education. Therefore, paying citizens,” says r. C . R a j K u - to charitable and especially education
D
India’s inadequate number of higher m a r, founding vice chancellor of the causes, it’s absurd to expect HNIs to
education institutions — 41,000 ju- privately promoted O.P. Jindal Global recklessly invest hard-earned savings
nior and undergrad colleges and 1,057 University (JGU, estb.2009), ranked and/or patrimony without due dili-
universities — can accommodate only India’s #1 private varsity in the Edu- gence and circumspection.
35 percent of youth in the 18-24 age cationWorld India Higher Education According to A s h i h D h a w a n , a
s
group against 60.8 percent in the US, Rankings 2022-23. Harvard Business School alum, mas-
43 percent in China and 85 percent in A highly-qualified alum of Delhi, ter fundraiser and prime mover be-
South Korea. Oxford and Harvard universities (to hind the blue-chip Ashoka University
“The State, i.e, Central and state which he won scholarships from phil- (estb.2014) promoted with a project
governments with their high budget- anthropic Western foundations), Raj cost of Rs.1,500 crore and ranked In-
ary fiscal deficits cannot expand edu- Kumar is well-versed in the grammar dia’s #2 private university in the Edu-
cation sufficiently. Therefore, private and economics of philanthropy. In the cationWorld India Higher Education
philanthropy is the only hope for in- early years of the new millennium, Rankings 2022-23, fundraisers have
creasing India’s low GER (gross enrol- he persuaded steel industry tycoon to inspire confidence that they have
ment ratio) in higher education and Naveen Jindal to donate a massive good money management skills and
establishing globally benchmarked Rs.500 crore to establish JGU on a institutional governance capability.
universities. To encourage philanthro- 40-acre campus in Sonipat in Delhi “Fundraising is serious business,
py in education, the Central govern- NCR. Since then after completing con- requiring professionalism and at-
ment needs to provide American style struction and operationalisation of the tention to detail. Fundraisers should
tax incentives to wealthy individuals greenfield JGU in record time, he has maintain excellent databases of
and corporations to fund higher edu- quickly established JGU’s reputation alumni, local industrialists and HNIs
cation institutions. A high powered as India’s most international universi- committed to supporting education
committee (2012) chaired by N.R. causes; they must present detailed
Narayana Murthy, founder-chairman “ Private philanthropy is project implementation plans with
of Infosys Technologies, had recom- the only hope for increasing realistic timelines and build credibility
mended 300 percent income tax re- by displaying prudent money manage-
bate to individuals and corporates India’s low GER in higher ment skills from the time they receive
establishing private universities and education and establishing their first tranche of investment. They
facilities such as labs, libraries and re- must demonstrate credibility and ac-
search centres. The recommendations globally benchmarked countability from the word go,” ad-
of this committee should be accepted universities” — Dr. C. Raj vises Dhawan, the country’s pioneer
by government to establish excellent Kumar venture capitalist (Chrys Capital,
universities to produce a large pool of estb.1999) who exited business and in-

44 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022