Page 2 - Jairaj Thacker & Sujay Jairaj

FOREWORD

he great American scholar and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) famously observed: "There is properly

Tno history, only biography." This insightful comment was the stimulus for conceptualisation of this globally
unprecedented commemorative volume titled 21 Leaders Transforming Indian Education, the latest magnum opus
presented by EducationWorld (estb. 1999).

A pernicious fallout of post-independence India's reckless embrace of inorganic Soviet-inspired socialism and
persistence with this foolish liasion for over half a century is that there is at best, only grudging acknowledgement
of entrepreneurs who have taken risks to promote and establish successful business and other institutions. This is
especially true of the education sector. In the popular — including academic — discourse, education entrepreneurs

('edupreneurs') are exploitative businessmen hell-bent on "commercialisation of education", a cardinal sin in the eyes
of India's academics, the majority of whom are adamantly committed to the bankrupt ideologies of communism and
socialism which have been consigned to dustbins in major countries around the world, including Russia and China
where they first struck root.

On the contrary, in EducationWorld, we admire bold edupreneurs who brave the numerous procedural hurdles
strewn in their way by politicians and bureaucrats to establish education institutions of their choice. We believe they
have enriched the education system and conferred huge benefits on the public. Therefore, in this unprecedented

celebratory compendium, we present brief biographies of hitherto insufficiently appreciated edupreneurs driven
by the spirit of enlightened self-interest and/or philanthropy, who have established excellent primary-secondary
and higher education institutions which are setting new, globally benchmarked standards. It is pertinent to note
that most of the education leaders profiled in this volume were/are industry leaders, businessmen and professionals

under no obligation to venture into education. Yet in the broarder national interest, they invested time, money and
resources in establishing model education institutions to nurture and develop high capability human resources the
country urgently needs.