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New genre private university leaders: globally competitive mindsets
high-end scientific talent,” write Sheel Kapoor and Adiyta economy — have emerged from the shady bowers of the
Sinha in an illuminating op-ed in the Economic Times academy after 77 years of teaching, learning, research and
(June 24), which details how government, academia and certification. It’s a sad state of affairs.
industry in the People’s Republic have focused on STEM The silver lining is that in recent years — especially
(science technology engineering and math) research after the logic of the successful industry liberalization and
and innovation to transform modern China into a global deregulation initiative of 1991 began to be applied to the
industrial powerhouse in record time. country’s moribund education sector in the new millen-
Expert opinion attributes Indian academia’s poor nium — a new crop of next generation, globally bench-
research and innovation record to the failure of higher marked private universities promoted by focused, can-do
education institutions (HEIs) to switch whole-heartedly edupreneurs and driven by highly-qualified, experienced
from knowledge retention, memory-based pedagogies to Vice Chancellors, Deans and faculty have struck root in
experiential, projects-based learning which stimulates in- arid Indian soil. Driven by globally competitive mindsets
terdisciplinary education and improves students’ critical and awareness that highly-developed human resources
thinking and problem-solving skills. are the precondition of national development, new gen-
There is substance in this criticism because all the eration academic leaders are in a hurry to raise colleges
socio-economic problems that plagued newly-indepen- and universities under their care to the highest global
dent India seven decades ago — chronic shortages of food, standards.
clothing, shelter, public education and health, low pro- These HEI leaders offer hope of educating, skilling and
ductivity and the law’s delay — are still awaiting resolu- releasing the stifled creative energy and enterprise of the
tion. And to a substantial degree, the fault is of the acad- world’s largest youth population to attain the national
emy which has remained a mere spectator rather than goals of Viksit Bharat and $30 trillion GDP by 2047. The
active participant, in the half-hearted national develop- institution development objectives and plans of selected
ment effort. Indeed, few if any big ideas, great inventions, go-getting higher education leaders most likely to succeed
disruptive technologies — on the lines of the jet engine, — who responded to EducationWorld’s call to stand up
mobile telephony, the internet, even agriculture storage, and be counted — are featured in the following pages of
processing and marketing in a predominantly agrarian our cover feature.

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