Page 18 - EW December 2023

Editorial

FOREIGN VARSITIES: OFF-PUTTING PROVISIONS parent and reasonable”. Who decides
what’s reasonable? Moreover “the
qualifications of the faculty appointed
fter years of dithering, on No- FHEIs (foreign higher education insti- shall be at par with the main campus
vember 8 the University Grants tutions) into India subject to so many of the country of origin” and the FHEI
ACommission (UGC) published discretionary rules and regulations, “shall ensure that the foreign faculty
a draft of rules and regulations which that it’s doubtful whether any self-re- appointed to teach at the Indian cam-
detail the terms and conditions under specting top-ranked foreign university pus shall stay at the campus in India
which foreign universities will be per- will risk establishing a capital-inten- for a reasonable period”. Again who
mitted to establish campuses in India. sive campus in this country. adjudicates faculty qualifications
The primary driver behind this ini- For a start every applicant foreign equivalence, and reasonable period?
tiative is the large and ever increasing university should be ranked among But more discouraging are provi-
number of Indian school leavers and the global Top 500 by agencies ap- sions stipulating that licensed FHEIs
college graduates proceeding abroad proved by UGC “from time to time”. “shall not offer any such programme
for higher education year after year, Next, the applicant foreign university of study which jeopardises the na-
despite foreign universities having must give an undertaking that the de- tional interest of India or standards
raised their fees to sky-high levels. grees/qualifications it awards are “at of higher education in India” or are
As a result the annual expendi- par with that of the main campus in “contrary to the sovereignty and integ-
ture of Indian students abroad at the country of origin” and that “the rity of India, the security of the State,
$47 billion (Rs.3.9 lakh crore) is qualifications awarded to the students friendly relations with foreign states,
several multiples of the total Union in the Indian campus shall be recog- public order, decency, or morality”.
budget allocation for education. It is nised and treated as equivalent to the Certainly these provisions rule out the
this consideration and reality that a corresponding qualifications awarded spirit of free enquiry and debate which
large number of students who ven- by the FHEI in the main campus lo- are the main attraction of foreign uni-
ture abroad never come back that’s cated in the country of origin for all versities. One can’t help feeling that
prompted this initiative of govern- purposes, including higher education the UGC (Setting up and Operation of
ment which for decades neglected up- and employment”. Who decides? Campuses of Foreign Higher Educa-
gradation of India’s 42,000 colleges There are other off-putting condi- tional Institutions in India) Regula-
and 1,100 universities. tions imposed upon aspirant FHEIs. tions have been written to keep FHEIs
The UGC draft makes the entry of The fees structure should be “trans- out rather than to let them in.

WHY SAHARA PONZI SCAM FLOURISHED ponzi schemes, the ones who invested
later couldn’t redeem their deposits.
Especially since large amounts were
he death on november 14 of on Roy’s rise to wealth and power at invested in long-term gestation proj-
Subroto Roy (75), former Man- the expense of the poor and illiterate ects. The country’s notoriously slow
Taging Worker of the Lucknow- in hinterland India, few have made police and legal systems, also buried
based Sahara Group of finance and its connection with nationalistion in unnecessary paperwork, didn’t help
real estate companies, received con- of India’s biggest banks in 1969. Al- either, as friendly deposit collectors
siderable coverage in the media. though the stated objective of bank transformed into threatening strong-
By any yardstick Roy’s rags-to- nationalisation was to make saving fa- men. When the Sahara ponzi scheme
riches rise was impressive. At the cilities and credit available to the poor was finally blown and the Supreme
peak of his career, this enterprising masses, nationalised banks were soon Court took cognizance of it, Roy had
entrepreneur who began as a chit ‘captured’ by their powerful unionised to submit documents loaded on to 200
fund manager, owned a civil aviation employees who devised complex pa- trucks to the court. These documents
airline, five star hotels in London and per work to deposit small amounts. are currently being examined by SEBI
New York and the Indian test cricket Even to this day completing a deposit to return small sums to millions of de-
team wore the Sahara logo. Yet in form remains a complex operation. positors across the country. Little will
the end when in the early years of Simultaneously risk-averse clerks come of it.
the new millennium the Sahara em- who rose to head nationalised bank The structural change that’s re-
pire was belatedly exposed as a giant branches were reluctant to advance quired is urgent privatisation of In-
ponzi scam in which newly mobilised credit to small scale enterprises and ru- dia’s public sector banks (PSBs) and
funds are paid to redeem the old, Roy ral citizens in particular. This created licensing of thousands of profit-driv-
was obliged to serve a two-year term fertile ground for lakhs of unemployed en small high street banks which will
in prison and ordered by the Supreme youth recruited as Sahara agents to chase saving and lending opportuni-
Court to return a sum estimated at collect high interest bearing deposits ties. That’s the prescription for con-
Rs.25,000 crore to millions of deposi- from millions of citizens in smalltown verting dicey chit funds and NBFCs
tors/investors — most of them barely and rural India. With depositors ini- (non-banking financial companies)
literate — under the supervision of tially paid high interest rates on sav- into citizen friendly small banks which
SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board ings, Sahara schemes attracted huge will attract the custom of millions of
of India). interest in subaltern India. savers put off by bureaucratic, un-
Although much has been written Inevitably as is common to all friendly PSBs.

18 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2023