If we chose a hundred institutions in India (including all the CSIR laboratories) and gave them autonomy to transform themselves into islands of excellence, we could make a beginning with nurturing a non-bureaucratic environment. These institutions would compete for students and for teaching talent and would evolve in diverse ways. Such diversity is important. To make all IITs or IIMs similar is not a good idea. Each of them should try to evolve different cultures and specialise in different areas. The financial problem can be tackled by inviting the participation of India’s successful corporate sector. Corporations should be encouraged to fund research grants, chairs and special appointments. Without burdening the public fisc and without an all-round salary increase (which would destroy the finances of the UGC), we can start rewarding specific professors.

We must ensure that private sector funding of a part of a university’s expense base does not translate into corporate control. When we talk of autonomy for universities, it is not just freedom from the interference of netas and babus. It is also freedom from interference by corporate donors. Their funding should be a giveback to society not to produce immediate returns in the form of power, control and patronage, but to create long-term returns as the country produces more talented citizens who contribute as researchers, managers and so on adding to the sum total of our wealth.

We can have good teachers and world class researchers in India. We need to free up just a hundred universities and institutes from the clutches of the stultifying HRD ministry and the departments of education in the states. Rather than having them under common umbrellas, we should encourage each of them to develop distinct institutional persona. These institutions can then use their autonomy to create a positive academic environment. They can leverage the Indian corporate sector to financially reward competent teachers and researchers without surrendering their freedom to corporate control.

... contd.