It is a platitude to say that Indian Higher Education must combine excellence and access. But almost every policy instrument that we adopt inhibits both aspirations. This is one area where government is more like the man who was looking for his lost key under the lamppost, not because he had lost it there, but because there appeared to be light there.

Take two issues that exercise us considerably: the potential exploitation of students by private institutions, and the need to create access for socially marginalised groups. One important ingredient of addressing both concerns is increasing the supply of quality institutions. Yet we inhibit their creation.

What are the bottlenecks in creating supply? The first element is overregulation in the wrong places. In what country in the world does the creation of a university catering to undergraduates require fresh legislation each time? In what country in the world do regulatory bodies apply an one-size-fits approach to all institutions? Instead of holding institutions accountable through transparency and competition, we confuse accountability with control. Instead of empowering parents and students to take decisions, we give the state more power to extract rents. In sector after sector, whether it is nursing or aviation, regulatory bodies are choking off supply at its roots.

The second bottleneck is finance. Public investment is crucial to Higher Education, but the central government's total outlay is close to 8000 crores only. But additional resources can be easily mobilised. Think of how much disinvestment in a few PSU's would yield, if this money was earmarked for Higher Education. In one stroke, we could reform the state and mobilise more resources.

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