India is “growing and growing”, but this is not getting reflected in global rankings. At the same time, China’s growth in all fields is getting adequately reflected in such evaluations. The latest instance is of the ranking of universities and institutions of higher education done by a reputed UK-based tracking agency as an annual exercise. The top two ‘best’ universities are from Beijing, while Singapore and Hong Kong occupy the next three slots. India emerged with a listing of 17 of its institutions in Asia’s Best 200, our best performer being Indian Institute of Science, yet it claiming only the 42-nd rank.
What this goes to show is India’s failure to strengthen its higher education sector in terms of quality. Some 20 years ago, China was growing faster but feelings were that at least in the higher education and knowledge sector, it could never beat India. Reports came later that China was having more English-learning people than the whole population of the US. Such was the vigour and dedication with which China pursued its goals. India, walking slowly like an elephant, is reaching nowhere. There has been a loud cry for reforms in the Indian education system. All that happened, as is often pointed out, was a phenomenal rise in the salaries of lecturers and professors in what is labelled as UGC scales – the height of which had at its start surprised even the campus community.
The Modi government’s obsession limits itself to injecting Hindutva into the curriculum or re-writing history. Analysts have noted that the huge salary hike led to a new “love for life” among the academicians, the downside of it being they have progressively lost interest in learning, a prerequisite to good teaching. Complaints are widespread about nepotism and favouritism in recruitments to universities. Merit, often, is secondary; a recipe for the creation of a society by mediocre people. If China had to learn from India in the past, today the reverse should be the norm. Where India has established itself as a strong entity are the IT and pharmaceutical sectors, where private initiatives centered around Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad worked wonders.The failure of India is principally the failure of the leadership. This is reflected also in the Olympics or Asian Games, in a symbolic way, where the nation ends up with a Silver or two while nations like China harvest a mine of Gold. ‘Welfarism’ is the new mantra for leaders, a euphemism for vote bank politics. Many sectors of India are ailing. Lack of leadership is India’s main curse.
