The high-profile India AI Impact Summit in the national capital hosted by entities of the central government was a step in the right direction. Yet, bad blood crept in, shaming the nation, its sense of integrity questioned at the most inopportune moment. Notably, this being the second such summit, world technology giants’ attention was majorly riveted to the Bharat Mandapam. Many global institutions graced the summit, looking around for opportunities in India and beyond to take their own initiatives in AI forward. India is uniquely placed with its huge talent pool and the vast market that technology could explore. But the dampener came in the form of massive adverse publicity — from what a pretentious professor of Galgotias University from Uttar Pradesh chose to project – that a robot dog on display there was the “creation” of her institution, while word went round that it the product of the Chinese firm, Unitree. That her claim was transmitted by no less than the official media channel Doordarshan too is no small matter.
India’s academic community generally maintains a high sense of dignity even in a world of chaos and confusion. Yet, we are nowhere nearer to the chimes of Nalanda and Taxila, the illustrious institutions of knowledge, learning and research for centuries down the line. The sprouting of a large number of academic institutions across states in recent decades tells a different tale. They are poorly equipped – and are a pale shadow of the past. The Galgotias University, founded on the banks of the Yamuna in 2011 by a private entity, has been caught in allegations of fraud, forgery and much else. What’s also not a secret is its publication of a research paper in the Covid-19 context – that the killer virus could be annihilated by sound vibrations from a Thali – akin to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempted and drew ridicule in those days. The academic community as a whole hung their head in shame. All these, however, are symptomatic of the times we are in. India’s founding fathers encouraged the spirit of inquiry and excellence. Today, Indian universities rarely figure in the global list of the top 100. The degeneration is spectacular and spans all fields.
Acts of corruption, deceit, nepotism are sabotaging the old, well-established systems. Wrong indulgences are eating into the vitals of the systems. Corruption is gripping the systems like cancer. Truth is often a casualty. Those who mesmerize the world with hollow speeches carry the crowd with them. Politicians and bureaucrats vie with each other to loot the national exchequer. Under the circumstances, moneybags get away with their act. Regulations governing the universities are flouted. Academic recruitments are plagued by nepotism. Merit is swept under the carpet. The quality of education suffers. India is home to one-fifth of the world’s population and the world’s third largest economy. But the society vegetates due to wayward governance. Some 50 per cent of the population is famished; they own just three per cent of the national wealth. The strength of the West, the superpowers, were built on the strength of their systems. Whither India?
