On August 2, 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outlined a plan for what has since become one of the most transformational legacies that his government will be remembered for.

“The time has come for us to create a second wave of institution building and of excellence in the field of education, research and capability building in India so that we are better prepared for the 21st Century,” Singh had said, at the launch of the National Knowledge Commission.

At the time, the statement was seen as just another of the many proclamations that political leaders are required to make, indicative, if anything, of the Prime Minister’s views on what was required for the nation.

It received the publicity that seemingly innocuous statements at an inaugural launch normally receive. But the Prime Minister was not just sharing his views on the requirements of higher education. The statement, it is now clear, was actually the announcement of an unprecedented expansion in higher education.

Consider this: in August 2005, India had 20 central universities. Today, it has 24, and another 30 have been announced, and are to be set up by 2012 under the Eleventh Five Year Plan drawn up under this government in 2007.

Of the 30 new central universities, 16 are for states that do not have a central university — to ensure that by the end of the Eleventh Plan, each state does have a central varsity.

The President recently promulgated an ordinance allowing the government to launch 15 of these universities from the 2009 academic session — never before have any more than three central universities started functioning from the same year. Goa which withdrew its nomination of Goa University for conversion to a central university will remain the only state in India without a centrally governed varsity.

The remaining 14 new central universities are to be “world class” institutes — a tag assigned by the Prime Minister that is now causing much friction within the corridors of India’s education establishment.

These universities are aimed, unlike the other 16, at building India’s brand abroad as a knowledge destination. The Prime Minister wants them to compete with the best universities of the developed world.

Two fundamental flaws in the idea are at present holding up the “world class university” project.

First, can a brand new institution start off as “world class”? Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard, for instance, established their credentials as among the best in the world by consistent performance over the years. “I can call my new born son a genius, but that doesn’t make him one,” a senior policy maker joked.

Second, by anointing the new universities “world class”, the implication is that other universities are inferior and that there is no point in trying to improve them — a suggestion unacceptable to existing varsities.

But while both these concerns continue to leave officials cringing at their very mention, there is a broad belief that given time, the government is indeed likely to implement the Prime Minister’s dream — because it is the Prime Minister’s dream.

“The thing is that once the Prime Minister announces something, as he has announced the world class universities, everyone — from babus to cabinet ministers — accepts it as something that has to happen, whatever their personal or collective concerns,” a government official said.

Technical education and research have seen the same, unequalled expansion.

The first wave of institution building under Jawaharlal Nehru, which the Prime Minister alluded to in his announcement at the Knowledge Commission launch, saw India establish five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

In 46 years following the establishment of IIT Delhi, only one new IIT — in Guwahati — was started and the University of Roorkee was upgraded to an IIT. But in early 2008, the government announced it would start eight new IITs to add to the seven existing then.

Six of the eight started classes in 2008. The remaining two will start classes from the 2009 academic session. In addition, the engineering department at the Benaras Hindu University will also be upgraded to an IIT.

Starting with the launch of Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad and Calcutta in 1961, India had built six IIMs in all by 2007. Under the Eleventh Plan, seven more are to be built by 2012. IIM Shillong started classes in 2008, and at least two more IIMs are expected to offer classes this year.

The Eleventh Plan, which the Prime Minister called the “Education Plan”, also promises to build 10 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

The government has also started five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) that are aimed at supplementing research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

But Manmohan Singh’s expansion is rooted in a notion of India as a knowledge hub, first conceived under his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The trigger was a piece of demographic statistics. Over 700 million Indians – well over 60 per cent of the population – were shown under the age of 35 in the 2001 census. The developed world, and India’s closest competitors — China and East Asia — were ageing.

Suddenly, a nation that for years was brought up criticising its vast population as a liability draining its resources, was looking to that very mass of humans as its greatest asset.

A Planning Commission task force was set up under the panel’s then deputy chairman K.C. Pant to prepare a strategy to help India emerge as a knowledge superpower in the 21st century.

The team recommended measures to encourage multinationals to use India as a research and development base. Soon, IBM and other information technology majors from across the globe started research and development centres in India.

But while the team recognised the need to train a largely unskilled population in order to emerge as a knowledge superpower, it focused mostly on information technology — where India was showing prowess — and biotechnology, an emerging field.

By 2004, the doubts surrounding the economic utility of a large youthful population started to return as it became apparent that IT and BT alone could not occupy a burgeoning but largely untrained work force.

“Having the world’s largest young population can be a great asset if you can channel their energy into economically productive work. But imagine if that workforce is untrained and you cannot give them employment. You would have unprecedented unemployment,” a Planning Commission adviser said.

India’s dreams of transforming into a knowledge economy were floundering and needed a fresh shape.

The NKC was set up under Sam Pitroda, who revolutionised telecommunications in the country two decades ago.

In 2008, one of its most significant recommendations, on setting up a National Skill Development Mission, was accepted. Headed by the Prime Minister, the mission is aimed at providing training in myriad skills — from hospitality, cooking, nursing and English language skills to plumbing and fixing electrical appliances and motor vehicles – to 10 million people every year.

The idea is to make India the “go-to” place for the world when it needs trained manpower.

Within India, its manpower should be trained in skills required by the economy here, according to the vision of the mission. “At present, many of our graduates are unemployable because they do not have the skills required to join the workforce,” Pitroda has said on numerous occasions.

The expansion of top higher educational institutions at the same time increases the access youth have to quality education of a formal nature.

“The new IITs and IIMs are also more visible achievements. The mission will take time to show tangible results, but new institutions of learning are there for all to see. And while the success of the mission remains to be seen, it is unlikely that an IIT will fail,” a government official said.

“The unprecedented expansion in higher education and the skill development mission together form the blueprint for India’s transformation to a knowledge hub,” he added.

The challenge now is to implement the blueprint.

Saikat Bose
2nd year BA, English honours Presidency College

An Indian, in the aftermath of 2008, seems to me a man disillusioned from his illusions of security — physical, financial and cultural. But disillusionment, however hurtful it is, is an awakening. The events of 2008 have not shattered our dreams; they have woken us up from the casual sleep of complacency. My aspirations for India in the New Year would be more corrective than progressive.

Heroism should be a quality to strive for and patriotism should be an awareness not an emotion reserved for display on Independence Day and Republic Day.

The word nationalism appears to have been replaced by regionalism. I, as an Indian, look forward to India being a country, not just a collection of states. I hope to see India battle recession with the shield of honesty rather than the wound of corruption. And
I hope that the media will be driven by a sense of responsibility instead of giving in to the temptation of sensationalism.

I as an Indian youth aspire to participate in politics instead of sitting back and criticising it. I aspire to cure it of diseases like corruption. I aspire to see India in the midst of an awakening when the aspirations of every Indian are transformed into beliefs accompanied by a strong sense of determination to convert them into reality.