annual report1-final.qxd - Overseas Indian

Parallel Sessions
incrementally over a period of five years. These
scholarships would be awarded for pursuing
undergraduate courses in both technical and nontechnical
streams.
There were plans to establish new educational
institutions in India and abroad and expand existing
facilities in higher education. Currently, only
societies or trusts could establish educational institutions
on non-profit basis. For this, there was a
need to get NOC from the State or Central
Governments and affiliations from the Universities
or other educational bodies. There was no Act yet
for establishing private universities under the
Government of India. However, there were some
State Governments who had taken a lead and given
permission for establishment of private universities,
Banerjee said.
In order to accelerate the process, GoI was willing
to bring in changes in statutory provision in
bodies of higher learning like UGC, AICTE,
Medical Council of India, etc. to facilitate increasing
participation of private players in promoting
higher education. There was a proposal to start an
exclusive university for PIOs and increase the
number of seats for the children of the diaspora.
There was a need to create a select group or task
force to identify the priority areas and changes
required for legislation, do more aggressive marketing
and help develop world-class infrastructure
in the education sector, she said.
Prof. Alagh commented that Indian education
was now in a fairly exciting state. Out of the top 52
software companies, 32 were Indian. There was
already a private-public partnership in social and
infrastructure areas. There was a plan to extend
this to education. Overseas Indians should grab
this opportunity, he said.
Dr. Ramachandran outlined the success story of
BITS-UAE centre in Dubai as an example of establishing
institutions of higher learning outside
India. There was a high appreciation for the quality
of education imparted by Indian institutions of
higher learning in UAE. BITS-UAE was sought
after not only by the NRIs but also by citizens of
UAE, Pakistan and Bangladesh, besides others. The
degrees offered by Indian institutions were recognised
by institutions abroad.
Dr. H.S. Ballal narrated the success story of MAHE
and highlighted the vision of its founder, Dr.
Ramdas Pai, who initiated the movement of private
participation in education. At present, they had two
universities with professional colleges including
engineering and medical. They also had a large networking
with different institutions across the globe.
Given a chance, they would like to be partners in
establishment of an exclusive university for PIOs
given their experience and wherewithal, he said.
Ravi Seethapathy pointed out that the drawback
of Indian higher education was shortage of quality
teachers. He also felt that there was need to impart
skills at different levels of education to students,
and evolve leadership courses at the grassroots, etc.
He emphasised on the need for developing interdisciplinary
education, which was a new concept in
secondary education in Canada and elsewhere. He
felt that private-public partnership was a way forward
to augment R&D and this should be given priority.
He observed that networking and synergy
were the keys to improve the current situation in
education.
The discussions during the question and answer
session reflected on the need for providing spiritual
and cultural education, which was the strength
of India, in educational institutions. As a part of
this, it was suggested that courses in yoga and spiritual
lessons should be part of a comprehensive
curriculum. The Indian educational administration
did not recognise these courses whereas students
in U.S. were given certain credits for this.
Dr. Bikas Sanyal cautioned that higher education
came under GATT agreement of WTO and India
should be well prepared to meet its challenges.
S. Krishna Kumar, Secretary, MOIA, called for
efforts to overcome hurdles and remove bottlenecks
in starting new educational institutions and
collaborations. In this regard, participants could
organise groups and come out with suggestions as
to what the GoI could do to make the process less
cumbersome and more transparent. The suggestion
was made in the light of Prime Minister’s suggestion
of starting an organisation on the lines of
the British Council.
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