The Myopic vision of Prof.P.V.Indiresan’s- vision 2020.

Prof P.V.Indiresan, a retired director of IITM and a columnist of “The Hindu Business Line’s-vision 2020”. A prolific writer writes on all topics of under the sun; but when it comes to the subject of his expertise, Higher Education, he is too predictable and bit prejudiced.

In his 320^th article of vision-2020 series published on Jan-14 in Business Line, the learned professor expressed his reservations on “The prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities, Bill, 2010”. The professor with decades of distinguished experience in sarkari Technical Institutes like IITM is oblivious of Establishments outside the IIT Act. The IIT Act provides their constituent institutions enormous freedom with no accountability; they are neither bound by AICTE nor UGC, but still can offer technical courses in India. The funds allotted would undeniably invite the envy any Indian vice chancellor, but still the professor has a lot of ideas for IIT.

We consider the following counter arguments to his point of view and the objectives of the bill:

Why no Institution in independent India had produced a Nobel Price? The Nobel Price as such is not a Nobel award like our own Bharath Rathnas, but still there a status attached to it. To expect a Nobel Price from a Law of the parliament or a University Endowment Fund is a farcical idea. The faculty members of premier Institutes belong to a Homogenous group, the hegemony continues for centuries .If Harvard can accept International professors, Why not the IITs? A diverse Indian or International faculty would bring more transparency and democracy in the functioning of IITs. This would not only increase the Quality and Quantity of research but would also save the lives of many Innocents from the racist Indian Faculty.

Prohibitions of accepting any fees other than those declared in the prospectus of admission. Well, this may not apply to any State or central University, but would certainly apply the Mushrooming private Deemed Universities known to milk their students. Development fee, Training fee, Placement Fees, Industrial Visits fee, Computer training fee, Breakage fee, Sports Fee, Medical fess, Mess fee, the list is endless; these are some of the innovative fees collected by some Universities from time to time. The University bill 2010 seeks to regulate these fees.

Prohibition of admission without admission tests of a statutory authority. The professor is highly discernable here; he detests affirmative action but advocates the dilution of merit by money. He may not be convinced by my statements but I wish he listens to the Harvard Prof.Lani Guinier on Youtube. Prof.Guiner has some interesting views on these issues; Talent is equally distributed among each races and ethnic groups. Except for the IITs, a relaxed admission criterion elsewhere has helped the society in many unknown ways; the civil war of Sri Lanka is a right citation here. An affirmative action based on religious lines would further benefit the Indian Society as it would, in the words of Prof.Guinier would uplift the bottom of the society, help in the discovery of raw talent that is going undiscovered. Further, Prof.Guinier states that, tests, scores and percentiles are instruments of modern scientific racism; these tests makes racisms invisible and if we humans were created as equals, talent is equally distributed among us and if some entrance tests proves that if one group is superior than the other, then something is wrong with the tests not with the group that looks inferior. An American mode of admission will not work in India, where the faculty is of a Homogenous group, prejudiced and has a hidden agenda of its own.

Prohibition of demanding or charging, capitation fees or by donation, by way of consideration for admissions to any seat, by the Institutions. Comparisons are often made to the Endowment Funds of foreign Universities, where the money paid and received is white. In India, especially in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, professional Institutes have grown exponentially by the grace of these capitation fees. All of the black money of this country is not deposited in any low interest paying Swiss bank, but its here, right in front of our eyes, in the assets of public charitable trusts. Unlike IITs, most of the leading American Universities are private universities and have no social responsibilities. Education is more of an individual’s responsibility than of a parent or of the state in America, but in India, for the larger good, the state is equally responsible as the parent. An Endowment system should not make IIT, a BCCI, not accountable even to RTI. An Endowment fund with HRD ministry would be a good idea.

With contributions from- Anu Radha Poojar.