An alumnus of IIT-Madras, IIM-Ahmedabad and Northwestern University, USA, Dr. G. Raghuram is director of the top-ranked Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, with wide teaching experience at universities in the US, Canada, Yugoslavia, Singapore, Tanzania, UAE and India. 

How satisfied are you with the Rs.85,010 crore provision made for education in the Union Budget 2018-19, of which a major share — Rs.49,530 crore — has been allocated for higher education? 

I believe in India, government has to play a major role in education. From that point of view, budgetary allocations need to be larger. However, the more important question is of expenditure efficiency — how well allocated funds are used. The real issue in higher education is whether government can provide funding, yet maintain an arm’s length distance to ensure institutional autonomy.

There are other seemingly generous provisions for higher education — RISE (Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education) has been allocated Rs.100,000 crore over the next four years, establishment of 20 Institutes of Eminence, setting up schools of planning in the IITs and NITs, etc. 

These are all intelligent initiatives, well-intentioned and if implemented efficiently, will go a long way in improving the quality of higher education in India.

Not even one of India’s 800 universities is ranked among the Top 200 World University Rankings of the London-based ranking agencies QS and Times Higher Education. What are your Top 5 priorities for remedying this dismal situation?

The first priority should be faculty recruitment with strong emphasis on quality, determined by research and teaching capabilities. Second, for faculty in higher education institutions to work in teams, build research ecosystems and create synergy for impact. Third, we need to network globally with high quality academic institutions around the world to raise our sights and standards. Fourthly, develop institutional administrative systems to support academic excellence. And lastly, ensure sound infrastructure that supports all the above initiatives.

The low international ranking of India’s higher education institutions is to a great extent attributable to the under-preparedness of school-leavers for higher education. What in your opinion are the urgent reforms required in K-12 education? 

There’s urgent need to create a culture and environment in K-12 education where learning is enjoyable rather than stressful. It is also important that students are not forced to make choices in class XII in a manner that determines their graduation choices and consequently their career choices. That’s too early in their life. There must always be flexibility to switch dreams.

How realistic is it to hope that the Indian economy will realise its demographic dividend in the near or medium-term future?

The demographic dividend will certainly confer labour cost advantages. But the big question is whether we can reform our educational ecosystem to enable the next generation to ideate innovations necessary to transform the Indian economy.