BRAIN DRAIN

We often had been talking of a brain drain theory wherein we say that bright minds leave the country to serve somewhere else. In light of this aspect, the recently debated IIM bill, making csat in civil services qualifying thereby satisfying political aspects, reckless appointing of IIT directors - all give a boost to brain drain. First of all there's a huge reservation because of which, people who have money send their children abroad, for studying. An example of this is most of our politicians, bureaucrats, big business houses and so called aristocracy, have sent their children abroad for studying and then the policies formulated expect us to study in india and make institutes centres of excellence, ironically, without government intent to invest in R&D. The provisions of IIM bill again make a student think of the quality of students he might encounter in future thereby losing his vision to pursue pgpm from IIMs.

The caste based reservations affect the quality can very promptly be judged by the facts that there's zero reservation in armed forces and higher judiciary(Supreme Court and High Courts). A very frequent justification for reservation is "thousands of years of colonial misrule" and it seems that now there must be a misrule for general category as if our country's justice is, in the present scenario, "An eye for an eye" types. Not only once in an entrance but almost in all government jobs and promotions, and on each and every level, this exists.

Whenever a government comes to power, the educational curricula get changed. This gives a feeling of there not being any truth and everything to be studied is as per whims and fancies of our highly respectable politicians.

The reckless appointing of IIT directors again mystifies a student's vision of achieving excellence by entering into a prestigious Institute. Ironically, one of our fundamental duties is " to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement". I would like to ask how a nation would even rise(leave aside constantly) to higher levels of endeavour and achievement when these policies are in place. A recent supreme court remark, that there have always been addition to reserved list and no deletion from it, must be taken seriously and the hon'ble court appears helpless over the issue.

Every student wants to excel, get a great institution and a great atmosphere of growth and interactions, exposure, quality of education, faculty and curriculum are the integral parts of building a great institution. We have one oxford, one Harvard, one MIT, one Stanford , and to them there's a lot of funding,even by Indians, but none in India. This is just because the Indians funding those institutes have taken it for granted that nothing of this sort can even be expected in India and the policies formulated support their view. The recent opening of new IITs so as to have an IIT in every state challenges the very basis of opening NITs. New IIMs and AIIMSs are also being opened on the same lines. Instead we should improve the stature of NITs and other government medical, engineering and management colleges and for that instance all colleges so that they become centres of excellence. An example of low quality academia in India are the articles in leading dailies most of whose authors are Indians but staying and teaching in some foreign countries. Our own respected RBI Governor is a faculty in US but the retired bureaucrats or ex governors or sitting RBI governor don't teach in Indian universities.

The government needs to do something on this. Programmes like make in india and digital india won't do well until we have 'Study in India' and promote 'Teach in India' by giving all the required facilities required and focussing on knowledge and merit as well apart from just a degree based eligibility. We should study what's on offer, the atmosphere and eligibility conditions in those institutes and make up for it in our institutes.

The government should boost up the image of India's educational institutions by lessening the no. of IITs and instead strengthening the NITs and enhance their qualities by promoting R&D. Instead of focussing just on reservations, which nevertheless must be income based,  Only then will the nation truly grow and until then, brain drain will remain a peculiar feature of our country.