Indian Universities and Tax Payer’s Money

The JNU issue that came to media limelight gave the adequate material to media and thought substance to thinkers. Students protested on the death anniversary of Afzal Guru who was hanged up in case of Indian parliament attack. This year JNU student union protested and rose anti India slogans.

The govt. replied promptly and arrested three students including the president of union. The govt. imposed sedition charges and till now two of three accused are in custody,

After the incident, the debate has been started about the universities, their working and their environment. Many voices have been raised about the politicization of universities and even arguments have been made that” tax payers money has been wasted by spending on universities”.

Well, the public view should be acknowledged. When they see what’s happening in the universities including fights, hooliganism and fights among students union, their concerns are natural and should be answered.
The answer why universities are doing better and improving the shape of Indian society needs many things to be understood.

First, just on the base of some universities and students unions fights we cannot say that they are not working well. Many such universities give India the brightest faces and with passage of time the culture of hardliner students unions are declining. The public is also responsible to some extent as the political elements in universities are usually supported by the local parliament members who are selected by the public.

Second, large part of tax payer’s money spends on research and technology. IIT’s and IIM’s are working from many years efficiently and giving the bright and technically sound manpower not only to India but to whole world. Many students from rural background and low income families have been studied through IIT,’s and other institutes on Govt. support and now working in the leading companies of the world.

According to a report of leading science, technical and medical publisher Elsevier, India’s global share in terms of science and technology has risen from 3.1 % in 2009 to 4.4 % in 2013. In 2009, 62,995 research papers were published but in 2014, 112,009 were published. In 2013, India crossed Canada and Italy in terms of research papers output. India has 1250 patent citations on its credit.

Recently in the ranking of leading QS ranking, 15 Indian universities included in top 800 institutions. India in improving and because of these investments on higher education through tax payer’s money, we are able to supply the required manpower to the rising industry. India is competing China in terms of quality of research papers, where the funding is much higher as compared to India.

The media and govt. role is crucial here if the media will give unnecessary coverage to JNU type events, the public will definitely question the working. The governments also on the other hand should eradicate hardliners and politicized students from the universities. Universities are the houses of knowledge not the battlefield for fight or a ground for the protest.

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