‘We have to live with it’: Union Edu Minister Pradhan on Trump’s H-1B order, cites faith in IITs, NITs, state universities

Pointing to the country’s IITs, NITs, and State universities, he said that these institutions are of national importance. “If I exemplify their collective performance…ISRO developed Chandrayaan. None of those who have developed Chandrayaan…Chandrayaan put us on a higher pedestal, our scientific capability…none of them has studied in an IIT. What does it mean?”

“We have to live with the changing geopolitical scenario. It is not a new thing. In every two-three decades, these kinds of shocks are there. It is there today; it will be there tomorrow. As a responsible country, progressive and self-respect driven country, we have faith in our academics, our institutions. From here, we can create global standards. That is the reality today,” he said.

Adding that we must also do “international business” and go abroad, he said that many economies are now interested in opening IITs in their own countries. He referred to IIT Delhi’s Abu Dhabi campus, the campus that IIT Madras has in Zanzibar, and the IIM Ahmedabad campus in Dubai.

He said that “India has opened its education sector”, with the National Education Policy 2020 emphasizing on internationalization of education, and pointed to 15 foreign universities that are either within the top 500 or top 200 in the QS rankings coming to India.

“Some of them have started teaching on Indian soil. Gone are the days when only we had to move. In the era of digitalization, era of AI…giving quality instruction, quality teaching is not an issue of physical connectivity,” he said.

“I’m confident about my institutions. Our IIT-ians, our NIT-ians, our state university students are doing excellently in the global economy. Wherever you go, any economic hotspot of the world, you’ll find our Indian community…the Indian education system has huge depth, huge capacity. But we have to be open, we have to be broad. We have to accept the global best practices. We are not averse to going outside. But we have to live with the geopolitical situations,” he added.