A radical idea of Sam Pitroda,Advisor to the Prime Minister on Information Infrastructure and Innovations,to set up a $500 million National Fund for Global Professors,has divided the Planning Commission,with its deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia endorsing it while others are cold. In a one-page note to T K A Nair,Principal Secretary,Prime Ministers Office,in January this year,Pitroda said India could attract an outstanding pool of scientists and academics from all over the world by offering globally benchmarked compensations in addition to a congenial academic and research environment. This pool would mentor and guide younger teachers and researchers to help establish global best practices in the countrys institutions. The PMO referred the $500-million idea to the Planning Commission and Ahluwalia promptly referred it to a group chaired by Plan panel member Narendra Jadhav. The group that included K Kasturirangan,Arun Maira and Abhijit Sen said focusing on global salary packages was not advisable at a time when plans for larger reform in higher education are still underway. Establishing upfront a huge fund with public money would be highly premature and counter-productive, it said. Further,this could demotivate researchers and academicians who opted to serve in India. We must ensure that such demoralisation is not allowed, the group added. Ahluwalia,however,did not buy the groups argument entirely. In his reply to the PMO,he advocated a middle path. The view of the group that this idea should be part of the overall reform under consideration now is valid. In such a case,it should be a part of any final decision on the creation of innovation universities, he said. The deputy chairman quickly noted though that there is a case for implementing the idea on a pilot basis independent of the larger reform. This could be done by creating a smaller fund which would enable a few of our existing top class universities to attract professors on a pilot basis, he said in his note sent to the PMO recently. According to Pitroda,the services of such scientists can be contracted at globally-benchmarked compensations through the Fund and used to establish either new centres of learning,including the Innovation Universities,or steer modernisation and change at the other centres of excellence. The Plan panel group,however,said that the government must first articulate how the system,comprising both the existing and the proposed Innovation Universities,is geared up with adequate autonomy,freedom and flexibility. Moreover,such exchange works best at academic to academic level,it said,adding the time for such an idea has not yet come. Pitroda,who owns more than 75 patents and has run several companies in the US and Europe,feels India can replicate the phenomenon wherein the global pool of scientists and academicians has been enriching universities in the West for decades. Many Indian students enroll in universities abroad to gain from the cutting edge of education and research. We could bring many of them back. Several sectors in the corporate world have succeeded in retaining talent and in fact ensuring reverse brain drain, he wrote in his note to Nair. Although he backed Pitrodas idea,Ahluwalia said an announcement about the setting up of the $500-million fund could be made after the innovation university proposal is finalised in the next few months. While innovation universities will hopefully come up,it will be many years before they gain credibility. On balance,therefore,I would recommend that we take action on a pilot basis immediately,to be expanded at a future date based on experience gained, he said.
