Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08NEWDELHI3128
2008-12-12 05:04:00
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Embassy New Delhi
Cable title:  

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN

Tags:  ENRG TRGY SENV KGHG TSPL TNGD EIND KSCA ECON ETRD 
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RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
DE RUEHNE #3128/01 3470504
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 120504Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4660
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 3220
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 3979
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 3044
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA NMFS WASHINGTON DC
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RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 NEW DELHI 003128 

STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS
STATE FOR STAS
STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
HHS PASS TO NIH
STATE PASS TO USAID
STATE FOR SCA, OES (STAS FEDOROFF); OES/PDAS/RHARNISH; OES/PCI;
OES/IHB MURPHY; OES/EGC GTHOMPSON
STATE FOR EEB/DAVID HENRY
PASS TO MAS/DAS/JESTRADA
PASS TO MAC/DAS/HVINEYARD
PASS TO NSF/MLUECK
PASS TO NASA/OER (MCINTOSH/WILLIAMS/KAMM)
SLUG TO DOE/DAS/JMIZROCH; DOE/MGINZBERG
SLUG TO DOE/ (TCUTLER/GBISCONTI/CGILLESPIE)


SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ENRG TRGY SENV KGHG TSPL TNGD EIND KSCA ECON ETRD
BEXP, EINV, KPAO, OEXC, SCUL, PINR, PREL, PGOV, IN
SUBJECT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN
INDIA FOR A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

NEW DELHI 00003128 001.2 OF 009


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 NEW DELHI 003128

STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS
STATE FOR STAS
STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
HHS PASS TO NIH
STATE PASS TO USAID
STATE FOR SCA, OES (STAS FEDOROFF); OES/PDAS/RHARNISH; OES/PCI;
OES/IHB MURPHY; OES/EGC GTHOMPSON
STATE FOR EEB/DAVID HENRY
PASS TO MAS/DAS/JESTRADA
PASS TO MAC/DAS/HVINEYARD
PASS TO NSF/MLUECK
PASS TO NASA/OER (MCINTOSH/WILLIAMS/KAMM)
SLUG TO DOE/DAS/JMIZROCH; DOE/MGINZBERG
SLUG TO DOE/ (TCUTLER/GBISCONTI/CGILLESPIE)


SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ENRG TRGY SENV KGHG TSPL TNGD EIND KSCA ECON ETRD
BEXP, EINV, KPAO, OEXC, SCUL, PINR, PREL, PGOV, IN
SUBJECT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN
INDIA FOR A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

NEW DELHI 00003128 001.2 OF 009



1. (U) Summary: Technical education in India is expected to expand
rapidly from its current level of 600,000 engineering graduates per
year to about 800,000 in three years. It is also projected that
India will experience shortage of skilled human resources to meet
its developmental needs. Hence the Government of India (GOI) has
increased the allocation for higher education over eight fold to INR
850 billion (USD 18.1 billion) for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (FYP)
period (2007 - 2012). The funds are to be used for the creation of
many new centers of excellence in technical education, expanding
capacity and attaining a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 15 percent in
higher education by 2012. In an effort to understand the issues
involved in transformation of the current technical education system

into a globally viable one and the opportunities therein for
US-India collaboration, Post's Science Section in partnership with
Public Affairs organized a dialogue among 15 invited experts in the
technical education field. The challenges as envisaged during the
course of the discussion included shortage of faculty, quality of
curriculum, the process of affiliation, accreditation and ratings,
governance, effective regulation for private and private public
partnerships and industry academia interactions. The highlight of
the discussion and the overall assessment of the technical education
scene in India was an overwhelming interest in India to seek US
support and participation in an effort to create these centers of
excellence and a sustainable high quality technical education
system. The support sought was essentially of US intellectual
capital (US experts) and best practices in establishing these
centers of learning. This offers a unique opportunity for a
long-term partnership in technical education in this era of
knowledge based economy. End Summary.

-------------- -
The Need for Expansion of Technical Education
-------------- -

2. (U) Higher education in India and especially technical education
has been expanding rapidly in recent times. India today has over
400 universities and 20000 colleges of which about 2200 are
engineering colleges producing over 600,000 engineers annually.
Further, the growing population and the demographic composition make
it necessary for India to look at expanding the educational
infrastructure. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER),[an indictor used
in the education sector by United Nations to indicate the percentage
of students enrolled in a particular age group] in higher education
in India was just 10 percent in 2007, as compared to near 100
percent in South Korea, 60 percent in US and Canada, over 40 percent
in several European countries and more than 20 percent in even many
developing countries.


3. (U) A relative stagnation in educational infrastructure and
capacity expansion especially in the public sector in the last two
decades as compared to the accelerated economic growth has
necessitated expansion of capacity. GOI realizes that to sustain
growth in this age of knowledge based economy, it has to leverage
from advances in knowledge and use it as an effective tool for
inclusive growth. To accomplish this, it has to literally revamp
its marginally effective technical education system and make it
globally competitive. With this as a key objectives the GOI has
increased its budget and allocated INR 850 billion (USD 18.1
billion) for education in the Eleventh FYP (2007 - 2012),which is
nearly an eight fold increase compared to the budget allocation of
INR 96 billion (USD 2.04 billion) during the Tenth FYP (2001 -
2006). For the first time, the education budget has moved from
typically single digit to thirty percent of the national budget for
the current financial year 2008-2009.

NEW DELHI 00003128 002.2 OF 009




4. (U) The accelerated capacity addition in technical education is
further supported by the projected demand of over 3 to 5 million
engineers by 2015 to address India's needs in diverse areas
including the Information and Communication Technology (ICT),civil,
mechanical, nuclear, electronics and electrical engineering and
materials science. This is based on estimates by various industrial
organizations like the National Association of Software and Services
Companies (NASSCOM),the Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry of India (ASSOCHAM),Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII),Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) and Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA). All these
organizations not only favor expansion of the technical education,
but call for greater private participation, less regulation and
doing away with the current regulatory agencies like the All India
Technical Council of Education (AICTE) which they believe is
ineffective and at times, a hindrance to progress.

-------------- --------------
New Publicly Funded Technical Institutions Being Set Up
-------------- --------------

5. (U) This huge increase in budget by the GOI is expected to
support not just existing institutions but also establish new ones.
The new initiative includes setting up of over 30 central
universities, 8 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT),10 National
Institutes of Technologies (NIT),20 Indian Institutes of
Information Technology (IIIT),5 Indian Institutes of Science
Education and Research (IISERS),7 Indian Institutes of Management
(IIM) and 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture. Further, GOI is
also expected to provide assistance to about 700 polytechnics. This
is in addition to the GOI plan to help establish over 500 new
universities which may also have technical programs. With all these
new public and privately funded institutions, the GOI has set a
target of 15 percent GER in higher education by the end of the
Eleventh FYP period. International studies have shown that for any
sustainable development, the GER needs to be above 20 percent.

--------------
Challenges to Expansion
--------------

6. (U) The principal challenge to this massive expansion of higher
technical education is ensuring quality. Even from the current
output of engineers, employers report that only 20 to 25 percent are
qualified to perform assigned tasks. Most institutes have a severe
shortage of faculty to meet even the basic teaching requirements.
Finding faculty which could deliver quality teaching and also carry
out R&D to meet the needs of a knowledge economy is expected to be a
big challenge. The IITs alone have a faculty shortage of over a few
thousand, in spite of their brand value, higher salaries,
availability of the top students and offering a better environment
for research. Dr. Jain, Deputy Director, IIT Delhi mentioned that
the recent 54 percent expansion of student capacity among the
existing seven IITs makes it mandatory for them to increase their
faculty strength by 300 percent from their current level. When all
the new IITs become fully operational they would need about 11,000
faculty by 2016. One could imagine the situation in other
engineering colleges which are at best teaching shops. There are
many more issues such as regulation of curriculum, autonomy to
function effectively, fee structure regulation, private and foreign
university participation, their affiliation and repatriation of
profits.

--------------

NEW DELHI 00003128 003.2 OF 009


Issues Relevant to the US
--------------

7. (U) In the US, Indian engineering graduates form the largest
group of students studying in various universities and working in
startups and high-tech companies. In addition, increasing number of
US corporations who have set up production and/or R&D facilities in
India employ thousands of local engineering graduates. Hence
understanding the multiple challenges faced by technical education
in India and its ability to deliver qualified human resources is of
great significance to US. With the objective of understanding the
Indian technical education scene and exploring opportunities for
engagement, Post's Science Section hosted, in partnership with
Public Affairs, a dialogue on "Challenges and Opportunities in
Technical Education for a Knowledge Economy." About 15 leading
technical education experts in India participated in this dialogue.


--------------
Participants in the Dialogue
--------------

8. (U) Below is the list of participants:

-- IIT Kanpur (IITK)
-- Prof. M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Board of Governors
-- Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director
-- Prof. Vijay Stokes, Former IITK Faculty and GE
Scientist

-- IIT Delhi (IITD)
-- Dr. Bijendra Jain, Deputy Director

-- IIT Roorkee (IITR)
-- Prof. Satish Kulkarni, Chair, Dept of Architecture and
Planning

-- Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi
-- Dr. Shamim Ahmed, Vice Chancellor

-- Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women's
University, Mumbai
-- Prof. Chandra Krishnamurthy, Vice Chancellor

-- World Bank:
-- Dr. Vinod Goel, Science, Technology and Innovation
Consultant

-- ASSOCHAM
-- Mr. S. S. Chawla, Director, Education Section

-- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
-- Mr. Anjan Das, Senior Director & Head, Technology,
Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation & Life Sciences

-- FICCI
-- Ms. Shobha Mishra, Joint Director, Education

-- AICTE
-- Dr.Dinesh, Adviser, Quality Assurance

-- Defense Research and Development Organization
-- Prof. Manas Mandal, Director, Defense Institute of
Psychological Research


NEW DELHI 00003128 004.2 OF 009


-- Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF)
-- Dr.Arabinda Mitra, Executive Director

-- US Educational Foundation of India
-- Dr. Adam Grotsky, Executive Director
-- Ms. Sarina Paranjape, Adviser

-- US Embassy, New Delhi
-- Mr. Larry Schwartz, Minister Counselor for Public
Affairs
-- Dr. Satish Kulkarni, Counselor for Science, Technology,
Environment and Health Affairs
-- Dr. B. S. Satyanarayana, Scientific Affairs Specialist

--------------
Key Issues Deliberated in the Meeting
--------------

9. (U) The key issues discussed during the course of the dialogue
were:

- Definition of knowledge based economy
- The quality or the current state of technical
education in India
- Pros and cons of the rapid expansion of technical
education
- The key factors that would influence a) curriculum,
b) accreditations c) ratings and d) governance
- Industry academic linkages
- Privately funded institutions and
- Need for strong Indo-US collaborations

--------------
Definition of a Knowledge Based Economy
--------------

10. (U) Prof. Anandakrishnan, Chairman of the Board of Governors,
IIT Kanpur, former Vice Chancellor of Anna University, Tamilnadu and
India's first Science Counselor at the Indian Embassy in Washington
DC stated that knowledge based economy may be defined as embedding
benefits of knowledge in all the key factors enabling the economy
namely capital, labor and technology, thus leading to value addition
to the existing infrastructure. In other words, this calls for
translation of knowledge to innovation and entrepreneurship that
could cater to the changing needs of both the local and global
economies.

-------------- -
Current Technical Educations Standards in India
-------------- -

11. (U) Prof. Anadakrishnan mentioned that out of the 600,000
graduating engineers, 25 to 30 percent who come from the IITs, NITs
and other top-tier engineering colleges are well qualified. The
need is to see how these engineers could be gainfully employed
towards advancement of a knowledge based economy. He further added
that many engineers have good theoretical knowledge, but
insufficient practical experience or the necessary skills to perform
assigned tasks and need additional training. Industry organizations
like FICCI, CII and ISA have made similar observations.


12. (U) The remaining 70 percent engineering students find it
difficult to graduate in one attempt and have to repeat the courses.
This could be attributed to many reasons including poor quality of
teaching and infrastructure and the lack of relevance of the
curriculum to the needs of industry and technological developments.

NEW DELHI 00003128 005.2 OF 009


Absence of a R&D culture also affects faculty recruitment. India
produced less than 1000 doctorates in all engineering disciplines
put together in 2007. This leads to shortage of qualified faculty.
For example, the state of Andhra Pradesh has 532 engineering
colleges with a provision to admit 191,000 students. If it were to
satisfy all the AICTE norms it should require nearly 11,000 faculty.
But in reality there are not even 4,000 faculty and even these are
predominantly entry level with at the most a master's degree.
Nearly 80 percent of engineering colleges are in the private domain
and a reasonable percent of them have good infrastructure as
prescribed by the regulatory agencies; however, faculty shortage is
an issue of great concern. Some institutes are trying to overcome
this through collaboration with industries and R&D labs by hiring
their staff as guest or adjunct faculty.

-------------- --------------
Pros and Cons of Rapid Expansion of Technical Education
-------------- --------------

13. (U) Most of the academics present were of the opinion that even
though they agreed with the need for expansion, they were very much
concerned about the rate of expansion based on political exigencies
rather than any rational reasoning. The general belief was that it
would further degrade the standards. So they called for a more
gradual and planned step by step expansion which would be
sustainable. However, the industrial organizations like FICCI,
ASSOCHAM and CII felt that the expansion could not wait any more and
it had to happen now. If the best practices were adopted the
quality could be achieved, if not overnight at least over a period
of time, say 10 to 15 years. They called for allowing more private
participation or even public private partnership, but with more
autonomy and simpler and clear cut regulations. Mr. Chwala from
ASSOCHAM said that their study showed that in recent years, nearly
five million Indian students were pursuing higher education in
technical areas in foreign universities at any given point of time.
This suggests that there is already a market for quality technical
education.


14. (U) Dr. Dinesh of AICTE said that AICTE as the regulatory
authority approving engineering programs had already facilitated
nearly hundred percent expansion of technical education in the last
decade. He added that in order to accelerate the process of
approval, AICTE has also set up zonal offices. Prof. Vijay Stokes
opined that there was a need for creation of new technical
institutes of excellence in India as the existing engineering
institutes including the IITs had failed to inspire or nurture
innovation, entrepreneurship and path breaking technological ideas
as generated in US universities like Stanford, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton. He hoped that at least
the new institutes coming up would hopefully provide thought leaders
who could inspire the younger generation to take up engineering
education and thus create a truly knowledge based economy thorough
innovation.

--------------
Technical Education Curriculum
--------------

15. (U) Technology is changing rapidly. Product cycles have come
down to literally eighteen months. Increasingly the boundaries
between the various disciplines are disappearing. Yet technical
education in India is highly compartmentalized and no serious effort
is being made to make it interdisciplinary. AICTE, the key
regulating body for technical education, discourages the study of
humanities and even basic sciences in engineering colleges by giving

NEW DELHI 00003128 006.2 OF 009


insignificant credits for these courses. Only the IITs and some
autonomous engineering colleges have some exposure to humanities and
basic and social sciences.


--------------
Affiliation, Accreditation and Ratings
--------------


16. (U) India does not have a viable accreditation and comparative
rating mechanism. The method is flawed and there is a lot of
mistrust in the system; hence the call by government bodies like the
National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the Administrative Reforms
Committee (ARC) and industrial organizations like FICCI and CII for
doing away with AICTE and similar agencies. India has over 17
agencies regulating higher education often working at cross
purposes. There have been instances when a program from an
engineering college has been accredited by AICTE, while the State
University to which the college is affiliated has not even approved
the college. In 2007, India has become a provisional member of the
Washington Accord, an international accreditation body for
engineering education. New Zealand is mentoring AICTE to achieve a
full member status.


17. (U) Considering the above issues and the recommendations of the
NKC, the GOI appointed a 22 member committee headed by Prof. Yashpal
to study the working of the regulatory agencies like AICTE, the
University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Medical Council of India
(MCI) in February 2008. Prof. Yashpal is an eminent physicist and a
space scientist who has headed several GOI agencies including the
UGC. The committee is soon expected to submit its interim report.
Newspapers have reported that some of the recommendations of the
committee include granting of greater autonomy to universities,
making the interdisciplinary approach a norm in higher education,
the need to revamp the selection process of Vice-Chancellors and
minimize the interference by the State and Central governments. In
the case of IITs the committee seems to have suggested that they
should evolve from just producing high-quality undergraduates into
R&D institutions akin to MIT and broaden the curriculum to include
life and social sciences similar to a university to draw upon the
benefits of technology.


18. (U) One of the biggest challenges of the rapid expansion
process is that there are no means to compare or rate the
performance of the institutions. This was echoed by Prof.
Anadakrishnan when he stated that indictors like the student teacher
ratio, journal publications and infrastructure alone do not make a
good institute. There should also be built-in mechanism for
continuous self assessment and improvement. Some examples of
initial steps towards self assessment are efforts by universities in
Uttar Pradesh and Anna University in Tamilnadu. Universities in
Uttar Pradesh on assessment found that out of the 170 engineering
colleges under its fold about 20 of them had less than 5 percent of
students clearing their exams showing the poor performance of these
colleges. Similarly when Anna University with relatively better
standard indicators of student teacher ratio, journal publications
and infrastructure carried out an assessment, it discovered that
about 25 percent of the colleges have less than 5 percent pass rate
among its students. While universities in Andhra Pradesh which have
nearly 500 engineering colleges among them have made no efforts
towards self assessment or establishing a comparative rating
mechanism. Further the accreditation agencies have some times rated
some the poorest colleges as having the best performance. Hence an

NEW DELHI 00003128 007.2 OF 009


urgent need to have a clear rating mechanism either self or through
an agency. Most members present agreed that it was indeed very
difficult to gauge the difference between the various institutions.
NASSCOM the agency coordinating the interest of the ICT industries
is now trying to evolve an all Indian assessment mechanism for
rating the students coming under the ICT programs from various
Institutes.

--------------
Governance of Engineering Institutions
--------------

19. (U) Governance is another big issue. The publicly funded
institutes have to put up with interference from the government at
every step. Majority of the privately funded institutes also suffer
from poor management and lack of accountability. Profit seems to be
the only motive although they are supposed to be charitable
institutions. The government is proposing to set up new mechanisms
for public private partnership in higher and technical education,
but the modalities are still not clear. The not-for-profit label
associated with educational institutes seems to hinder entrepreneurs
from investing in the education sector. The academics present
during the discussion wanted stricter norms, while the industry
organizations felt that some autonomy was necessary.

--------------
Industry Academic Linkages
--------------

20. (U) Technical education in India as discussed earlier has
mainly been a pale imitation of the developed nations, rather than
setting its own agenda. This could be partly attributed to the fact
that Indian industries in a closed economy were content with the
knock down kit assembly culture. They hardly needed to innovate,
carry out R&D or interact with the academics. Except for a small
minority, allocation for R&D in most companies would be minimal.
The academics with their knowledge of technology developments in the
West, felt that it was beneath their dignity to work towards
incremental development of a low end technology for industry. Thus
for nearly five decades there has been a complete disjoint between
industry and the academia. However, the opening of the economy and
its accelerated growth, the success of the ICT industry and the
arrival of techno-entrepreneurs has catalyzed a close partnership
between industry and universities.


21. (U) This is also reflected in the number of education
initiatives launched by Indian companies like Infosys, Tata
Consultancy Services, Wipro and Hindustan Computers Ltd (HCL),US
companies like Intel and EMC Corporation and industry organizations
like FICCI, CII, NASSCOM and ISA. They are increasingly organizing
programs for faculty, developing new curriculum with academic
institutions and facilitating the introduction of new courses.
Endowed chairs funded by industries in Indian academic institutes
are also increasing. Industries with their new found desire to
collaborate with academia are also looking for immediate results.
Further, not being able to wait for the transformation to take place
in the academia, Indian companies including the Reliance, Tata,
Wipro, Nirma and HCL are all starting their own institutes. Even
government agencies associated with space, defense and atomic energy
have started university level institutions to cater to their own
specific needs. The increasing engagement between the two and the
realization from both sides that they need each other if India is to
make any headway in the knowledge based economy is encouraging.

--------------

NEW DELHI 00003128 008.2 OF 009


Indo - US Collaboration
--------------

22. (U) Indo-US collaboration in research and education dates right
back to the days of independence. This includes activities in areas
like agriculture, space and nuclear technology or joint Indo-US
efforts in setting up of an institute like IITK and the introduction
of Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) or the
concept of tele-education that has helped India spread education to
the remotest corners today. These collaborations had US
contribution in the form of both financial and Intellectual capital.
Indian scientists and researchers have always had a great
admiration for the US academic system and research environment.
This can be gauged from the number of Indian students, engineers,
scientists and faculty who are working in US and those that have
returned to India, but continue to have research linkages with the
US. Even though there is hardly any official mechanism for
engagement in the area of high level research and education in the
last two to three decades, the recent opening up of the
environment, availability of sufficient funds and the starting of
innumerable institutes in India, offers immense opportunities for
engagement. Indian scientists and administrators believe that US
can share its intellectual capital and the best practices of
establishing institutes of excellence and help it create centers of
excellences for the future.



23. (U) Prof. Dhande, Director, IITK highlighted this point when he
said that the higher education scene in India was like a joint
family with institutes of varying capabilities, some good and some
not so good. The GOI was like a patriarch supporting everyone. It
was a grumpy joint family with no one ready to completely break
away. Mediocre leadership was one of the main reasons for the poor
performance of higher education in India. US could help here by
educating more administrators of Indian universities, like the
recent program where the US Embassy Public Affairs Office supported
visit by Indian university leaders to the US for a meeting with
their counterparts. Dr. Dhande also suggested the setting up of a
"Think Tank for Education" in India where agencies like the national
academies, USEFI and IUSSTF could facilitate interaction between the
two countries.


24. (U) The SciCouns while summing up the discussion highlighted
that the challenges faced by the two countries were similar. He
cited the example of the US National Academies report "Rising above
the Gathering Storm" and Indian reports from the NKC and the Prime
Minister's Science Advisory Council and similarities of some of the
key challenges which include:
- Making science and math more attractive at the school level so
that students would take it up as a career;
- Ensure quality along with quantity (both in the case of students
and faculty),enhance investment in R&D (private and public);
- Higher level of transparency in the peer review process;
- Accelerate the rate of growth of Indian science;
- Unshackle science from bureaucracy, and
- Inculcate an innovation culture.

--------------
Comments
--------------

25. (U) The massive expansion in technical education is expected to
continue over the current Eleventh FYP and to certain extent in the
Twelfth FYP. Many countries including the UK, Australia, Germany
and Canada have enhanced engagement with Indian technical institutes

NEW DELHI 00003128 009.2 OF 009


and are partnering with them in setting up of new centers of
excellence. Yet Indian administrative, scientific and technological
planners believe that the US, as the global leader of intellectual
capital, would be the best source to seek help from to set up
sustainable centers of excellence. The engagement could include
planning for the formal structure of the institutes, involvement in
developing curriculum, help in faculty training, collaborative
research and participation in think tank activities. This
overwhelming interest across the spectrum offers a unique window of
opportunity for US engagement and extension of a positive influence
at all levels from the highest policy makers, to the academicians,
scientists and engineers to the vast number of engineering students
who would be beneficiaries of this. Additionally, the US could draw
upon all the goodwill generated and resources created for mutual
benefits. End Comment.

MULFORD