Sir — Higher learning in India has repeatedly failed to pass muster in global rankings. The entirely misplaced sense of superiority of the Indian Institutes of Technology came about as the urge to acquire ‘Brand IIT’ overtook the desire to imbibe skills among the students. As a result, the coaching industry earned money many times more than what it takes to run all the higher technical institutes of the country put together!
We need premier institutions to lead us to newer horizons.The new human dimensions that are needed to be identified towards this, cannot be assessed at any one given time, but the effort would need continuous evaluation. However, the existing worn pathways up to the portals of tall institutions will not take us there.
The low ranking of these institutions on a global scale does not come as a surprise. We need to scale-up our premier institutions and their aspirants for meeting futuristic demands of skills. The IITs, for one, need to be re-invented without delay.