Bikash
Choudhury
Academic Research has been one of
the top most criteria for Global University
ranking in USA
and also in other developed countries and now the same method is being followed
by Indian Universities to improve their rankings as well as building their
Brand value before their stake holders. There is no harm in such a hypothesis
being practiced by emerging private universities in the country; however, we
need to ask if such a policy aligned to the need and goal of our country? Can’t
we think of a better method that is much more challenging than ‘Academic
Research’ and lucrative to our country’s development?
Growing Economic Inequality pose the biggest
challenge to our society and our country. Quality education and skill
development are the immediate solution which our Autonomous Educational
Institutions and Private Universities are doing very well in the recent past.
However, one more thing they can do to improve the Economic Condition of a
cluster of village by deploying their academic resources and knowledge pool.
That should offer enough challenge to the students and faculties to find
solutions for the problems of Cluster Economic Development in real time. That
would also give opportunity to students to apply their knowledge and skill.
Academic Research would henceforth be targeted at some real problems of real
people and eventually benefit the residents of village cluster apart from
creating umpteenth case studies for intellectual postmortem and academic consumption.
Apart from sharpening the academic acumen of the students and teachers; such
experiment if successful would help in bridging the economic inequality in the
country over a period of time.
This is easier said than done;
however, if our private multi-disciplinary universities and autonomous
institutions like IIT & IIM could think
of adopting a village cluster of 10-15 villages with 10,000 population and
5000-10,000 acres of cultivable land. First of all Universities could incubate
an organization in association with the resident of cluster villages and devise
a plan to improve the Agricultural productivity, generating employment
opportunities by conceptualizing MSME relevant for the cluster, imparting the
education & training and skill development of young people, marketing the
produce of the cluster in lucrative market and finding investors for such
project or raising finance by deploying their inter-disciplinary talent pool in
the university campus. This could be an Indian model of Knowledge Mining in Academics
designated to benefit deprived rural masses not only in India ;
but, in other developing countries also. With successful practice such program
could be a role model globally that may be adopted by United Nations
Development Program (UNDP).
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