Hi,
I just read Sangeeta Kamat's (Prof at Univ. of Massachusetts at Amherst) artcile in Comparative Education magazine of May 2004 issue on Hindu nationalism and its NCERT curriculum. Though outdated since BJP is out of power - it relived the debates going on in India now --and more importantly -- linked it to globalisation (a subject on my telescopic sights these days).
It discussed BJP's (wrongly translated as the Indian Nationalist Party) bid to marry a "glorious Indian ( covert term for "Hindu" she says) past " with a bid for dominance in global technology and economy.
Somehow I feel she is trying to eulogize the BJP's ("genius" -as she puts it) in doing so with great finesse forcing the Supreme Court to declare that there was nothing wrong in highlighting "Indian" values -- that religious values are no different from society's general moral values etc etc.
What is more interesting is when I link this cultural , educational and economic mixup --with a few artciles I read in the last 2 days - in various newspapers and websites ( I get all major US papers here in the Harvard library ) including many Harvard's own publications.
For one, I have been curious about the Ivy league Univs - with Harvard, ofcourse at their head -- today read an article about 36 acre, $4.5 billion Clolumbia Univ trying to acquire more land (it is old news but in more detail - fun reading on "real" paper now -rather tha website as I used to from India) and that Harvard has 8,000 students beds in its dorms (with its about 1,000 acre, $22 billion campus) and MIT 5,000 beds.
Then I think of the article yesterday in www.redif.com about new Indian software companies desperate for H1 visas to survive in US market.
And an idea comes that these companies could still get H1 visas for their highly qualified staff -- if like the Ivy league Univs - it set up small, technical universities - perhaps deep in rural US (cheap land) -- and like Ivy league Univs -- get technical, qualified staff - who have full freedom to do "consultancy" -alongwith taking a few (perhaps one/week) classes in the Univ.
In this consultancy -- the Indian companies could still capture new markets through these "staff members" - whose H1 visas escape the "cap" (65,000 right now) applicable to non academic "professionals."
I am beginning to realise how important US (rightly) feels its hold over science is ( in the last two days - the Biology and the Physics Nobel prize has gone to Ivy League Univs - though Stanford is technically not considered one - though Columbia is) and is ready to go at great lengths to make scientific (all acadmic streams really) feel comfortable and "wanted" in top US univs.
For instance, if I were to go about on my cycle on rural US roads - most likely the car guys would drive me of the road - but here in Cambridge (an old village named after Cambridge Univ, UK where its settlers had studied - and is a separate district -about 50 sq. kms) where MIT and Harvard are based at (better known) Boston - the car drivers are almost reverant - seeing the shoulder bag on my back - declaring me to be a "valued" international student.
I'm sure Indian companies owned rural US based tech. universities - would attract the same reverance in US visa offices -while issuing "non cap" H1 visas.
Find out some loopholes -will you?
Umesh
PS: after seeing US costs of usual goods - I am beginning to realise that things here cost about 10 times of Indian rates - so Harvard's $22 billion - can be equated to Indian IIT, Delhi's $1.1 billion, 500 acre campus (calculated by using current market rates of land and building).
Actually Harvard's campus is more "royal" and has sunk more money on land and glitter than perhaps on basic infrastructure and technology -unlike IIT Delhi (I have moved a lot in IIT Delhi too - won Rs 2,000 in its annual "Rendezvous" festival) and had gone to see IIM Ahmedabad this Feb -as a tourist - no worse than Harvard's crispness!!
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