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Changes
in Indian Higher Education – An Insider’s View
-- K K Georgeand Reji Raman
The country‘s educational system suffers today not
due to the lack of policy recommendations or programs of
action but due to the failure in their implementation. Underfunding
of education remains the major constraint of educational
development in the country. The ratio of public expenditure
to GDP came down from 30.6% in 1991 to 27.1% in 1998-99.
The higher and technical education suffered partly because
of the cuts in the share of educational expenditure in GDP.
One of the major reasons for the poor quality of education
can be traced to its underfunding. This encouraged the present
trend to start ‘‘self-financing’’ institutions
by private entrepreneurs. But this pattern of financing
can solve the problems of the higher and technical education
sector only to a limited extent, as it has necessarily to
be confined to courses with a high current market demand.
The poor quality of academic, administrative and political
leadership is one of the major reasons for the system‘s
stagnation. In principle, students, parents, teachers, employers
and governments are all potential supporters of restructuring
and reforming educational system. The real solution is the
coherent approach to get the suggestions from students,
parents, teachers, employers and governments and to implement
those points, which will suit to the major chunk of the
population. The need is to improve the quality of education
irrespective of any arguments.
© www.chet.org. This paper was
commissioned as support material for the book Transformation
in High Education: Global Pressures and Local Realities
in South Africa. Reprinted with permission.
The
Financing of Higher Education - A Broader View
-- P
Nair and Deepak Kumar
This
article talks about the development of higher education
in India and addresses possible means of financing it. The
current educational system in the country is discussed and
the concentration by the State on higher and technical education
is looked at. The article further says that the financing
of Higher Education in the country by the State, is a drain
on its exchequer and that more methods have to be found
out to move the financial obligations outside the State
coffers. The experience of other countries is looked at
briefly, and parameters are looked at, which need to be
concentrated on to get results. For money to flow to this
sector, it is very important also, to look at providing
adequate legislative protection to these self-financed universities,
which attract funds from sponsors, financing agencies and
corporates. The need for adaptability to the job market
and the synchronization between job creation and higher
education has been explained in detail. Various development
models are hinted at with concentration on specific parameters,
but the article stops short of getting into very definitive
models itself, due to the still complicated setup, as regards
the status of private educational institutions in India.
Once the ground rules are clearly laid down, it may become
possible to develop several models, which may be accepted
by the financial agencies, for funding higher education
in India.
©
2004 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Educational Infrastructure in India
-- Sivaram
Mallela
The
concept of Educational Infrastructure has traditionally
been of a campus, classrooms and teaching methodologies.
However, with the development of technology, all this is
expected to change. There is no reason why the teacher and
the taught, should remain at the same place, or indeed the
same geographical location. Outsourcing is also likely to
become a major issue. Physical costs can be bundled and
unbundled according to convenience. All this is likely to
accelerate, as soon as the WTO norms come into force and
opportunities and threats for the higher education sector
become more focused. Distance learning is likely to become
more widespread. Capital Investment Strategic Planning will
be done more carefully. With the explosion of knowledge,
the need for creation of original knowledge will become
necessary. Flexibility in the education planning process
will become imperative, with only the basic parameters getting
defined. India spends very little on its education infrastructure,
as compared to what it does on salaries, and it will have
to trim this down significantly and invest more in productive
infrastructure.
©
2004 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Health
Insurance in India: The Emerging Paradigms
-- Abhijit
Nagendranath and Pallavi Chari
The
game is old but the rules are new, and in the process of
changing further. From being ensconced in a monopoly run
from the nationalization days beginning 1956, the insurance
industry has indeed woken upto a deregulated environment,
with the industry space now being populated by several private
players in partnerships with multinational insurance giants.
The opening of the insurance sector in India has been a
landmark event in India's economic history. Gone are the
days of the domination by the LIC and GIG when ordinary
citizens had to work according to their whims and fancies.
Over the past one year, the traditional notion of insurance
has been turned on its head. Today insurance offers complete
solutions to create wealth, protect health and insure life.
Added to this, the profile of the Indian customer is changing.
Today, while boundaries between various financial products
are getting blurred, people are increasingly looking not
just at products but also at integrated financial solutions
that can offer them stability of returns along with total
protection. Insurance products will need to be customized
to satisfy these myriad needs of the customers and this
is where the private players come in bringing with them
hopes of wider options and efficient service.
©
Abhijit Nagendranath and Pallavi Chari. This paper was presented
in "Insurance 02 - A seminar on the emerging issues
in the Indian Insurance Sector", September 6, 2002.
Printed with permission.
Telemedicine:
Bridging the Doctor-Patient Divide
-- Surya
Pala
Telemedicine
is a process by which patients can be examined, monitored
and treated while the patient and doctor are geographically
dispersed. This is of a great help especially in the context
of developing countries. In this case, technology is of
utmost importance and this technology solution has to take
into consideration aspects such as assurance, empathy, responsiveness,
reliability and tangibility of service as part of the total
product. The final frontier of telemedicine is robotics.
Robots have been used in manufacturing, space exploration
and mining quite extensively but robots for medical purposes
like surgical procedure have been used quite rarely. However,
there are many other soft issues that might provide an obstacle
for the adoption of telemedicine solutions such as the privacy
and confidentiality of information that is transferred,
face-to-face interaction etc. This is one of the pitfalls
of the concept of telemedicine. A case study is provided
which shows that there will be a time when the people will
choose this concept because of time and the cost factor
in visiting the doctor especially for a small problem but
still the softer part cannot always be ignored wherein the
patients prefer to have face-to-face interaction.
©
IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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