15 quotes found
"Fifty years ago, the UNESCO helped to create the IITs as a means of providing superior education to Indians and spurring developments in the country. Today, IIT has helped India become a world leader in science and technology — proving that when we work together, we achieve remarkable progress."
"For most of their first fifty years, these IITs were one of the greatest bargains America ever had. (p. 106)."
"Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India."
"Lesley Stahl of CBS on 60 Minutes"
"N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys on 60 Minutes:"
"Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist on 60 Minutes:"
"The IITs became islands of excellence by not allowing the general debasement of the Indian system to lower their exacting standards. You couldn't bribe your way to get into an IIT...Candidates are accepted only if they pass a grueling entrance exam. The government does not interfere with the curriculum, and the workload is demanding...Arguably, it is harder to get into an IIT than into Harvard or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
"In the winter of 2008, Jenifer and I visited Chennai Mathematical Institute. This remarkable Institute is the creation of Seshadri. It is a unique blend of an American style liberal arts college with traditional Indian guru one-on-one teaching, adding physics, computer science, history and music to its maths curriculum. Only in India could an intellectual with no business or management experience, who spends all his spare time singing classical south Indian music, have been the catalyst for such a unique educational experiment."
"In the 60s, India still retained many of the trappings of a medieval country. We used to wait for cows as safe escorts in order to cross the traffic-filled British boulevards of Mumbai and naked sadhus were still seen walking in the city with their begging bowls. Repairs to the exterior of our apartment building were made from bamboo scaffolding, rising twenty stories and held together only with string! A village of fishermen, their fires, animals and tents, subsisted in the very middle of the downtown area. Gold smuggling supported the “District of Song”, the neighboring slum. In the midst of all of this, Homi Bhabha, like Kublai Khan, had built his Xanadu: the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), an ultra-modern paradise for scientists. Clean, air conditioned, efficiently run, this was where all this wonderful math was being done."
"Surrounded by a high wall, the huge campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is almost a small town in itself, with a security force, a small store, several cafeterias and teahouses, a travel agency, bookstores, a gymnasium and recreational center, a few small forest tracts, and the homes for almost the entire faculty and many of the staff. At dawn hundreds of people jog or walk along its many roads, and many lab lights burn late into the night."
"Trustees must “provide a full, public, accounting of whatever policies or pressures brought about the circumstances that forced Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s resignation … My Respect for Ashoka University Has Been Seriously Tested … I gave the first of the Ashoka ‘Crossover’ Series lecture unveiling the university to the public later that year; I offered the commencement address at the 2018 Ashoka convocation; I donated to its library my own and my late wife’s entire collections of books in 2019. And I have known Professor Mehta for almost 30 years and have learned from him for 30 years.” ... If this is not done, and done soon, he said, “the stain on the university will be indelible, and the support of its most fervent admirers permanently lost.”"
"If Ashoka founders think it was a company because they put so much money in it, let us now talk business. Many in the leading US universities were thinking of developing partnerships with Ashoka and a lead founder came to me for a partnership with Brown. Not possible anymore."
"I am establishing a University, which will combine ancient wisdom with the knowledge of the physical sciences and technology.” Since ancient time, we had the legacy of the ashrams of rishis, the forest universities, the Gurukulas, the universities of Takshashila and Nalanda. Chinese piligrim Hiuen Tsang studied at Nalanda in the 7th century A.D. Pt Malaviya conceived of a university with a blend of ancient Indian traditions with modern universities in the west giving courses in arts, science and technology. He wished to achieve all this in a residential university to which Lord Hardinge observed, “But, whether the idea of a residential teaching university be new or old, there is no doubt that it is a departure from the existing model, nor is this the only departure that characterises this enterprise."
"My Lord, this is no ordinary occasion. We are watching to-day the birth of a new and, many hope, a better type of University in India. The main features of this University, which distinguish it from existing Universities, will be, first. that it will be a teaching and residential University; secondly, that while it will be open to all castes and creeds, it will insist upon religious instructions for Hindus, and thirdly, that it will be conducted and managed by the Hindu community and almost entirely by non-officials."
"The Benaras Hindu University (BHU) could not have been established without the help of the king, who ruled the city back in the day. Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda had helped Baba Saheb Ambedkar pursue his higher studies abroad. The Congress’ Shehzada knows nothing about this and is making public statements that are aimed at advancing the party’s vote bank politics."