Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday made a strong pitch for university-level partnerships in education between India and the United States.
Speaking before the start of the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue at an event hosted by the U.S.-India Business Council, Mr. Sibal said that India could not single-handedly build the 700 universities and 35,000 colleges it would need over the next 10 years of growth.
He noted that under the Right to Education Act, the government aimed to reach a gross enrolment ratio of 30 per cent for Indians between the ages of 18-24 by 2020, up from its current level of 12.4 per cent.
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Arguing that 22 per cent Americans today were more than 65 years of age and that the number would, by 2050, increase to 39 per cent, he asked, “Which part of the world will the workforce come from? I guess the only answer is countries like India.”
Suggesting that this process depended on collaborations based on the three pillars of education – access, inclusion and excellence – Mr. Sibal said, “The frontiers of knowledge are global and the frontiers of investment are regional. In a sense there is a shift in the global economy and the shift is eastward. It is time for us to recognise that.”
He said that India and the U.S. would lead the 21st century because “these two nations have the kind of genetic [and pluralistic] diversity that no other country in the world has".
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