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HomeGlobal PulseIndian universities in 'global intellectual marketplace', delayed census & public infra's monsoon...

Indian universities in ‘global intellectual marketplace’, delayed census & public infra’s monsoon test

Financial Times points out that a ‘crunch’ in rare-earth materials due to China reducing exports could adversely impact India’s car manufacturing industry.

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New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s move to pause new visa interviews for international students might have Indian youth looking inward, realising that Indian universities might be their best bet.

But India’s universities have failed to “compete in the global intellectual marketplace”, even if they have acceptance rates lower than Harvard, says The Economist’s Essential India newsletter.

It cites money, lack of academic freedom and “meddling” by the government as standing in India’s way.

“In the past decade, India has spent between 4.1% and 4.6% of its GDP on education. China’s spending on it as a share of GDP may be roughly similar, but its GDP per person is five times that of India’s. In the past decade China has splurged on lucrative research grants and one-off bonuses to lure back Chinese academics from the West. India lacks the rupees to match China’s academic charm offensive,” reads the newsletter.

In another report, the Associated Press says India’s census is termed the largest peacetime mobilisation in the world, with 2.7 million people hired to visit 240 million households for the 2011 exercise. The next one will likely be controversial owing to the addition of caste data.

“…India also has quotas that reserve government jobs, college admissions and elected offices for a swathe of lower and intermediate castes that are recognised as Other Backward Classes. India’s current policy caps quotas at 50%, with 27% reserved for OBCs. A count of these groups will likely lead to calls to raise the quotas,” it says.

“Successive Indian governments have resisted updating caste data, arguing that it could lead to social unrest,” it adds.

BBC’s Nikita Yadav also reported on the census announcement, highlighting the six-year delay and its potential repercussions.

“Experts have spoken of the consequences this could have on the world’s most populous country-such as people being excluded from welfare schemes, and the incorrect allocation of resources,” states the report.

Writing in Financial Times’ India Business Briefing, Veena Venugopal pointed out that a “crunch” in rare-earth materials due to China reducing exports could adversely impact India’s car manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Starlink gears up to enter India.

“To be clear, we are not the only country facing a shortage. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump expressed his frustration about dealing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in an all-caps, 2 am post on his Truth Social platform. The EU is also pressing China to loosen restrictions on exports of rare earths because of the ‘alarming situation’ for the bloc’s car industry,” she says.

India’s erratic monsoon season has become a testing ground for its public infrastructure, with this year’s early onset causing immense damage, reports Apoorva Ajith for Bloomberg.

“Erratic and extreme weather events are testing the quality and durability of India’s billion-dollar projects. Modi’s government has shored up investment in the world’s most-populous nation by building roads, highways, bridges and airports, committing to a capital expenditure of 11.2 trillion rupees ($131 billion) for the year ended March 2026,” states the report which looks at this year’s damage: a flooded Mumbai metro line and an under-construction highway in Kerala.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)


Also Read: Bengaluru’s ‘deadly crowd crush’ & the once ‘unimaginable’ India-Israel defence partnership


 

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