For a knowledge economy: 

For a knowledge economy: 

Context

India needs to do much more than investing money into higher education institutions to create a knowledge ecosystem in the country.

Creating a knowledge ecosystem in India

• For knowledge to translate into a wealthy society, we need to create a conducive knowledge ecosystem, which is currently missing from our national plans.
• Institutions of higher education help in creating such an ecosystem, and improve a nation’s productivity and wealth.
• India plans to pump in over Rs. 10,000 crore to build 20 world-class higher education institutions.

Importance of knowledge-intensive industries

• Growth and productivity could not be explained only by capital and labour.
• This differential they attributed to the knowledge content of an economy.
• Today, knowledge-intensive and high-technology industries contribute the most to long-term growth.
• It is no accident that U.S. accounts for 33% of global output of knowledge-intensive services, China 10%, but India only 2%.
• In high-technology manufacturing, India barely exists. A lot needs to done therefore.

What is the role of institutions in creating a knowledge ecosystem?

• The creation of a knowledge ecosystem that allows for robust institutions that focus on information gathering, planning, research, teaching, credit supply, and ensuring that people are filled with hope rather than derision for the society in which they live will make a society wealthier.
• Institutions can generate an ecosystem for innovation in many ways: by providing access to knowledge capital, an atmosphere of inquiry, and an experimental environment where those ideas can be tested.
• Given that the success rate of ideas is low, ideas need to be tested constantly.
• For reality testing, we need collaboration between academic researchers and the users of that knowledge, industry, and government. It is this interface that is rather weak in India.

Translating research into technology

• Even with a low funding to research as percentage of GDP, with very few Indians taking to formal learning and research, India still accounted for 4.4% of the global output of science research publications in 2013.
• Translating this research into technology remains the weak link.
• For that to happen, the latest suggestion in the choice-based credit system is to include project work at all levels in higher education institutions.

Way Forward

• We need to ensure ease in movement of personnel between universities and industry.
• However, there are two obstacles in facilitating this. One, outdated service conditions in the government sector discriminate against people who make such lateral shifts. Two, completely artificial labels exist that distinguish between private and government-owned entities in funding for higher education.
• Institutions like the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institutes of Technology, and Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore are all proof that that such categories make little difference to the quality of research and graduate outcomes.
• We need to provide more autonomy to public institutions in hiring and firing people. And once an institution is given a grant, we need to ensure that it is utilised for the purpose given.