India loses a staggering $80 billion foreign exchange due to students opting to study abroad

Indian students going abroad for studies cost approximately $80 billion foreign exchange, which broadly equals forex received by way of NRI remittances annually. This is a staggering figure spent by about 11 lakh students who go abroad for higher studies.

This figure is only growing year after year and unlike in the past, many students have started going abroad for studies even after their schooling. One of the reasons is said to be the rot that has set in the Indian educational system due to mushrooming of institutions and deteriorating standards

Very high cost of paid seats and corruption in professional colleges is yet another reason. Most of the private colleges are owned by politicians or their associates and hence fair play cannot be expected.

India has almost 1000 universities, to be precise 993 -- a record of the sorts. But a handful of them only are good like some IITS, IIMs, IISc, AIIMS and TIFR.

The fact that sizeable percentage of the children of politicians and bureaucrats go abroad for higher education now indicates that they themselves do not have faith in the standard of the Indian educational system, which is deteriorating year after year.

Lately, many engineering college and some medical seats are not getting filled and this shows that people are losing faith in the country’s higher educational system.

The Indian universities also lack facilities in spite of the fact they charge astronomical amount for paid seats. There is so much corruption in the system that even appointment of vice chancellor of a university is not on merit but on the basis of who pays the maximum amount to the political bosses. The rate is alleged to vary between Rs 2-20 crore depending upon the name and fame of the university.

Apart from brain drain with most of the good general category students preferring to go abroad, the majority of those studying abroad do not want to return as retail corruption, unlike India, is much less in western countries.

Retail corruption is where one has to bribe for getting mundane things like electricity or water connection, driving license, registration of sale and purchase of flats, land and so on. These are usually done by and large without paying bribe in western countries making life that much easy.

In India retail corruption is so rampant in spite of digitization and it starts right from getting birth certificate, leave alone other things.

Local, state and central administration are so corrupt that one global study had pointed out that $600 billion equivalent is lost in such corruption in India. Some may call it speed money. This is not a small amount.

The rot is more rampant in educational system. Correcting this malice is next to impossible.

Prof R Vaidyanathan of IIM Bangalore, one of India’s best management minds, said in a recent interview that the rot in the educational system is now virtually irreversible because of political patronage.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal