Kathmandu. The Modi government has expressed its desire to see prestigious foreign universities like Oxford and Stanford establish their campuses in India. A legislation that will allow such universities to initiate their operations within the state is currently being prepared to be passed over to the Parliament for approval.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that Indian universities have been successful in producing Chief Executive Officers (CEO), such as Pichai Sundararajan and Satya Nadella who have been leading global firms Google and Microsoft Corporation, respectively. He is of the belief that should foreign universities come to India, they would not only help raise the competitiveness of the universities there, but also attract around 750,000 of its nationals, who spend at an average of $15 billion each year in higher education overseas. This is coupled with the fact that the country holds tremendous potential, ranking 72 in the the 2020 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) amongst 132 countries.

This view of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is considered to be a move away from the reluctance it has normally displayed in opening up its education sector. The primary obstructions in the pathway towards achieving the objective is perceived to be its “notoriously tricky” bureaucracy, and the probable difficulties in acquiring sufficient infrastructure and land, in addition to the allocation of an academic staff to these institutions.

Ramesh Pokhriyal, the Minister of Education commented that the idea was met with a “lot of excitement,” by certain foreign universities and that “very soon, India will have some of the finest, world-class institutions.” He did not provide any further details on the incentives that the universities would be offered beyond a level field of competition with the other domestic universities in the sector. However, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The University of Washington, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the University of Western Australia have already clarified that they would definitely not be setting up campuses in India.

It has been estimated by the World Bank that by 2021, 34 percent of India’s population will fall under the age-group of 15 and 34. If this law is indeed implemented and India is successful in attracting the foreign universities, it would open up doors of possibilities for its citizens.