Prabhudev of Austin, Texas, in a letter to the editor of The Hindu:
“The Karnataka government wants to invest Rs 500 crore for a state-of-the-art medical college targeting NRIs. When did the people elect a government so they can provide state-of-the-art facility for foreign nationals or residents with no apparent benefits to the population that elected it?
“The result is inflation and cannibalisation of faculty from other medical schools. What a disgrace! They are equating medical education to firms that export IT services. The Karnataka government should focus on improving facilities that benefit the local population.”
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Tags: Churumuri, NRIs, Sans Serif, The Hindu
19 April 2010 at 9:18 pm
I second Prabhudev.
Why should Karnataka spend money for NRI education? This is a scam.
However if a business wants to do it, I see good potential there.
Getting into medical education in US is very competitive and only 20000 slots are offered in America for Medical Degree and unlike India there is very strict quality control.
There is definitely a demand for medical seats in America but supply is difficult because of very strict rules of AMA.
We can open “Naikode” colleges in India which train people for US license exams for second rung NRIs who could not make it to colleges in US. At present Carribean schools are doing that work.
19 April 2010 at 9:57 pm
That attitude has always been there. Else how would you explain “export quality” stickers on goods sold in the local market. Doesn’t that imply double standards ?
19 April 2010 at 11:52 pm
There are two ways to view it.
I do not see from the lens of “deserve” etc..
The Govt. can view this as a money earning opportunity to open a college and attract NRI’s and collect huge amounts of money. However, it will be blatantly wrong/discriminatory if there is any “reservation” for NRIs. Govt. can set it up as a autonomous college with best facilities and high fees.
20 April 2010 at 6:46 am
The smarter and easier thing to do would be to build more colleges open to everybody, but have a quota for NRIs. This college is only going to create an “apartheid” situation wherever it is set up – the students bringing in obscene amounts of money and setting up their own ghetto separate from the “natives”. We already see that with the IIM to an extent in namma Bengaluru.
20 April 2010 at 7:14 am
It makes perfect sense to have export driven education in India, just as IT exports or medical tourism. Could be a massive opportunity, considering the huge demand in Gulf, Africa and even US for international quality doctors. Besides, we need to add massive number of doctors in the years to come, to take care of our old as well as world’s old.
But, I don’t understand why Govt. should spend public money on this? Surely there is enough private investment available for things like this. They should do a open, transparent process for permitting the setting up of medical education institutions to be set up.
20 April 2010 at 8:45 am
This is supposed to generate more revenues to state in long term. Not sure why some people like Prabhudev are opposed to it. We should encourage if state is setting up dedicated education, health, tourism facilities for NRIs or outsiders with more funds. There is nothing wrong and everybody benefits at the end.
20 April 2010 at 12:10 pm
@Gokulam,
——–We already see that with the IIM to an extent in namma Bengaluru.———
Begging ‘Native” quota in all centralized institutions is a bad idea. IIM, IISC and many other reputed institutions situated in Bangalore will be an added feather to KA. Instead of begging, we should concentrate on cracking the exams and competing with other state students.
And i dont find any bad idea behind a separate college of NRI’s in our state. Whether all NRI’ s are non kannadigas? we do have many local kannadigas residing in many parts of the world. They can also be benefited.