BOOK REVIEW
Building Golden India
How to unleash India's vast potential and transform its higher education system. Now.
in the Silicon Valley with his wife and two children. He enjoys traveling, yoga, and spending time with his family. Brief Summary of the Book Building Golden India: How to un- leash India's vast potential and transform its higher education system. Now. The book is written by Shail Kumar, past-pres- ident, IIT Foundation and includes a fore- word by Desh Deshpande, trustee, Deshpande Foundation and life member, MIT Corporation. The interests of students, parents, so- ciety, industry, and the nation are inti- mately connected through the higher education system. In the next 35-50 years, India must educate and prepare 700 mil- lion to 1.3 billion young men and women for their lives and careers. So, how is India’s higher education system doing and how could it be transformed to better meet the needs of its stakeholders? The author addresses this central question in the book. Have you asked any of these questions? • What could a Golden India look like? • What would it take to go from harsh re- alities of today and build a brighter future? • How could India unleash the potential of its 1.3 billion people? If you have, then this is the book for you. This book is also for you if you are an educated youth, professional, or someone who deeply cares about India and its fu- ture. What can you do? Where do you start? Kumar exlains. Excerpts from his interview with India Parent Magazine (IPM): IPM: Can you please tell us what prompted you to work on this specific topic con- sidering that you are an engineer from IIT? Shail Kumar ( SK): I wrote this book for one reason —my love for India and my belief that higher education can play a transformative role in an individual’s life and career and that of the nation. My love for India goes back to my childhood years. My father was an officer in the Indian Army. Thus, I grew up around the country and mostly lived in army cantonments. There was a visible and
India, under the BJP-RSS leadership, is going through tremendous educational up- heavals, which, according to many experts including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, is both alarming and contradictory. Though Modi’s focus allegedly is on development and Make in India, the core educational values are constantly being tampered with. As is, Indian higher education system lacks research and action based procedures and learning, and the system seems to be dete- riorating further with central government’s cuts in research fellowships and overall ed- ucational budget in the last two years of its governance. At a juncture such as this, Shail Kumar’s book, Building India: How to unleash India's vast potential and transform its higher educa- tion system. Now., brings in new ideas and suggestions based on several educational
SHAIL KUMAR, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK
perpetual display of love for country. As a student in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools, we used to periodically sing songs about bringing back the glory of India’s Golden Age and Takshashila and Nalanda. At IIT Kharagpur we were reminded daily of our duty to the nation. Thus, my love for India, consciously and sub-consciously, is part of my DNA. It is who I am. Growing up, it was also evident to me that we were part of a middle-class family and we had to stand on our own feet. Get- ting a good education was the only means to get anywhere in life. Looking back, I can say with certainty that I am who I am be- cause of my education, especially higher education. This topic is so impor- tant to me that I spent 16 months writing this book full-time. I fervently hope that this book sparks conversations and actions to create positive change in India’s higher education system as soon as possible. IPM: What is the purpose and what do you want to achieve from writing this? SK: The book is a means to an end — build a brighter (golden!) nation for all its 1.3 billion people by transforming India’s higher education system. I fervently hope that educated youth, professionals, and those who care deeply about India and its future read my book, and join or start con- versations and take actions. Building India: How to unleash India's vast potential and transform its higher education system. Now.
models accross the world, might be a ray of hope for Indian higher educational sys- tem. Shail Kumar is the Past-President of the IIT Foundation; co-founder of Pan IIT alumni movement in the USA; former ad- ministrator at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego; co-founder and CEO of two start- ups; and was an executive in several For- tune 500 and Silicon Valley-based corporations. He has an MBA from Indiana University, Bloomington and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian In- stitute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. Son of an Indian Army officer, Shail grew up around India. He currently resides
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