Harvard University proposes India as its latest subject

If Barry Bloom's words are something to go by, India has entered a new era. The dean of Harvard University School of Public Health shares a new focus on "modern India."

Visiting India as part of a Harvard university faculty delegation, led by Harvard president Lawrence H Summers, Bloom was recently quoted by the Times of India, as saying, "Harvard knows about ancient India, the teaching of the Vedas, colonial Indian and its struggle for independence. What we want to study now is the modern India, its aggressive economic rise, its multi-cultural society and its brilliant people. There is a huge need to study modern India if we want to know the 21st century world."

Obviously, India matters. A lot. A fact that is apparent from the increasing interest of students who seek placements in India's burgeoning industries for a taste of her economic success.

It used to be very different, even a decade ago. Indian students would dream of overseas postings for the better economic prospects a life in the West promised. Now however, leave aside Indians, even foreign students believe a stint in India will look good on and add value to their CV's. As India emerges as a new oriental economic super-power, her growing economy offers immense opportunities to apply and hone ones' skills in leading from the front and thus catapult ones career several notches higher.

Now Harvard University, America's oldest place of learning, will soon have India as a subject. Just as students opt to study law or economics, students at Harvard will be able to select India as their study subject as India is soon to be the new listing on its wide array of study subjects. Teachers for this subject will include visiting faculty members such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Gardiner professor of history at Harvard Sugata Bose and Harvard Business School professor Tarun Khanna.

Announcing this in India, Harvard University president, Lawrence H. Summers said the university was "working towards building a program especially on India, the subcontinent and South Asia studies," with the aim to "strengthen and increase our knowledge on the country, which is fast becoming a super-power."

For a 350 year old university that has taken in a large number of students from more than 100 foreign countries, representing diverse ethnic backgrounds, faiths and political leanings, this is perhaps an apt move, in consonance with the rising demand for persons having specialized India skills. So is this recognition merely a timely response to an emerging economic world scenario?

Sunder Ramachandran, a freelance writer also working with a global BPO in New Delhi, believes it is "a great move."

This goes to show the significant position that the country has acquired as a result of the 'dance between the two of world's largest economies'. I think we should leverage on this relationship. With a synergy like this, our possibilities end where the imagination does," he says.

Apparently, it is not only the city-bred who understand the new equation representing India-USA relations. Investment consultant Pradeep Singh, from India's hinterlands, believes that Americans focus on their collective business interests across the world and they aim to increase their business the world over. In this respect, their policy amendments and their moves are always timely. He also believes that as the cost of quality Indian labor is very competitive, the outsourcing industry in India will grow further. In this economic climate, America's oldest university's decision to introduce a new subject (India) is one additional, very small move to further USA's global business prospects.

Of course, some respondents did have a somewhat cynical perspective to the current trend, a sort of, "it's a foregone conclusion" approach. 'Every dog has his day', was the response of Pankaj Prakash, the Mumbai-based director of Vi-Fi Productions. While adding, "They colonized us...by their economic power. We have been colonizing them through our intelligentsia and now our economy is also playing its part."

However, the global Indian on the move certainly perceives this shift as a positive development. London and Mumbai-based Ajay Sanghani, founder of a networking site for IT professionals, IT Vidya, says the news is "certainly a positive move. In spite of so many problems that India faces, she has so many positives to contribute to the world.

Change in India is happening and gaining momentum because of it being one of the fastest growing markets. The more exposure and publicity we get the better. More conversations translate into more opportunities."

Anil Chouhan, is a computer software techie who returned from Philadelphia (USA) to his home city of Pune to set up a firm, Synygy, Inc. Chouhan believes that the move is timely, not so much because of the low production costs that are associated with India, but also because India offers higher value and quality. He believes Harvard can work to broaden the general perspective on outsourcing, and focus on its leverage to steer an organization to success.

So the stage is being set for closer ties between Harvard and Indian universities. Harvard president Summers also stated during his India visit that the university will seek to establish over a dozen India chairs dedicated to eminent Indian personalities, to help Indian students from economically less privileged households.

Harvard University, known to have tutored some of the worlds' most powerful current and ousted leaders, from current president of the USA George Bush to former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is always in search of bright minds. According to Summers, Harvard's new policies are aimed to encourage Indian students, who are some of the brightest in the world, to apply to the university, as well as recruit more professors for the India studies. He also would like US students to visit India's top-notch universities as part of a compulsory program, presumably to gain what everyone seems to be looking for nowadays: an Indian experience.