Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E156 | Roots. Reforms. AI. Prof. Rao on India’s Educational Future P1 | Prof. V Ramgopal Rao
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What does it take to transform India's higher education system? Professor V. Ramgopal Rao brings a unique authority to this question, having journeyed from a Telugu-medium school in rural Telangana to leading IIT Delhi and now serving as Group Vice Chancellor at BITS Pilani.
Professor Rao's remarkable story begins in a region known for poverty, where educational resources were scarce. Despite studying in Telugu medium throughout school, he excelled academically and eventually found his way to IIT Bombay for his Master's degree—a pivotal moment that revealed his exceptional talent for research. "I discovered myself at IIT Bombay," he reflects, acknowledging how this opportunity opened doors he never knew existed.
Throughout our conversation, Professor Rao emphasizes adaptation as the cornerstone of success. His ability to form meaningful relationships, remain humble, and adapt to new environments propelled him forward at each stage of his journey. This quality, combined with his intellectual curiosity, has resulted in over 500 publications, more than 50 patents, and global recognition in nanoelectronics.
The most compelling portion of our discussion focuses on Professor Rao's passionate call for structural reforms in Indian higher education. He articulates specific problems holding back our institutions: the absence of outcome-linked funding models, insufficient administrative autonomy, and inadequate incentives for philanthropy and research. "We need 1991-style reforms in the higher education sector," he declares, drawing a parallel to India's economic liberalization.
His leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates what's possible when institutions have clear priorities. Under his direction, IIT Delhi developed technologies that helped 15 million people, including affordable RT-PCR kits that dramatically reduced testing costs nationwide. This success story exemplifies his conviction that Indian institutions possess tremendous untapped potential, waiting to be unleashed through thoughtful reform.
Ready to hear more about transforming education and unleashing institutional excellence? Subscribe now and join the conversation about reimagining India's academic future.
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Adapting to New Environments
Speaker 1Adapting to a place, adapting to a new culture, adapting to new surroundings, new people, is part of success for everybody. I see so many students who come to our institutions and don't adapt well enough, complaining about everything that they think should have been like what they knew it should be, and then start getting bitter, not you know, mixing with people and keeping themselves aloof, and that is how all these mental stress issues and other things start. There are also, you know, we are all a product of a lot of things, though one can take credit for everything, and, you know, get into the mode of, you know, I can do anything sort of, but I think at the end of the day, the success is never alone. I mean, you cannot achieve success alone.
Speaker 2You, so many people, so many instances, so many, you know the circumstances, everything plays a role welcome to inspire someone today podcast, a show where we dive into the stories and insights that has the power to create ripples of inspiration in your life. I'm your host, shrikant, and I'm thrilled to be with you on this journey of inspiration. Hey, my dear listeners, welcome back to yet another episode of Inspire Someone Today. From a small town in Telangana studying in Telugu medium to leading some of India's most prestigious institutions, my guest today is a testament to what's possible when curiosity meets persistence, when curiosity meets persistence.
Speaker 2Professor Veer Amargopal Rao has been at the helm of IIT Delhi and now serves as group vice chancellor at BITS Pilani. Along the way, he has authored over 500 publications, holds more than 50 patents and has been recognized globally for his contributions to nanoelectronics and academic innovation. But behind the titles and accolades is a boy who once dreamed big in a small classroom, a teacher who still believes in the magic of curiosity and a leader who is reimagining what Indian universities can become. In this conversation we'll explore Professor Rao's early beginnings, the mindset that shaped his journey, lessons from global academic exposure, his vision for Indian universities and what it means to do meaningful research in an AI era. It's an absolute joy to have Professor Rao join us on this episode of Inspire Someone Today. Welcome to the show, mr Rao.
Speaker 1Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on the show. It's indeed an honor and privilege.
Speaker 2Professor, like I mentioned, from an humble beginnings to a lifelong learning, we'll start right up there. You studied in Telugu medium through your schooling years, a journey many might underestimate. What are some of the challenges and hidden strengths that shaped your foundation professor?
Speaker 1Yeah, I think you know we don't have a choice on many things in life, right when you were born, and all of that not in our control. So I was born in a lower middle class background but in a family which valued education, I think in Kollapur, which is in Telangana right now. It's in the Nagarkadnur district, a small little town and very backward. In fact that entire Mahabobnagar region is known for hunger kind of deaths, very prominent in the state for its poverty, I think. So, coming from that kind of a background, born there, I did whatever I was supposed to do. We were all sent to government schools and this being a very remote area in Telangana At that time, it was combined with the other part of the country, of course, and also there were no teachers, there were no proper classrooms, and so things were not great. But I think, you know, coming from my family background, I knew that I have to study. I have no other thing to fall upon and only education will make me get a good job and settle down in life. So there was no other, you know, looking at any other thing other than doing well in education. So I think that in our family was always there. My father was a lawyer, of course, but in that small town, you know, lawyers really don't make so much of money and ours was a joint family with always some 15 people in the home, and so those sort of things existed. So I had a very nice childhood, I should say. I mean we used to play, have fun and very strong family ties and then our visits to relatives, and so all of that was fun and but I know the education I did very well. There was never any issue with my education. In fact in 10th there were only two students who passed out of my village. I was one of them and in 12th again, similar kind of a thing, and so but the Telugu medium thing was the only choice we had. I mean, if I needed English I would have gone to, or I would have needed to go to Mahuvnagar, which is a district headquarters, and you know, then it would cost more money. I have to stay with someone else and you know those kind of challenges.
Speaker 1But after I joined for my BTEC in Varangal, I studied in Kakatiya University in a college there. I mean it was difficult because there was nothing common between you. Know was difficult because there was nothing common between you know what I was learning in my BTEC and what I have studied in Telugu, for example, electron. Now, what is electron in Telugu? Now you need to map it. Is it Paramanu, is it? You know there were so many names at that time. So so the everything was a problem. I mean, our Telugu was real Telugu. They were not using electron as electron. Electron had an equivalent word in Telugu. So that was how much of Telugu you know we learned, and just mapping just those very basic concepts, you know, was not very easy, beyond my reach.
Speaker 1I had no idea, you know, about IITs in school, because I did not even hear about IITs and if I'm a Telugu medium student, all these English examinations are still in English. I mean, iits have introduced Hindi much later, but my Hindi is again, you know, was never good. So that way I had no option of going to anything outside. You know what was affordable, what was nearby. That's how I started. But it was also a great learning. It also gave me confidence and first year I struggled and there were other family challenges. I lost my father when I was in second year, so I had to miss examinations and then, you know, reappear. It's a lot of those kind of challenges too. But I came out in flying colors. I did very well. I was among the best students that my teachers, you know, remembered out of that college.
Speaker 1And then I joined IIT Bombay for my MTech and that was my turning point. I think once I joined IIT Bombay, there I could see you know where I stand, because even in Varangal everybody was from the same state, you know. It was all okay, but in IIT Bombay everybody was good in the class and the master's MTech in microelectronics is where I registered, where I got admission, and there was not many students in those days in MTech Microelectronics some 12, 13 students. But everybody was a gem from representing so many states and I could still do very well. My professors liked me and they said we should. They helped me to find my interest and nurtured my talents.
Speaker 1I discovered myself in IIT Bombay. I mean, if I had not gone to IIT Bombay to find my influence and nurtured my talents, I discovered myself in IIT Bombay. I mean, if I had not gone to IIT Bombay, or rather if I had not taken the decision to go to IIT Bombay at that time, I think I would have been somewhere doing something, but I wouldn't be where I am today. I think that institute that way. I owe a lot, the master's program there, which made all the difference to my career, my journey, my aspirations and my discovery process too, because I did not even know what I was good at. We were just going with the flow.
From Telangana to IIT: Early Beginnings
Speaker 1You do B-Tech, you get a job right. But I wanted to do M-Tech, at least so I can get a better job. And so my idea was to do MTech at least so I can get a better job. And so my idea was to do MTech and then get a better job. But then you know the way it turned out. I thought I can do much better than finding a job after MTech. I also realized that I am very good in research. I published a paper in a top American journal at that time Even now these are very popular journals American Institute of Physics journal and so I got recognized for that work, and so I think there was no looking back Now, once I figured out what I am good at, once I figured out that you know, I am as good as anybody else and there was no looking back and I wanted to learn everything that is available in my area. I wanted to be the best in my area, so that's how the whole thing started, basically.
Speaker 2That was fantastic. The line that caught my attention is there was no looking back. And if you look at it, there's no looking back from the boy from the Telangana school to Warangal. No looking back from the young man from Warangal to Mumbai. How did each of these shape? I'm sure that's a big gap, big chasm to fill from a local vernacular language to English, from being familiar with your own state to completely going to a different state. So how did you kind of develop these traits of resilience, develop these traits of, okay, I have this gap, but I'm not sitting and complaining about it, I'm going to do something. And that's exactly what you did. Right, you didn't look at the shortcoming, but you turned it out into what you wanted to do. How did you go about doing all of this?
Speaker 1I know, I think that adapting to a place, adapting to a new culture, adapting to new surroundings, new people, is part of success for everybody. You know, I see so many students who come to our institutions and don't adapt well enough, you know, complaining about everything that they think you know should have been like what they knew it should be, think you know should have been like what they knew it should be, and then, you know, start getting bitter, not, you know, mixing with people and keeping themselves aloof, and that is how all these mental stress issues and other things start. In my case, you know, I was able to make friends. I was also, you know, I'm still. I believe I'm a very helpful person. I'm not a very what do we call it? Arrogant or selfish, or you know what one characterizes as a bad person. I'm always nice to talk to and always pleasant. I'm a good friend and I my friends are all 30 years, 40 years now I've been friends with people, so I think people trust me. I have some very close friend circle from those days and I think you know that is very important, I think, to stay humble and to treat everybody with respect. You know, in our thinking we can be aggressive. I might want to become whatever I want to, but that should not, that need not reflect in our actions.
Speaker 1I think that I did not have any biases. I mean, I have always been reading enough and I have enough. You know, I have a perspective of life and also I can detach myself, I can be very involved in things. I think some of these are important characteristics which help one to adapt. If you're seen as a person you know who nobody wants to talk to, then of course you know you become negative and then you also don't treat people well. And fortunately, I think my joint family background and my background of a remote, you know, rural kind of a background where the entire village knew everybody and where everybody you know was pleasant to everyone else Of course there was rural politics and rural issues and all of that, but everybody knew everyone and our family was very highly respected, highly respected. And I think you know I always been good with people and people have been good with me and that stood in good stead. Wherever I went I could, you know, make friends and I was always in a good company kind of a thing. I think that helped me to adapt to whether it was Varangal, because Varangal was a big city for me, coming from a very rural background, and Bombay was, you know, unthinkable. In between, of course, I did a few other jobs because I lost my father in my second year so I had to support the family and all that. So in between I took up a few jobs here and there, but but that was not, you know, that was only temporary. For that moment I needed to earn some extra money, so I did that.
Speaker 1But my goal was to do master's in a top institution. I did not want to settle for any second tier to end of an institute, so the so. Therefore I decided until I waited until I got into iit bombay. But that was a good decision I made because my bachelor's, you know, was all whatever I could get at that time, because I, you know, given my background, we did not even have a math teacher for a long time. We did not even have a chemistry teacher for a long time.
Speaker 1So there was MSTAT examination in Telangana at that time. So I think whatever I could do, you know, with given those restrictions, I did. But I think that was also the reason why I wanted to go to the best institution in the country. And once I went there, then you know everything fell in place. So I think adapting to surroundings needs, you know, is up to you, right? I mean, we can keep blaming everything around us or we can blame ourselves. So in my case I was good enough to adapt to, you know, any place that I went, which was good.
Speaker 2That's a wonderful perspective to have. Blame yourself or adapt to the circumstances, and what I also see all through while you had those hard knocks come at you, is that clarity and the purpose. So what inspired you to become a teacher and dedicate your life to education and research? Where was these pivotal moments to appear in teacher and dedicate your life to education and research? Where was these pivotal moments to period clarity and purpose?
Speaker 1I think it was again IIT Bombay. Yesterday I posted a long note on LinkedIn about my teachers at IIT Bombay, the three people I learned from, and I think if I had not come in contact with some of them, I again would have taken up a job in some institution, I would not have gone academic side, I would definitely have joined an industry, and so that would have happened, like all IIT Bombay microelectronics students. But once I came in contact with some of these, you know finest individuals, great human beings, and you know, then, things you know I wanted to be like them and so, but to become like them I wanted to. I needed to do PhD. So then I went to Germany to do my PhD with a fellowship from German government, and then I went to US, to UCLA, for my postdoctoral research and. But I would always in touch with my teachers and I wanted to come back. And that is when because my teachers also, of course, like me in IIT Bombay. I was a good student and I wrote paper in my MTech itself, which was very rare in a top journal, and so they were also happy with me and I wanted to come back. And the day they offered me a position and within three months. In fact, I would have come back the next day itself, but my wife stopped me, I mean. So we vacated for three months and then I joined IIT Bombay in August 1998 as a faculty member and in the same group, you know, which taught me, which nurtured me, and you know I had the pleasure of working with the same people who I respected and as colleagues, and it was all great.
Discovering Research at IIT Bombay
Speaker 1I mean, everything fortunately worked out very well for me and there are also, you know, we are all a product of a lot of things, although one can take credit for everything. And you know, get into the mode of, you know I can do anything sort of thing. But I think at the end of the day, the success is never alone. I mean, you cannot achieve success alone. You, so many people, so many instances, so many, you know the circumstances, everything plays a role and in my case, maybe I was destined to be what I have become eventually. So I think I could see at various points in life, I coming in contact with the right people, getting the right sort of environment to grow. And I think, you know, maybe they say luck favors those who are prepared and all that. But in my case, I think I owe my success to so many people the good, great institutions I have been part of. Of course, many people also started like me, had all those opportunities but did not make use of those opportunities too. In my case, I made use of every opportunity that came my way and I gave my best to of my life and I never thought that I am here. I use it as a stepping stone to do something else. That was never the case with me. Whatever I did, it was always for me the last thing, last journey in my life.
Speaker 1The reason why I left IIT Bombay to join IIT Delhi as the director was out of frustration. I felt that these institutions can do things very differently and do things better. And I thought why is it that? You know, we don't have academic institutions with the standing of, let's say, stanford's and MIT's and all of that? And I thought IITs are, you know, best placed to achieve some of these goals, given their structure, autonomy and all of that. So I was actually frustrated.
Speaker 1As a professor in IIT Bombay, I did very well. I was a top professor in my area, with a lot of international recognitions and all of that, and you know all. I collaborated with all top semiconductor companies in the world. I licensed technologies to them. So all of that, you know, was going very well for me.
Speaker 1But my thing was, you know, whatever I could do individually and I thought, why can't institutions do as a kind of a group, right? Why can't more people, you know, do things like me? You know, translate technologies, see the impact on the ground, collaborate with industries, and so my goal was always what can institutions do, you know, to facilitate that entire process, so that what I could do individually, you know, there should be a thousand faculty doing that in all institutions. So I wanted to lead by example. I wanted to see, or show you know, what institutions can achieve. If you know, these journeys are pursued at the institutional level, because there are so many great people in all our institutions on the faculty.
Speaker 1But you know, very many a time what happens is the institutional support is missing. And institutions, you know, many a time there are leaders who really don't care. You know, many a time there are leaders who really don't care. You know it is just a five-year job for them and then a way to show their power and enjoy those pleasures that come with power. So that's how the leadership positions have unfortunately been in the country.
Speaker 1But you know I wanted to change some of those perceptions and but you know I wanted to change some of those perceptions and I think, you know, I believe we did a major transformation at IIT Delhi. I mean, if you look at anything that IIT Delhi is doing now, before and after, I can see, you know, a gradual step, kind of a jump in almost every activity. So I think I'm satisfied that we were able to achieve, given that I spent six years as a director, so in that time frame, whatever I could achieve, you know, which is physically possible in a large institution like IIT Delhi, given all the restrictions you know the ministry is put and being in Delhi there are other challenges one needs to deal with. But I think we could see that transformative potential of the institute and we definitely utilize all of that potential to transform the institute. I think the numbers speak for themselves and I'm happy that going from Bombay to Delhi served at least that know, that purpose.
Institutional Leadership Journey
Speaker 2Yeah, that's fantastic and definitely you're seen as one of the preeminent institution builders in the country. And that kind of brings me to the next point in our conversation, which is very dear to my heart as well. You did make a reference of it, professor, that IITs versus the Harvard's, the Stanford's of the world, and that is what I would want to kind of draw your attention is. You have been a catalyst for change in how Indian universities think about innovation and institutional excellence. What's your vision for the future of our academic institutions, academic ecosystems? When do we be compared on the same breadth as the Stanfords, harvards, more consistently, more regularly? What needs to be done? What is missing today? What do you see as the future for our academic institutions?
Speaker 1Yeah, in fact I have been writing about this when I write op-eds in Times of India. I have written many articles for Times of India on the institutional transformation that is required. In fact, in one of my articles I said the 1991 reforms in opening India's economy. We need 1991 kind reforms in the higher education sector. I think that is long overdue now.
Speaker 1And Indian institutions the way the ministries manage these institutions is pathetic, you know, to put it mildly. There is no plan, there is no financial model and there is no administrative autonomy and ministry somebody in ministry, you know, telling all these institutions what to do, how to do, and all of that is not going to take us anywhere. I mean, unfortunately things have only become worse now compared to what it used to be. But I don't blame, you know, anybody for that. The issue is with the bureaucracy. The issue is with the lack of understanding on the political class on how to unleash this huge power that we have, the strength that we have in our university system. I think it needs many bold reforms. I have written about it and one of the things is you know, can you believe, there is not even a financial model to run the institute Now, iit Delhi would not know until April until March rather what money they would get in April. It's that bad right Now. If I don't even know what my budget is going to be for the next year, what planning can you do in terms of any kind of an activity? And these budgets are, all you know, basically to support, you know, the student, scholarships and the building fund and salaries and pensions. That's it. Iit Delhi doesn't have any money left after that to undertake any activity. And that is, you know, one big challenge right Now. And if I start some new programs, right, and if I admit some new students, right, they will not have a place to stay because there are no hostels available for them.
Speaker 1And student education is subsidized up to 93% in IITs. Because IIT Delhi revenue from tuition fee is about 6 to 7%. So 90% of subsidy comes from government of India. And now this subsidy is not linked to number of students IIT Delhi. How much money IIT Delhi gets doesn't depend on how many students IAK Delhi has. It just depends on the salaries and pensions and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1Now institutions have no motivation to start new initiatives, start new programs, admit more students and it's business as usual, right? I mean, if I do anything differently from last year, I need to worry. Now you know, where do I, how do I sustain that activity? And so that is what our institutions have gotten into. I Just look at you know how many students IIT Delhi has, right, and how much it costs to educate a student, right Per year. Right Per student, what is the cost of education? And now you decide how that money will be met. Right, if you don't want to burden the student, which is good, then the government money, the subsidy, is linked to the students' expenses, right, how much? It costs about 6 lakhs per year per student to educate a student In Delhi. It costs about 6 lakhs per year per student.
Speaker 1And now you know government can say, okay, you pay 1 lakh rupees, I will subsidize it for the remaining 5 lakh rupees, kind of way. But then if I have 1000 more students, then my budget also will go by 1000 multiplied by that 5 lakh rupees. So that way I would keep expanding, I would keep starting new programs, I would do so many other things now so the institutions can expand, right, and otherwise you can say, okay, you go and get this money from industry. If you get 100 crores from industry, I will match, you know, that money with some overhead component. I will give you, you know, 50% of it from my site as 50 crores from industry. I will match, you know, that money with some overhead component. I will give you, you know, 50% of it from my site as 50 crores. So the more money you get from industry, the more money will come from the government of India. Then the institutions will go out aggressively, pursue with industries, and industries also know that their funding will be matched by government, so they see a value in that and then that activity can go. If I license some patents, some technologies, right, if government says that whatever licensing fee you earn, I will match you that kind of money, then institutions will go aggressively.
Speaker 1I think you know we need to link the funding to the outcome parameters. How many students am I admitting? How many students am I graduating? How many papers have I published? How many students am I graduating? How many papers have I published? How many patents have I licensed? You know how many industries I have collaborated. The moment you do that right, then the institutions have a direction. The ones which are doing well, you know will keep doing even better, and directors have a mandate, you know, to earn more money for the institute, and then you know things will actually happen.
Higher Education Reform Vision
Speaker 1Right now, nothing like that happens and right now, the funding is decided by you know. Sit across the table with whoever is the secretary Many a time even secretaries don't participate in those discussions and look at, you know, what is the salary bill, what is the pension bill, what is the scholarship bill, and just give that money. Okay, 30-40 crores for campus maintenance. That's it. That's how the funding is done. What does it take to transform this? Nothing, right. It just needs finance ministry or, today, pmo, you know, to sit with these institutions and develop a financial model which is more outcome linked. That is the first thing that we need to do. Otherwise, you know, 23 IATs today admit how many students? About 17,000 students, that's all. In order to graduate level, and for that, you know, a million students take the exam. We admit 17,000 students. They should actually be admitting 20 times that number of students. But then where is the money to actually admit that many more students?
Speaker 1Why can't IIT Delhi have multiple extension campuses in India? Right, this is a campus in Sonipat. Right, on 50 acres of land. We had a campus in Jhaja, right, but there is no money to develop those campuses. We could have started those campuses or extension campuses Both of them fall in Haryana, right, and you could have made them. You know, equivalent of IIT Delhi is a brand name and under that you can start many new programs and admit, start so many new activities, but there's no money, right. So who will fund if government is not funding? There is no autonomy to increase the fee, right, and government doesn't give you money. And you know how would you run these institutions in that process.
Speaker 1If you look at the US University, stanford, right, stanford gets its money from a very diversified sources. Stanford is a privately run university, but tuition fees, fees, only 20%. There is endowment, right. Stanford has, you know, one of the largest endowments in the US. 30% of their expenses are met from the endowment fund, right? Why is it that we are not able to create endowments in our institutions? I tried to create a billion dollar endowment at IIT Delhi.
Speaker 1Policies, again, our policies for incentives. The tax structures are not amenable for anyone to part with their money. We don't encourage philanthropy in this country, right? I mean what? People don't really gain anything here by giving money to an university, right? Whereas in US now, either you give money during your lifetime, whatever you earn, our government will take it away. Their inheritance tax, their tax structures, all of them starting foundations. Giving money to these social causes is because of the structure of the way the tax laws are designed in that country, which encourages philanthropy in that country. So Stanford gets almost 30% of money from the endowment funds, research, right.
Speaker 1When you do research, stanford charges 50% as overhead. You know more than 50% as overhead out of research grants given to faculty. That again forms a pool. You know which is. Like a quarter of their money comes from the overheads charged on the research grants. In India the overheads charged on research grants are 5% or 5 lakh rupees. You know whichever is higher, kind of. I mean, if it is, if the 5% becomes 20 lakhs, right, you still cannot only charge more than 5 lakh rupees, kind of thing.
Speaker 1So therefore, you do more research. You actually, you know, don't gain anything. The university doesn't get anything. The faculty members do research, publish papers. University gets nothing and institute spends more money to manage the resources created out of research projects. At IIT Delhi we did a study. It costs about 11% to manage a research project in terms of the facilities, people, electricity and all of that Institute gets 5% as the overhead, so you spend more money in managing a research project than you earn as a university, right?
Speaker 1So, therefore, research is not sustainable. Increasing student strength is not sustainable, right. Then how would you, you know, ever expand the scale, the base, how do you ever do more research if these things are not even sustainable in a system? So I think these are all fundamental problems that are holding the institutions back.
Speaker 1The administrative autonomy. There is no autonomy in these institutions. You know, though, there is a board and all of that, but every board has a ministry nominee, right, and his or her word is the veto. I mean, if the person says write to me, and then you have no choice, now you may have the chairman of the board, who we are our chairman of board was Kumar Mangalam Birla and you may have Kumar Mangalam Birla as chairman of the board. But if ministry representative says no, no, no, you write to me, you know. Then you have to write to the ministry, and then no response will ever come, and that means that that agenda item is shared. That is how we are managing our institution.
Speaker 1So these flaws need to be corrected right. Without that, you know you can tinker with the system. You can do some, whatever you could within the timeframe, but unless these fundamental flaws in the way we manage our higher educational institutions are corrected, I think you know Indian institutions will never become Stanford, South Harvard and the diversified financial model, right, and more outcome-based funding these are very fundamental to you know, changing the way we support our education, and I think it needs to happen. I hope, in fact, prime Minister Narendra I mean the current Prime Minister, narendra Modi I think he's a reformer, right, but unfortunately, you know the kind of people he is surrounded with nobody is telling him any of these problems. That's my major issue with them. The things which he has understood, like the business, the GST, all of those reforms they are carrying out, because he understands some of that, but there is no one actually telling him what is holding our institutions back, what reforms we need to bring about in our higher education sector. Nep is a great document. The National Education Policy of 2020 is a great, you know. Start right, but the implementation, the execution, is what is we need right now and if we can implement NEP in the right spirit, in which you know all of that was written, and with a national level, you know body which is was written, and with a national level, you know body which is empowered, reporting directly to PM. I can tell you we can transform this higher education sector in the country. And I feel sad because you know there is so much of potential, there is so much of latent talent in these institutions.
Speaker 1In fact, I ate in Delhi during the COVID time. Right, I mean, that is what I often give as an example. An institute which you know, all institutions. We say you are not doing anything and you know you are not supporting the nation and you are not developing technology. But during the COVID time, the peak of COVID time, iit Delhi filed more patents than any time in its history over 150 patents in that year. And then IIT Delhi technologies which were licensed to industries were helping. Almost 15 million people benefited from IIT Delhi technologies.
Speaker 1During the COVID time. They looked what was that? We had an antigen kit, 50 rupee antigen kit launched by Government of India Ministry of Education. We had an RT-PCR developed at IIT Delhi and which we said you can do tests for 350 rupees when in the market it was 4,000, 5,000 rupees. We launched a complete RT-PCR kit from IIT Delhi during the peak of COVID, costing 350 rupees. Immediately, all the prices of RT-PCR fell, and then the masks we developed, the complete suits we developed for COVID.
COVID Innovation Success Story
Speaker 1All of that happened out of one single institute. Why? Why did it happen during COVID time? Because we said, during the COVID time, everybody will work on one problem. Right, I mean there, support you internally and the faculty stayed back, called their PhD students and worked focusedly on COVID. And you know that technology during a few months time, there was urgency, there was national interest and there was a national emergency. And you know, one institute could impact so many lives. You know, with such deep technologies, and that is what that should happen during the normal time. When will it happen? During the normal time?
Speaker 1Government has to set priorities. It needs to set these grand challenges. These are the five challenges in India. Right, and you form groups, institutions can come together, solve these grand challenges. These grand challenges need to be perfectly identified, down to the last detail. You do that. You know this country will actually transform itself when it comes to the way the research is done.
Speaker 1Look at ISRO.
Speaker 1The same people go to ISRO, but ISRO is able to do very well, right, launching satellites, even DRDO. Right, doing very well. The only reason these strategic missions succeed is because of the focus they have. In ISTO you may have 12 labs, 13 labs. Everybody is focusing on launching a satellite. Right, there is no other thing. You might do any number of things, but if your technology doesn't get into satellite, doesn't go to space, you have done nothing. Once you set that focused objective, india has done very well. That's exactly what we need now for higher education. So setting those priorities, setting those higher education challenges, the grand challenges, and working collaboratively, but that needs to be top driven right. So I think there is so much of potential but India is not able to utilize that potential, you know, because of our lack of that willingness to make those bold reforms in the way we do research, in the way we run these institutions, in the way we fund these institutions. I think some of these, I hope, will happen in the near future, at least in the next few years, competently.
Speaker 2Professor, the message is loud and clear the need of the hour is structural reforms in the higher educational sector.
Speaker 2I could definitely sense that anguish, that despair, that passion to change, that I hope the powers to be are listening to this outcry of the industry and going to do something. Having said that, professor, what also intrigues me is there's no dull of intellectuals in this country. Why are we not able to create a coalition of willing and make these changes happen? Rather than getting the government to bat an eyelid on this, what can all the intellectuals come together on a common platform stage to force these conversations, to force these changes to happen, platform stage to force this conversation, to force these changes to happen. So, as we wrap up this part of our conversation with Professor Rao, we've journeyed through his inspiring early life, from studying in Telugu to finding his calling as a teacher and his bold vision for transforming India's higher education with reforms as seismic as the 91 economic shift. The story doesn't end here. In the next part, stay tuned as we explore how to prepare for a career in an age where AI is reshaping everything. Stay tuned.
