Why India must create its own Bostons and
370)this.width=370">Around the world, universities are the stuff that make great cities. Imagine Boston without Harvard, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and the myriad other institutions that are clustered around the Boston-Cambridge area.
In Britain, Oxford and Cambridge are vibrant urban centres that derive their vigour almost entirely from playing host to famous universities.
Even large and diversified global cities like London and New York would be much diminished without the intellectual clustering of LSE (London School of Economics), Columbia, UCL (University College London) and NYU (New York University).
In each case, the universities are an integral part of the urban landscape and are consciously leveraged by their host cities.
Yet, Indian cities do not think of their universities and research institutes as important drivers of urban growth. At most, they are seen as utilitarian places for teaching students. Their importance for clustering human capital and driving innovation is simply not seen as part of overall urban strategy.
Indeed, universities built after Independence have been sealed off on campuses, often in distant locations, that deliberately discourage interaction with the wider city.
Thus, Kanpur and Kharagpur benefit little from being host to a prestigious institution like the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). This is absurd
No comments:
Post a Comment