NEED TO PREPARE NEXT GENERATION TO ADDRESS GLOBAL ISSUES: R SESHASAYEE

Former Ashok Leyland executive vice-chairman and ex-Infosys chairman R SESHASAYEE, now 69, is vice-chairman of the executive committee for Krea. He spoke to Anjuli Bhargava on the thinking behind the project. Edited excerpts:

What is the thinking on higher education that binds the governing council?

If we believe India has or has to have a role to play in addressing global issues, then it is important that we prepare the next generation to be capable of addressing those issues. We have enough institutes of technology in striking distance of being global benchmarks but where we have lagged is the area of arts and science. Pure arts has not been the choice of bright youngsters and somehow the curriculum built around the arts has had traditional patterns and not really had a break from the past.

So, we decided to go in for something that is a global benchmark. We are all convinced, based on our real life experience, of two things. In the real life world, we are not solving any problem by bringing in an expert of one branch of knowledge. We don’t solve the water, pollution or energy problem through a uni-dimensional approach. Working in silos doesn’t work.

One could argue that one can leave students to make their way, as you or anyone else on your governing council did, through reallife learning and experience…

Then, we would have to conclude that university education is really of no relevance. Let everyone learn the hard way, so to speak. But that would be a negation of the importance of education. This really brings us to the crux — that we have not had the right education. If we had, we would not have 100 or 200 people using their learning to solve problems but this number would be in millions. You can’t negate the relevance of education. We have to make education relevant. Second, let’s adopt a problem solving approach. There are two ways of learning economics. One way is to learn the theory of demand and supply and some good institutions even offer application-based problems that can help a student apply what he has learnt while solving a theoretical problem.

The other way of learning economics is to say these are the 10 macroeconomic problems the country is facing and these are what we need to solve. And, therefore, we can work backwards and see what kind of knowledge we need to solve such problems. What do we need to know, how do we process this knowledge, what are the technology tools we need to process this knowledge and, finally, look at the ethical, social and economic dimensions of the possible choices for solving the problem. This will be a different approach. We found this is being talked about by some universities but is not in practice at most.

Give me an example, so that readers can follow what you mean.

If you are teaching history, not looking at who ruled when and for how long but, say, looking at communal harmony, the periods where it has flourished and when has it not, and what are the variables that contributed to it. Learning in the context of problem solving using technology tools, which were not available in the past and which enable faster and deeper analysis and solutions. The novelty and relevance of this idea is what has brought us all and is bringing more and more people together. We are all learning along the way. It is, of course, a challenge to find quality people to deliver this. But it will happen. I am confident that if we get the right people, it can be done.

I know people like you work almost 14 hours a day. Given all your commitments, how involved are you in Krea?

I am not merely knee-deep but somewhere between waist and neck (laughs). That’s how deep I am. If you have a passion, you make time for it. This is also one of my learnings in life. We are all very involved. Raghu (Raghuram Rajan) makes a lot of time for this. Vaghul jumps on to flights regularly to meet possible evangelists and donors.

Vaghul and I have created institutions in the past and at our stage, we want to create an institution of relevance to the society. We will give what it takes.

’THE NOVELTY AND RELEVANCE OF THIS IDEA IS WHAT HAS BROUGHT US ALL TOGETHER’