Ears to the great wall

Instead of Indian students going as far as China for knowledge, the flow is mostly the other way round. Strategic Chinese observers, known to be pragmatic students of applied knowledge already, are watching India closely, and anything that could possibly give India an advantage some day.

The past few months had several Chinese officials visit India with the express purpose of striking educational partnerships and facilitating student exchange programs between the two countries.

On 13 September, 2005, Dan Zeng, governor of Yunnan province, was on visit to tie up with Manipal University, Karnataka, and Institute of Information Technology and Management, New Delhi. Earlier, in April, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held "confidential meetings" with education authorities at Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Raman Research Institute and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIPA). Scientific curiority is but natural.

But business education is on the agenda too. Hyderabad's Indian School of Business (ISB) has signed up for a student exchange programme with the Cheung Kung Graduate School of Business, China.

The domains of Indo-Chinese partnership are interesting: IT, space research and business. All three are vital to future competitiveness. And on all three, India is globally seen to be in the running, long term, thanks perhaps to the "scientific temper" that the independence leadership was so concerned about.

Admits Governor Zeng, "As far as economic co-operation is concerned, China is perceived as the senior partner. However, in higher education, India has an edge. As part of our ongoing reforms process, we understand the need for quality higher education."

Yet, it seems odd that China should want to learn anything from India. After all, China is a much bigger success story on the world stage. What is it that Chinese educators are after? "They are interested in our success areas of IT, BPOs and contract research," offers Goverdhan Mehta, by way of speculation.

As former Director, Indian Institute of Science and Indian Academy of Science, Mehta has worked closely with Chinese education officials. "The Chinese are experts in hardware manufacturing, but we have an edge in software manufacturing. Impressed by the success of our IITs, the Chinese would like one hundred IITs."

The Chinese believe they have the requisite human resource inputs. Having already done a fairly widespread job of primary education (in contrast to India), all China needs to do now is scale upwards intellectually "" and take on the world in higher education with much bigger numbers. Modern knowledge, though, is easiest to access in English, and this is where the points of contact with Indian education will help.

Can it be done? This could depend on other "non-geeky" factors. Anita Patil Deshmukh, Senior Advisor, India China Institute, Mumbai, thinks the Chinese have even broader long-range objectives.

These are mostly to do with freedom of thought and the resultant aptitudes. "I think the primary political question of interest to the Chinese is how we have reached where we have through a democratic system," she elaborates, "Higher education policy and democracy are closely linked. In a democratic atmosphere, students are taught to ask questions. The ability to ask the right questions paves the ability to find the right answers. In addition, it also breeds a spirit of entrepreneurship, since one learns to think for oneself."

Thinking for oneself? Independent individuality? Developing a nerve for bold ventures? These are vital components of business education in the gestalt, even if there are no specific courses on them. While this goes mostly undocumented, hazy as the subject is, the Chinese are undoubtedly fast learners.

By most accounts, they're listening in "" ever so closely for any Indian comment on such events as an oddly-timed influx of Chinese tyres in local bazaars. Another indicator: the number of reports in the Chinese media on Indian business far outweigh reports published in India on Chinese business.

That a growing number of Chinese students should want to sample India's business education systems is hardly a surprise.

"India has a lot of creativity in its higher education system. The chinese system is more geared towards manufacturing and implementation," muses S. Ramachandran, Additional Executive Director, India China Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He cites the example of India's emerging competence in design. "Indians have an excellent bent of mind in designing products," he says, "The Chinese would like to move from 'Made in China' to 'Designed in China'."

That could be a long-haul effort. But then, Chinese strategists are not given to short-termism. If anything, they are famous "" and feared by some "" for both the breadth of their analysis and the length of their attention span.

"The Chinese are interested in our overall economic progress because what they've done at gun-point through a dictatorship," adds Deshmukh, "we've been able to achieve through a democratic system that shows a united political will. We have freedom of thought which in turn leads to freedom of action and freedom of opportunity."

The Indian story of freedom is impressive, no doubt. But surely there must be something Indian students need to learn from their neighbours as well.