INCREASING privatization of higher education, an issue of deep concern for many, is now an accepted reality, more so when viewed against the backdrop of the ongoing structural adjustment programmes. In this new market oriented milieu, the debates around privatization of education have centred on areas related to financing, fee structures and government regulations.

THE conventional wisdom has shifted – again. In the postcolonial beginning, it was assumed that science was everything. Underdeveloped countries lacked science and technology above all, and, hence, what was needed to counter years and centuries of backwardness was large doses of S&T. As Nehru famously said,‘India,with all her many virtues did not develop [modern technology]. It became a weak country because of that.’ And as was often the case in those early years, India both made this case strongly and became a prime example of it.