Why is Tata funding a Harvard?

Ratan Tata’s handsome gift of $50 million to Harvard Business School is sure to have bowled the Americans over. In the American system of higher education, private donations and endowments are the norm. These donations help the institution create a corpus, which then enables them to provide better facilities and create intellectual capital.

But even by the standards of American philanthropy, the Tata donation is significant. And he isn’t the only Indian to be pouring money into Harvard. In May this year, the family of Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy decided to give US$5.2 million for creating the Murthy Classical Library of India, which will, among other things, have 100 books from Indian languages translated into English. The Mahindra Group has donated $10 million to the Harvard Humanities Centre.

The Tatas, the Murthys and the Mahindras have favoured Harvard in different ways and for different reasons, but this raises a question: why are they more favourably inclined to a Harvard than, say, an IIM. One answer is that they have been associated with these institutions in some way. But, equally, it seems that they are less sure about how useful their contributions to Indian institutions would be. The Harvards of the world emphasise excellence over every other ideal. The same cannot be said for our babu-controlled institutions.

The problem is clear. In India, most of the higher education institutions are state-funded, and hence, to that extent, compromised. Not only are these institutions not autonomous, they are also subject to undue interference and political pressures. Academic excellence is not their raison d’etre. In such circumstances, it is quite understandable why a Tata or a Murthy is more interested in funding a Harvard than an IIM — though they have done that, too. This is the tragedy of Indian academe.
If things are to change, there is only one solution: government needs to move away from running our best institutions and instead induct independent professional and private philanthropists to enter the picture with a broader vision. If this happens, maybe Tata would be happy to finance more institutions than before.