The Union cabinet is likely to soon approve the setting up of 14 innovation universities, as Kapil Sibal has decided to call them. These will be world-class universities aimed at making India a global knowledge hub and will be partially funded by the Centre.

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Maharashtra is expected to pitch for at least one such university. As the university is expected to be a public-private partnership, two big names in industry have reportedly shown an interest in partnering the venture, which may be located near Mumbai given the city's infrastructure and easy access for international academia.

While discussions are under way in the state government, few in Mantralaya appear enthused at the idea. There is a feeling that being the foremost state in the country, Maharashtra will have to bid out of a sense of obligation rather than its desire.

There are reservations over the need for such a university, particularly when the state is planning to introduce the much-discussed private universities bill as an ordinance.

Moreover, the idea of a world-class university is being received with some scepticism in academic circles. World-class universities are not built in a day.

They grow, find their course, and become one if circumstances, funds and other blessings permit. The Oxfords and Cambridges of the UK and the Harvards and Princetons of the US took decades and, mostly, centuries to become what they are.

It is, of course, a great idea to aim high right at the outset. But it is not as simple as constructing a crimson campus to simulate Harvard and expecting it to produce Nobel laureates from the next year.

That is, apart from expecting to get Nobel laureates to teach there in the first place.

Gathering teaching staff of calibre would be a tough call, one that demands deep pockets as well as time. Further, the university would have to identify its areas of research and innovation in a way that it can stand out among its kind in the shortest possible duration.

A more practical alternative to pouring funds into a new initiative is to upgrade and enhance the existing institutions. Research, though a weak aspect of most academic endeavours in India, is strong in several areas like agriculture, computer science, engineering, etc. These activities need to be consolidated.

A parallel need is to pool similar research to enhance the emerging output value all round. Currently, there are several institutions conducting research on one subject and each is mostly ignorant of the other's effort. It would make sense to bring these geographically scattered places under one academic roof and streamline their work.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai