The existence of such institutions will also lead to healthy competition among players in the domestic private education market and, hopefully, throw the inept and unscrupulous ones out of business. The foreign exchange remittances from India to support foreign education of Indians will no longer be a one-way traffic. It is expected that there will be sizeable foreign direct investment (FDI) in India's fast-expanding education business. These institutes are also expected to attract a larger number of foreign students into India. Highly lucrative healthcare and education businesses are the latest craze among investors in India, even ahead of telecom and info-tech. Both offer great opportunities to entrepreneurs.

For long, the government has been spending millions of hard-earned dollars to support the education bills of rich Indian students studying abroad. Foreign universities and institutions setting up campuses in India to impart education to local as well as visiting students is, in a way, expected to reverse the process. Or, at least, it is expected to cut substantially the foreign exchange cost towards supporting Indian education abroad. At the same time, these campuses may attract a lot of students from nearby Asian countries and from Africa. Given the government support, such campuses have the potential to emerge as a big exporter of education from India competing with countries such as the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Foreign participation in the education business is a logical extension of the policy of economic globalisation. The education sector has been privatised, but there exist restrictions on FDI participation.

Although key provisions of the proposed Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill are still not very clear, the government would do well to treat the private sector education, which enjoys the freedom to fix fees for students and remuneration for teachers, as business corporations, and subject the institutions to independent audit and payment of taxes. The foreign private investors in education should be allowed to repatriate their share of the post-tax profit, which the bill is said to be opposed to. Otherwise, it does not become truly attractive to investors. Scholarships awarded to deserving students should merit tax exemption. It is good that the bill exempts the foreign educational entities from caste quota in admission.

The focus should be on campus studies and not correspondence courses. At present, several Indian private educational institutions offer such courses to students across the country with hardly any on-site investment. Distance learning has become a big business. The market is huge. The process helps entrepreneurs cut physical distance both for students and for themselves. For instance, Manipal in Karnataka may be nearly 3,000 km away from Sikkim in the north-eastern fringe bordering China, but the two can come together to be in distance learning business and make money without much fuss. Not many good employers care for such certificates, though. Many of these institutions and universities operate out of one-room rented establishments, mostly involving local franchisees. Exorbitant tuition fees and hostel charges — though much less if compared with those charged by universities and institutions abroad - and conditionally refundable security deposits make campus education in private Indian educational establishments pretty expensive.

At present, massive inroads of rich, often half-educated and politically-connected anti-social elements in the domestic education business, aided by dishonest supervisors attached to the so-called regulatory bodies such as AICTE and MCI, are making a mockery of the deregulation of the education sector. One of north-India's biggest and most profitable private technology institutes is promoted and run by an undergraduate with financial patronage allegedly from a mafia don from Uttar Pradesh. Another high-profile Delhi-based deemed private university boasting huge campuses is promoted by a former NRI and law offender from a European Union member country.

The presence of such reputable foreign institutes as the UK's Imperial College and Duke College, Georgia Technology University, Harvard University, Cornell University, Columbia University and Yale University of the US and Schulich School of Business of Canada will have an indirect impact on the business operations of some of the high-profit-low-quality local outfits, spending large sums on education marketing making bogus placement claims to attract students. The latter will be automatically disciplined by the market forces once the global education biggies are here. The access to good and global education is bound to wither or noticeably diminish the prospects of racketeers in this business. However, this is not to undermine the urgent need for the setting up of a strong regulatory authority to ensure high standards of education, fair competition and a more disciplined growth of the industry.

India's present economic might (the world's fifth largest), its current growth rate and future projections, its geographical location providing a bridge between the East and the West, its large pool of high quality faculty members and the status of English as the second most preferred language at post-primary education level accord the country the necessary impetus to emerge as a global educational hub. In fact, several large multinational corporations from EU and East Asian countries and their in-house management institutes send a large number of students as trainees to India to have on-ground knowledge of the Indian market, social and regional diversities, consumer behaviour, their preferences and prejudices, regional languages, etc. in the light of their growing business presence in the country. Mitsubishi Corp, Siemens AG, Linde, Grundig, ENI, Nokia, Asea AB, Hitachi, Itochu, Unilever, Henkel, Dannone, Samsung, LG and Hyundai are prominent among them. Comparatively much lower cost of education at Indian campuses of foreign universities and institutions should serve as an added attraction for overseas students to study in these establishments of great repute alongside Indian pupils. India is finally prepared to welcome the globalisation of knowledge to its best advantage. (IPA Service)