People

Mankad’s mission

Mankad: partner search

"We organise four-six student recruitment drives in the subcontinent annually. Over the years the number of applicants for admission has grown steadily. Market research shows that demand from India is expected to grow in huge proportions within the next three years and beyond for quality international education. In response to this expected demand, Griffith University is currently looking at partners in India to set up a campus for world-class education. We are looking at a joint venture, preferably with a large education group or a committed edupreneur," says Rahul Vinoo Mankad, Griffith University’s manager (international marketing), who supervises student recruitment, offshore delivery and strategic linkages in the Indian subcontinent and Middle East.

Finding an institutional partner won’t be difficult, says Mankad, because over the past three decades Griffith has acquired a global reputation for academic innovation, syllabus and curriculum design, and for internationalisation of its study programmes. "Within Australia and abroad, especially in South-east Asia, it’s well known that Griffith doesn’t offer mere degree programmes. We provide uniquely holistic academic experiences in a safe and congenial academic envir-onment. Indian students have good work ethics and communication skills, but they lack international exposure. This is the vitally important finishing touch we provide," says Mankad, an alumnus of Bombay University who migrated to Oz in 1984.

Mankad’s claims are backed up by the fact that Griffith University is one of the fastest growing universities in the sixth continent. It offers over 56 fully-fledged undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes which have attracted 23,000 students including 6,000 international students from over 100 countries — and over 700 from the Indian subcontinent — on its muster roll.

The holistic education Griffith offers is reflected in its sponsorship of the Gavaskar-Border Cricket Scholarships for students from India. Aspiring Indian students with sound scholastic back-grounds are awarded this generous scholarship to pursue world-class sports-cum-academic education at the university. "In the subcontinent, cricket speaks more eloquently than any other language, so we decided to touch markets which share our love of this game," adds Mankad, himself a top-grade batsman of Bombay in the Ranji Trophy league who has also played for and coached at several English cricket clubs such as Lurgan (Ireland) and Cleckheaton, in the Yorkshire league.

The Griffith University campus in India is being negotiated with several private sector education groups. Though Mankad is not inclined to reveal names, he expects negotiations to be completed soon. Under the joint venture partnership, Griffith aims to provide its intellectual property as well as systems and faculty while the chosen Indian partner will provide the infrastructure and administration services. "This campus will be truly international, a mix of nationalities from around the world. The aim is to develop India into a hub of global education," says Mankad.

Mankad is already a famous name in India. Griffith seems all set to follow suit.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

Thoroughbred educationist

Ramaswamy: well known education champion

But honours and accolades are not new to Ramaswamy who runs a Rs.3,000 crore industrial empire (Chettinad Cement, Madura Coats, Consolidated Coffee) and who has an entry in the Guinness World Records, 1985, for horses from his stables having won 300 classic races on the Indian turf — a number which has since reached 400. Moreover Ramaswamy is a well known champion of education in his capacity as pro-chancellor of Annamalai University founded by his grandfather Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, which celebrated its platinum jubilee this year.

"An unacceptable level of illiteracy persists across the country. Our aim is to see that quality education reaches every citizen, including the poorest sections of society, through our distance education programmes," says Ramaswamy himself a graduate of Madras University who was conferred the degree of D.Litt by Annamalai University in 1979. As a consequence, the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) of Annamalai University established in 1979, currently boasts 2.75 lakh registered students on its rolls and offers 303 study programmes in 57 study centres across India. Moreover DDE programmes reach as far afield as Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, France, Japan and Mauritius with nearly 50,000 overseas students having enrolled for Annamalai’s study programmes. But distance education apart, Annamalai University, which has 48 departments of study offering 197 study programmes, has 16,000 students on campus of whom 10,000 live in the hostels of the 955-acre sprawl. These students are instructed by over 6,000 teachers.

In his own right, Ramaswamy’s crowning achievement has been the establishment in 1985, of a medical college which is the main constituent of the Rajah Muthiah Institute of Health Sciences comprising a dental college, nursing department and teaching hospital equipped with 1,050 beds. The hospital offers free medical services to local residents and villages in and around Chidambaram. "Through the hospital, I have fulfilled the dream of my late father," says Ramaswamy.

Looking to the future, Ramaswamy intends to intensify his involvement with Indian education. "As technology and connectivity costs fall, our DDE programme will reach further and deeper into the hinterland to provide high quality education to rural citizens. Simultan-eously we have drawn up an ambitious plan to elevate and upgrade Annamalai University into a world class, globally benchmarked institution of higher learning. Education and socio-economic development are two sides of one coin," says Ramaswamy.

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Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Environment & women’s champion

Shiva (left): tireless crusader

The founder of Navdanya, a national movement launched in 1989 to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially the native seed, Shiva has worked passionately for the twin causes of organic farming and fair trade. "Only if we have respect for Mother Earth — and the people who till it — can we hope to sustain life on this planet," says the erudite visiting professor at the University of Oslo, Norway; Schumacher College, UK; York University and the University of Victoria, Canada among others. Apart from ecological issues, Shiva is a highly sought-after speaker at global forums on topics ranging from feminism to globalisation.

An alumna of St. Mary’s College, Nainital, Shiva trained as a physicist and wrote her Ph D thesis on ‘Hidden variables and non-locality in quantum theory’ from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Shortly thereafter she changed tack to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environment policy at the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Shiva’s books — The Violence of the Green Revolution and Monocultures of the Mind — have become basic texts challenging the long-term sustainability of India’s much-trumpeted Green Revolution while others such as Biopiracy, Stolen Harvest and Water Wars have highlighted the social, economic and ecological costs of corporate-led globalisation, her bugbear. "It’s all very well to formulate high-sounding policies and bilateral agreements, but if they harm the environment and/or the benefits fail to percolate to farmers and consumers, one should have the gumption to say they’re no good," declares Shiva who is also in the forefront of the growing global movement against genetically modified crops and food.

Apart from environmental activism, Shiva is also a strident feminist. In fact her book Staying Alive has dramatically prompted third world women to advance from wallowing in self-pity to asserting their rights for gender equality. In a research study paper undertaken at the behest of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, she has persuasively argued that since most farmers in India are women, "agricultural policies need to be gender sensitive".

Shiva’s tireless crusade for women’s rights has resulted in yet another book, Diverse Women for Diversity, detailing the valuable contribution of women in areas as varied as food, agriculture, patents and biotechnology. Moreover earlier this year she launched the Beej Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable development in collaboration with Schumacher College, UK "which will protect the rights of the Indian farmer against corporatisation".

Quite evidently on the subjects of environment protection and women’s rights, there’s no stopping this indefatigable activist.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)

Prakash Tandon: management education pioneer

Tandon in Italy: first seeds