Is India devoid of quality institutions?
As Delhi University's (DU's) cut offs soar high, even the bright cream of students fail to make through the country's top school! Is it really an indication that the country lacks in quality institutions, since it fails to allot a seat even to the intellectual ones? The answer to this lies in the fact that there is a gap between the demand and supply. There are enough young intellectual minds who aspire to attend only quality institutes, whereas there are not sufficient institutes to cater them. 
Another fact that even worsens the situation is that Indian students rejected at home are easily lapped up by foreign institutes and this is sure to result in brain drain! Year after year the admission season shows strange swings. A student securing 93.5% in high school exams could not dig up a seat in DU since the cumulative score of the high school are the sole criterion for admission to most top colleges in India. But on the other hand, when he applied to colleges in the US, he was even offered scholarships for pursuing further studies.
As is apparent, the competition in India has grown formidable, even for the best students. With about half of India's 1.2 billion people under the age of 25, and with the ranks of the middle class inflating, the country's limited high profile universities are overwhelmed. This year, Delhi University's cut-offs at its top colleges touched an unimaginable level of 100%! The Indian Institutes of Technology, spread across the country, have an acceptance rate of less than 2%- that too being only from a pool of approximately 500000, who qualify to take the entrance exam.
The problem is clear as reported by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who studied law at Harvard. There is a demand and supply issue. There are scores of young intellectual minds but only handful of quality institutes to gratify them!
It is an issue of great importance and must be looked upon before it results into serious conditions like Brain Drain!!
Source: Latika Leekha (Shiksha Team)
