Description:

Private capital historically played a significant role in building India’s education infrastructure over time. However, the character of capital has changed too with time. Whether education is an industry or not is still an unsolved debate in our country. While the Supreme Court, under the Industrial Disputes Act mandated education to be treated as an industry for the purpose of the Act, other major legislations like the Industries (Development & Regulation) do not define education as an industry. Moreover, there are conflicting legal precedents too. At the same time, our practical experiences in urban solvent areas, private schools can be hardly differentiated from the common commercial enterprises. What we need is more clarity and a robust regulative framework in place. The Right to Education Act is a firm acknowledgement of the 86th Constitutional amendment. Still there is a lot of scope for easing and unifying things. We all understand, there lies an inherent agency problem in privatising education. But in the given situation, private capital is an unavoidable choice. NEP has addressed the issue by encouraging PPP. Ampersand Group’s role in managing government school operations in Punjab, outcome-based bonds like Development Impact Bonds, which is a first of its kind, in Rajasthan, are a few examples of PPP model. However, there are some more and bigger issues and policy challenges. We should transcend into a more comprehensive and effective policy framework to ensure the right perspective of education that may be much beyond skill development.

Speaker Bio:

Manipadma Datta has been in academics for the last four decades. Retired as the VC of TERI School of Advanced Studies, Delhi. He was also a senior professor in the Department of Policy Studies and Management there. Presently Professor Datta is the Chairman of the Center for Business and Social Research, Delhi; a visiting faculty at the ASCI, Hyderabad, and NTPC School of Business, Noida.He also served as an international expert to World Bank and IFC in Guyana, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Starting his career with University of Calcutta, Prof. Datta served as full-time and visiting professor at international institutions of repute; to mention a few, University of Brussels, IMT Ghaziabad, IIM Lucknow, IIFT Delhi, Vidyasagar University. He was invited as a speaker at the University of Szczecin, Poland, IAAER Mexico and Las Vegas, Asian Academy of Leadership, Bangkok, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. He also worked as an international expert at The UGC, Bangladesh.

He has supervised ten scholars to PhD and has more than fifty publications in refereed journals. He has also written chapters in thematic books published by Palgrave and Springer. Prof. Datta’s students occupy important positions in industry and academics in India and abroad.

Educated at University of Calcutta, Institute of Company Secretaries of India, and Harvard Business School, Professor Datta’s areas of interest include public policy, corporate governance, business strategies, leadership,  innovative finance, circular economy.