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Item Why NAAC accreditation system needs a rethink(The Times of India, 2025-02-17) Rao, V. RamgopalItem Ranking and citation rat race is hurting India's academic reputation(The Times of India, 2024-01-13) Rao, V. RamgopalThe rising obsession of Indian institutions with metrics and rankings is leading to a crisis in academia, with dire consequences for the credibility of research emanating from the country. Academic contributions have been reduced to a numbers game, and institutions are being measured by their publication count or citation scores, not by the originality or real-world impact of their research. In this atmosphere, academic integrity is often the first casualty. Some universities have resorted to dubious practices, including manipulating publication metrics, to climb the Indian and global rankings ladder. A recent article in the journal Science highlights the proliferation of “shoddy commentaries” designed solely to game the metrics system. Researchers demonstrated how some institutions artificially created citation networks to inflate their visibility. The data accompanying the study reveals that some Indian institutions are producing hundreds of low-quality papers annually. This practice not only distorts the true quality of research but also diverts resources and attention away from meaningful academic pursuits.Item As Tier 2-3 cities join exodus abroad its time to focus on 'Study in India'(The Times of India, 203-11-20) Rao, V. RamgopalLast year, the number of Indian students taking admission abroad exceeded 750,000, marking a remarkable 50% increase from 2021. Notably, more than one-third of these students chose the US, indicating a substantial 35% surge compared to the preceding year. An intriguing observation highlighted by a recent TOI report is that now one in every four international students on US campuses hails from India. While anecdotal data suggests a significant decline in the number of IIT students venturing abroad, the surge is predominantly attributed to students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Projections indicate that Indian households will spend an estimated $70 billion towards their children’s foreign education by 2025. Given these economic dynamics, it comes as no surprise that international universities are aggressively wooing Indian students with scholarships, newer academic programmes etc. and several countries have strategically improved their student and employment visa policies to attract Indian talent. Notably, geopolitical considerations have contributed to a decline in the number of Chinese students pursuing education abroad, while India is experiencing an exponential growth.