US-based billionaire and finance whiz Michael Milken, one of the most famous names in American education and healthcare philanthropy towards which he has donated over $1 billion (Rs.6,000 crore), co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation and chairman of the Milken Institute, among America™s top think tanks, recently completed a whirlwind ten-day tour of India (February 12-22). Newspeg. On the first leg of his tour in Mumbai, on February 13, Milken (a shareholder in D.T. Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd which owns EducationWorld) formally released 21 Schools of the 21st Century, a photography-intensive and facts and data enriched coffee table book. Commented Milken while releasing 21 Schools in Mumbai™s iconic Taj Mahal Hotel before an audience of promoter-directors of several of India™s largest K-12 and preschool chains: œI am very impressed by the high-quality design, layout and presentation of this collection. I look forward to reading it in detail when I return to the US, after which this book will occupy a place of honour in the library of the Milken Institute in Los Angeles. History. A top-ranked alum of the University of California at Berkeley and the Wharton Business School of Pennsylvania University, Milken took the American world of business and finance by storm in the 1970s when he devised a whole new range of innovative financial instruments designed to unlock capital from old world corporates and industry, and making it accessible to medium and small-scale businesses. However, these radical innovations aroused the wrath of the east coast establishment resulting in heavy fines and a suspended sentence. This prompted Milken™s disengagement with the New York financial markets and his retreat to Los Angeles in the 1980s, where he co-promoted the Milken Family Foundation (estb.1982) which launched philanthropic initiatives in education, public health and medical research. Since then, the US financial and media establishments have reassessed Milken™s contributions to finance and public services. In December, in its 85th anniversary issue Bloomberg Business Week described Milken™s financial instruments, earlier labelled ˜junk bonds™, as the #7 most disruptive innovation of the past eight decades, ahead of breakthroughs such as DNA sequencing, e-mail and Facebook. Moreover, Fortune (November 29, 2004) feted him as the œman who changed medicine and Forbes (December 15, 2014) as a visionary œreimagining our children™s future. Meanwhile, the Milken Institute has morphed into one of America™s most respected think tanks whose annual Milken Global Conference staged in late April, rivals the annual Davos conference of the World Economic Forum. Direct talk. œHuman capital is the most important type of capital required for the economic development of nations. Within the next half-century, India has the potential to become the world™s most prosperous nation if it seizes the opportunity to create new knowledge and technologies and apply them to improve agricultural productivity and the health of the population, says Milken. Future plans. Also the promoter-chairman of Knowledge Universe, USA which with more than 2,000 pre-primary schools is the world™s largest wholly-owned preschools chain, Milken is exploring opportunities to invest in India with …
