In your editor’s not unlimited experience of seminars and intellectual fests, the three-day Milken Institute Global Conference 2013 spread over April 29-May 1 in Los Angeles, was arguably the greatest accumulation of the choice and master spirits of our age. The more than 3,000 attendees (most of whom paid $7,500 (Rs.4.13 lakh) delegates’ fee for the three-day conference, hotel expenses excluded) were given the choice of attending 140 sessions addressed by 600 multidisciplinary panelists from over 50 nations. Star panelists included Bill Gates, Tony Blair, former US vice president Al Gore, Rupert Murdoch, billionaire Carlos Slim, top CEOs, university presidents, Nobel laureates, and major institutional investors from around the world. In a welcome address to delegates, Michael Milken, the promoter-chairman, and Michael Klowden, chief executive of the institute (estb. 1991) outlined the conference agenda which would “address a wide range of questions with global implications”, including education, health, climate change, the fracking revolution, bioscience research and Africa’s renaissance, among other subjects. Over three action packed days with simultaneous panel discussions starting at 8 a.m, and concluding at 6 p.m, followed by private and public receptions, speakers and delegates brainstormed about how to deliver these promises, with delegates streaming into the 11 conference rooms and massive auditoriums of the Beverly Hilton, surely among the best convention venues worldwide. Your editor — a prophet not without honour save in his own country — was included in a panel on international education reform chaired by Lowell Milken, co-founder of the institute and a widely respected champion of K-12 education and teacher development in the US. Although somewhat dwarfed by highly eminent co-panelists including a US senator, economic advisor to the prime minister of Israel; US deputy secretary of education, director general of basic education of China, but never at a loss for words and ideas, your editor highlighted the mess created in Indian education by reckless populism, and neglect of public education. Opining that private initiatives — including low-cost private budget schools — are the saving grace, I argued that the best policy option for India is to raise standards in government schools, colleges and universities rather than pull down private education institutions, which seems to be the official objective. The interested can view the entire panel discussion on You Tube (www.milkeninstitute.org#2013GC). Nevertheless listening to the other panelists and learning about the huge resources their governments lavish on developing syllabuses, curriculums, pedagogies and children’s learning outcomes, was a frustrating and humbling experience for this unofficial representative of a nation so apathetic and neglectful about developing the world’s largest human capital resource bank. Different India story The Milken Institute Global Conference 2013 wasn’t my first. In 2009, I attended and chaired a panel discussion on Indian education. At the time the feel-good story about India was that of a democracy matching communist China’s annual economic growth, with the Congress-led UPA government and prime minister Manmohan Singh’s star riding high on the eve of the UPA-II’s re-election with an increased majority. Four years later, the…
