An IIMA-ite settled in the US says the following:
"Take the IIMs: During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a decent trickle of Indian PhDs from respected American universities returning to India, would be recruited by Ravi Matthai & nitish dey. It was a brief window of arbitrage. By the mid to late 1970s, that was no longer the case. You would have classic situations like CK Prahlad feeling, or Paul Mampilly + Suresh Seshan (not US PhDs) seeking greener pastures at AIM Manila. American universities would offer professorships to PhDs in management & engineering to a PhD from a barely average American university, thus there was no longer any need to go back to India. Further, Indira Gandhi had dispelled hope of India to shine soon.
Take the 2000s, 30 years later, with India shining, when ISB took root. The under-trial Rajat Gupta and convict Anil Kumar, as McKinseyites, realized that the Ravi matthai model would not work. Further, they did not want to recruit Indian university PhDs (or even IIM FPMs), because they could see the huge quality difference between faculty at American universities and at IIM/IIT. These ISB founders decided to “arbitrage” across Indian faculty at American business schools, specifically faculty with a PhD from the top business schools, who were active in research, and had proved themselves by earning tenure at some decent American university. They provided these Indians in USA with airfare + campus hotel in Hyderabad, and very little direct cash compensation. Thus, the compensation was indirect, i.e. a free paid trip to India, with the possibility of immersing themselves in (shining) India while there were making their brief 1-2 week teaching journeys, family reunion, etc. The cost to ISB would be higher than recruiting and paying Indian faculty. However, ISB soon began charging US$ fees after its turnaround, sufficient to cover these US$ expenses. It is unclear how long the Gupta/Kumar arbitrage model would work. Thus, ISB (it least in its initial stages) could not be accused of harboring (Indian home grown) faculty which did not live up to world class research standards.
Can the IITs/ IIMs catch up to world class research standards? Note that these world research standards apply only to universities in USA, who dominate the world in academic research output, due to a century-long tradition of academic independence and emphasis on faculty research. US Universities are not seen as mere teaching factories, but epicenters of deep research. Faculty are appointed and tenured based largely on research, with Peking capability being considered a minor component. UK has barely a handful of research universities, and likewise Europe. You don’t hear of much research coming out of Japanese universities. Australia has only three relevant research universities, maybe 4: Sydney, Melbourne, ANU Canberra and Perth, and they’ve got to where they are by emulating Oxbridge research tradition of their mother country. When was the last you heard something novel come out of German/ Germanic universities after Einstein and WW-2? Thus, the expression “world class research” is appropriately substituted by “American university research”."
"Take the IIMs: During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a decent trickle of Indian PhDs from respected American universities returning to India, would be recruited by Ravi Matthai & nitish dey. It was a brief window of arbitrage. By the mid to late 1970s, that was no longer the case. You would have classic situations like CK Prahlad feeling, or Paul Mampilly + Suresh Seshan (not US PhDs) seeking greener pastures at AIM Manila. American universities would offer professorships to PhDs in management & engineering to a PhD from a barely average American university, thus there was no longer any need to go back to India. Further, Indira Gandhi had dispelled hope of India to shine soon.
Take the 2000s, 30 years later, with India shining, when ISB took root. The under-trial Rajat Gupta and convict Anil Kumar, as McKinseyites, realized that the Ravi matthai model would not work. Further, they did not want to recruit Indian university PhDs (or even IIM FPMs), because they could see the huge quality difference between faculty at American universities and at IIM/IIT. These ISB founders decided to “arbitrage” across Indian faculty at American business schools, specifically faculty with a PhD from the top business schools, who were active in research, and had proved themselves by earning tenure at some decent American university. They provided these Indians in USA with airfare + campus hotel in Hyderabad, and very little direct cash compensation. Thus, the compensation was indirect, i.e. a free paid trip to India, with the possibility of immersing themselves in (shining) India while there were making their brief 1-2 week teaching journeys, family reunion, etc. The cost to ISB would be higher than recruiting and paying Indian faculty. However, ISB soon began charging US$ fees after its turnaround, sufficient to cover these US$ expenses. It is unclear how long the Gupta/Kumar arbitrage model would work. Thus, ISB (it least in its initial stages) could not be accused of harboring (Indian home grown) faculty which did not live up to world class research standards.
Can the IITs/ IIMs catch up to world class research standards? Note that these world research standards apply only to universities in USA, who dominate the world in academic research output, due to a century-long tradition of academic independence and emphasis on faculty research. US Universities are not seen as mere teaching factories, but epicenters of deep research. Faculty are appointed and tenured based largely on research, with Peking capability being considered a minor component. UK has barely a handful of research universities, and likewise Europe. You don’t hear of much research coming out of Japanese universities. Australia has only three relevant research universities, maybe 4: Sydney, Melbourne, ANU Canberra and Perth, and they’ve got to where they are by emulating Oxbridge research tradition of their mother country. When was the last you heard something novel come out of German/ Germanic universities after Einstein and WW-2? Thus, the expression “world class research” is appropriately substituted by “American university research”."
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