The brand of academic institutions is something we all look forward to when we are choosing graduate school or med school or any knowledge+certification granting authority, because its talent, time and financial resources put into a degree. Most of us-humble souls go to college for ‘Shahada’ or certificate in Arabic to make us marketable enough to earn a living. But the question is- Are we adopting a reductionist approach towards the hallowed institutions that we respect if not revere? Commoditizing   something as valued as intellect into a product? I do understand that a structured learning framework is limited in its mandate, that its ultimately fellow humans who are running these organizations and a organization by essence is a network of conversations that people engage in because we all love stories and not raw data…

An Academic institution is a platform to connect with like minded peers, expand our horizons of thought processes and have access as invaluable as the library and the academic treasure trove called a professor…. College is also a place to learn more about life as a process- relationships, fights, ego tussles and a place to pursue our non academic interests as well… Knowledge is infinite, its a super-set that human understanding has not comprehended it, academia only acts an intermediary to channelize a triple distilled version of knowledge.

Academic value can be created outside structured learning domains as well- Einstein and others did not learn from academia, but created knowledge not attained inside the system… People learn from you tube, MIT OPEN COURSEWARE and other Web 2.0 platforms without attending full time school… The process of learning is accelerated in real world offices, on the job training, internships and real world skill sets are not learnt in conventional college or graduate school…Infosys and Vale have their own corporate universities to train their staff… only 10% of India’s burgeoning engineering talent pool are market ready… More people are taking online degrees while working, giving them the flexibility to learn as they earn

Scientific Research in fundamental sciences is still the exclusive domain of academia and will be for a long time to come… Open source solutioneering such as Linux and websites such as Innocentive are creating value outside the system.

Academia will be relevant for quality control and the brand of the institution is like the face value of a stock…but creation of academic value outside universities will the norm rather than a exception as handheld devices and web progresses to the next level, technology is going to be the great leveler, elitism of the high table of academia have to adapt to keep pace with the times.

We will be in the next few days be witnessing the creation of a new nation state in Africa- that of Southern Sudan with its capital being of Juba… The South People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is the South Sudanese equivalent of the African National Congress or the Palestinian Liberation Front…It has waged a civil war with the North Sudanese Army over the last few decades with over 4 million casualties and millions more internally displaced people… The Civil War ended in 2005 with an agreement over resource sharing and a scheduling over a referendum in early 2011 (currently under way)..

South Sudan is mainly Animist and Christian & of African Stock in comparison to its Northern cousins being Muslim and Arab… South Sudan is also the Kurdistan of Sudan…being Oil rich only complicates the separation…Revenue sharing and citizenship issues have not been agreed upon in addition to concrete borderlines being drawn …. Separation is always painful, with examples in recent history being Kosovo, Montenegro and Timor Leste…. Ultimately such instances result in human tragedies and suffering, a case study being the Partition of South Asia in 1947 into India and Pakistan with millions killed and displaced…a human tragedy sans any comparison…

Timor Leste being the youngest nation state in the Globe currently with its independence a decade ago is one of the largest recipients of external donor aid, weak institutions and gross poverty…. With Oil discovered in the Timor Sea, there is reason for cautious optimism as such nations sans strong leadership and weak institutions are susceptible to the Resource Curse…

We hope that South Sudan does not become a case study for nations with the resource curse in Public Policy Schools internationally…

I have been thinking about this theme since a while, a topic close to my heart… I am a product of a mixed marriage- My Dad is an ethnic Bihari born and bred in West Bengal and my Mum is an ethnic Bengali based in Mumbai. My Father speaks fluent Bengali and my Mum speaks fluent Marathi.  I was bred in Cosmo Mumbai in the 90’s- the transition generation! With stints of my childhood in Muscat, Oman..where my Father is an expat educator- grew up listening to Khaled and Cheb Mami along with Euphoria and Lucky Ali Tracks…

With traditional Rabindra Sangeet playing all day at home (With me listening to Bhoomi and Nachiketa-contemporary Bengali music), my parents tried their best to make me Bengali’ Bangali! Still I am labeled a Bihari many times around! (I have no issues, I consider myself a global nomad! )

I watched BBC at home since I was 6 years old… We are defined by not our biology-the politics of birth, but by the Geography we live in and the thoughts we aspire for ourselves…

In todays Globalization 2.0 age, we study in Singapore, work in the middle east and holiday in europe and do volunteering in West Africa…

Arnold can be born in Gratz but govern in Sacramento..Piyush Jindal can live in the Governer’s Mansion in New Orleans and Sonia Gandhiji born in Italy can rule from 7, Janpath over a billion souls…

Identity related issues have caused Genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, Power driven by identity and channeled into electoral politics can be of devastating consequences….  Identity channeled into Nationalism led to the second world war…but it also drove Japan to new heights post Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Singapore is one of the most multi-ethnic meritocratic societies in world, where the only currency for access is Talent alone, yet it was formed in 1965 due to the expulsion by Tunku of ‘Cina Singapura’ out of the Malayan Federation, to preserve its Malay Bumiputra identity.

We all have Plural Identities- as Amartya Sen lucidly portrayed in his bestseller-Identity and Violence…  We are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and American, Indian, Singaporean or British at the same time without any contradictions.

Larry Ellison can be both American, Black and the United States first Muslim Congressman and still be on the same page as all Americans!

Identity is what we carve out of it..its marble slab which we chisel in the dreams we have…

A very Happy New Year to my Friends all over the World, I have shifted base from Singapore to Oman over the last week. I have spent most of my childhood and my undergrad degree from Oman, so I call Muscat my home in many ways although I prefer to call my self a Global Nomad- a wanderer in search of new knowledge and experiences globally.

My Time in Singapore during my masters has been truly influential- a case in how an Asian city-state has transitioned from being a Third World back-water to a First World case study in Urban meritocratic governance. A city-state where electricity access is un-believable, You can drink off the taps and the public transportation is the envy of the world. The key to this to have an educated civil service, a political leadership which is world-class and where meritocracy is the buzz word.

I have come to subscribe to the Singaporean philosophical school of ‘Pragmatism’ as Kishore Mahbubani, the Dean of the Public Policy School at NUS says in his book on the rise of the Asian hemisphere. There is not a system of Governance which is absolute, like the American neo-con policy of global democratization, which has lead to wars in Iraq and Af-Pak. Rather the Late Chinese Premier Deng Xiopeng said- A cat whether, balck or white…does not matter as long as it catches mice!

Democracy sans education and access to livelihood is a recipe for chaos as is the case of the former USSR and countries of Latin America have shown. Governance is the most vital game changer in a country…it can make it or break it.

Singapore has shown the way for Asian cities to manage themselves…Its time that Mumbai and Jakarta take suit!