Soumen wrote:

>> (Why does the US press highlight IIT's non-research brand?  After all, 
>> they
>> never highlight HKUST or NUS or INRIA or Max-Planck or ETH or EPFL!  Work 
>> it
>> out, it's very easy.  But why does the Indian press howl its obscene
>> support?  That's a little tricker, see if you can work it out.)


Srinu wrote:
> Can you plzz tell us y it is the case especially about the Indian press'
> mysterious behaviour. I was really surprised when I saw the article "2
> Big Appetites Take Seats at the Oil Table" in TOI.
> Y does they do that?

NUS, HKUST, INRIA, Max-Planck, ETH, EPFL are all universities that are 
already, or are well on their way to be, positioned as centers of research 
that can compare with the top crust in US.  In time, especially as people 
find the US more and more unpleasant to settle in, these universities can 
become a serious threat to the technical hegemony of US univs.  In contrast, 
(with very few exceptional stories) IITs are no threat to US univs to date. 
Instead, they are exporters of human resources that might have made IITs a 
threat in the long run.

Therefore, it is important to congratulate IITs on the great job done so 
far, and to keep IITs locked on the current course.  IIT administration must 
be pumped up with accolades so badly that they cannot even dream of letting 
go of the "our boys turned genius in US" image.  When push comes to shove, 
US academia badly wants to say "they may provide cheap programmers, but only 
we can do the creative work, therefore we deserve 11X more funding and 20X 
more oil".

Once that illusion breaks, it will be free fall: there's no good reason why 
ARDA and even NSF money will stay inside US any more, not to mention 
industrial research sponsorship which is already pouring into China and 
India.  An average US grad student costs their system about 50000 USD/year; 
at IIT, we might be able do a decent job for 3000 USD (partly because the 
roof leaks and the food is bad).

So, it is very transparent what is going on with the US press when they 
limit research accolades strictly to US univs (Prof. Manindra was on NYT for 
just one day, while random academics claiming a connection between air 
pollution and cancer stay for days) and teaching accolades to IITs.  Also 
explains why ACM is so peculiarly partisan ("homeland", "overseas" ---see 
the article Siva posted).

Now for ToI and similar Indian media.  They are mere outposts of US media, 
to be consumed by people living in mental outposts of the US.  It is very 
important that a certain class of Indians read the likes of ToI and buy into 
the great Indian narrative of emigration.  ToI has executives and senior 
editors whose extended families live that Indian narrative of emigration. 
It would be quite dangerous for a junior writer, one who feels what should 
be the preferable agenda of IITs, to bring out a forceful article which 
steps on the toes of, say, Murthy who is happy to shunt off the kids to 
Cornell, or Rekhi, who claims a brain in India is a brain down the drain, or 
their close friends in ToI management.

The last part may not make a lot of sense to you.  Can an Indian 
newspaper/magazine be managed by such evil people that an article critical 
of IIT's UG brand will get killed?  If you don't believe in self-cencorship, 
read Chomsky and Herman's "Manufacturing Consent".

Remember, a brain lost from the Indian emigration narrative is strongly 
correlated with a brain lost from MNC jobs, a brain that closes out 
Planet-M, a brain free from the influence of cosmetics for fairness. 
Investigate the entities that hold and finance ToI and other businesses. 
You will be surprised.  You may think such bias happens by accident. 
Nothing happens by accident.  There is no innocence in all this.  Brown hair 
for newscasters, Ash's grayish-green eyes, Christian names for all Jet 
Airways attendants on local flights, octagonal stop-signs in Heeranandani 
Gardens here in Bombay that no driver ever notices...

Make no mistake, this is Macaulay back to taste native blood once again.