‘Half the children in London schools don't speak English'

Pranay Sharma, Delhi, Hardnews 

The 52-year-old British high commissioner in New Delhi, Sir Richard Stagg, is a career diplomat. Since joining the diplomatic service in 1977, he has served in a variety of posts in the Hague, Brussels, Sofia and also as private secretary to the British foreign secretary in the mid-1990s. He spoke to Hardnews on India-UK partnership in education and other areas and on some of the raging debates in Britain.

What was achieved from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to India last month?
It cemented the relationship between the two leaders (Brown and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) who get on very well and have a similar background and interests. To lead the relationship onto the government-to-government level, I think that worked successfully. It was about identifying some new areas for us to work on or on areas where we haven't done as much as we could have done historically and to sort of raise our game.

What are these areas?
One is education. The Indian government is planning the expansion of higher education - new world class universities, new IITs, new IIMs. And we agreed that we will partner some of these new institutions. A minimum of one in each category and may be more by identifying UK institutions which will like to work with these new institutions. We see this as a way of bringing real mutual benefit. It will help India develop the world class academic institutions that it wants. But there will be benefits for UK too in forging relationships with these universities.

Are you setting them up in the major cities or are you planning to take them away from the bigger metros?
There are two different issues. One is about the agreement we signed on the general exchange between universities that will obviously incorporate the main, existing centrally public universities. The new institutions will not be in the big metros but in second-tier cities or areas of the country that are not so well provided. Once the Indian side clarifies what they are looking for we can clarify what we can offer. Education is going to be one of the big pillars in our relationship.

Can this cooperation make a big contribution to both the countries?
Both our economies are increasingly going to be skill-based. UK universities are keen to be here and have more such collaborations. Through the UK-India Educational Research Initiative, there is a good deal going on and there is more in the pipeline.

Will the decision to take research and development facilities away from the UK and setting them up in India create problems since there has been some concern over outsourcing?
The UK does not have a huge amount of anxiety about outsourcing. The government believes that we should support sensible business decisions since that will help the economy. In terms of our society there are concerns from time to time at particular decisions. In general, there has not been a great deal of anxiety.

We are talking of top-end students who will be attracted to such jobs. Wouldn't it have been better for them to have found such jobs in UK rather than to come to India for them?
I have talked to people from Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial; they all say there is added value in these partnerships. They are clear it will help them over time in partnering with the top end of the Indian academic world. They feel this will add value, bring different perspectives and ways of thinking, which will allow their top quality research operations to improve further. They believe that if these work and prosper over time, perhaps there will be mutual benefit. So these British institutions don't see them as outsourcing. It will be for the partners to judge for themselves whether it will bring things for them as well.