we are interested to know why indian institutions don't rank higher, do write a post on it whenever you have time. appreciated.
I don't want to get into ranking. But let's talk about quality of education and research.
We have to agree that our education system is messed up. (I am talking only about bachelors to PhD/postdoc level of education).
1) Faculty recruitment: there is so much politics and bureaucracy in this. I have been applying for faculty positions. I was surprised to find that most govt institutes don't see the quality of work. For them a PhD is a PhD. You do a PhD from Harvard or from somewhere in Haryana, they are 'graded' the same.
I recently had a meeting with a faculty in a central university. He was so frustrated with the system and asked me to not even apply. The reason is 'babus' acc to him (yes, he used the word babu). He and his colleagues have post-doctoral experience of 4-8 years in good labs from US/Germany, but it is not being counted as experience for their promotion to higher positions.
People don't even know how to conduct an interview (not all). PhD is about research. You should ask me about what research I did and what I can bring to your place. One of my seniors got an interview call from a CSIR lab recently. He has 4+yrs of post-doc experience. The committee gave him 10 minutes to present his past research and future plan. Is that even possible?
Outdated approach to screen candidates. None of my US interviewers asked my grades in bachelors. In India, they ask me 10th standard marks list. Seriously?
And there is so much politics. Bengalis want only bengalis to be hired. Like that. One of my friends who has a PhD from Australia and excellent research couldn't make it to a position. It was later on given to someone from local Bengal university. The dean and director of that university are Bengalis.
This is one aspect of it.
2) Outdated syllabus. In my Masters in India (from one of the best in my field), the coursework I was taught was at least 30-35 years outdated. Even in the US, academia is behind the industry by several years. But in India it is too much gap. How much of the knowledge we gain in B.Tech is being applied in our jobs?
Students should get the opportunity to work more on real time projects. Not fixed lab practicals.
3) Funding. We spend a very small percentage of our GDP on funding. Also, previously, govt institutes used to get most of it. I know many professors in CSIR labs who know nothing about research, they don't contribute to even 1% of their students' PhDs. But they get funding.
I heard that after Modi came to power, he scrapped this. Not sure, but now even in govt. labs, a PI will get funding only if his research proposal is approved.
4) Applied sciences: IMO, India is stuck in basic sciences. IISC is great. IISERs are doing very good job. But their focus is basic sciences. We don't have many which works on applied sciences. Like interdisciplinary research at interface of chemistry, biology and computational. I wonder how many labs give such training. The world has already moved to this. We are stuck in basic science research.
We have a massive generic pharma industry. But see how many new drugs were made in India. I believe its zero. (I read somewhere recently the first India-made compound got FDA approval. Need to follow it up). This is a shame.
5) Administration and teaching is being mixed. Read Quora about IIT faculty. Many students opine that a majority of the profs think they are great profs.. but are totally outdated. These faculty are good at management and go up the hierarchy based on administrative positions.
There are many other reasons...
I am in biomedical research.. so I am speaking from that perspective. Maybe, other fields are doing good. I hope IIST is good.. ISRO is probably the best in the world.
Of course, in biomedical research there are a few labs which are good. Not negating everything..
