With reference to the article ‘What ails higher education in India’ (November 8), three generations post independence, our education system has hardly deviated from the Raj era, the subsequent digital veneer notwithstanding. The crux of our skilling, be it in science or technology or liberal arts, lies in the pre-tertiary education where a calibrated upgrade is overdue.

IITs mass produce excellence but lesser institutions seem to chip in with brilliance. Satya Nadella of Microsoft is not an IITian. Brand IIT has been finding greater acceptance on Wall Street or in IT start ups and less in premiere engineering/scientific research institutions.

We primarily lose out on global ranking in factors as academic research, faculty citation in journals, employer and academic reputation, faculty-student ratio and lack of internationalism.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

People-centric shift

This is with reference to the article, “Clean energy Transition”, (November 9). Transforming the power sector and boosting investment in clean electricity are key to sustainable development. Electricity consumption in emerging economies is set to grow around three times that of advanced economies, and the low costs of wind and solar power should make them the technologies of choice.

These investments drive the largest share of the emissions reductions required to meet international climate goals.

The government should lay the groundwork for scaling up low-carbon fuels and industrial infrastructure. Its strategies must drive emissions-intensive sectors and accelerate the shift away from unabated coal while ensuring a people-centered transition.

P Sundara Pandian

Virudhunagar (TN)

Praising Manmohan Singh

Apropos ‘India indebted to former PM Manmohan Singh for economic reforms: Gadkari’ ( November 9), Union Minister Nitin Gadkari praising former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh makes interesting reading. Notably, Gadkari recalled how as a State Minister he could raise money to build roads in Maharashtra in the mid-1990s due to reforms initiated by the former PM.

However, it was unusual for a key minister in the PM Modi’s cabinet to acknowledge Manmohan Singh for ushering in reforms. Had any Congress leader made such appreciable remarks about PM Modi, he/she would have definitely been thoroughly criticised, by the party high command.

Vinayak G

New Delhi

Let Musk worry

Apropos ‘Is Musk tweeting away his riches?’, it is his money and he can do whatever he wishes to do with it. We in India are needlessly concerned about Elon Musk and his Twitter acquisition.

Unless one is an investor in businesses run by Musk, there is no need to be worried about Musk’s financials.

There is only a miniscule percentage of population in India which uses the social media handle. Maybe the political class and social media influencers would be affected, but hardly anybody else.

Maybe Musk has an ace up his sleeve. Until then, let only America worry. We in India have more important things to worry about!

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai