Ageing of Academic Institutions

Ageing is a natural phenomenon, for example, of the human body wherein it is accelerated due to malnutrition, unclean ‘environment’, etc. In Radioactivity, ‘ageing’ is quantified by ‘half-life’ – the time by which an element ‘decays’ to half its initial ‘value’. (The quotes here underscore that these adages are to be understood as metaphors.) Here I focus on the ageing of academic institutions of India – universities, institutes of science education and technology, and a slew of research organizations, aided and administered by the central government – of which I have first-hand knowledge.