“The problem with India is that it is developing in an imitative manner”

The West has for centuries been praised for its latest technologies, high raised buildings, magnificient automobiles etc. But in the name of development, they depleted resources, usurped fertile agricultural land for construction, emitted and increased greenhouse gases etc. Therefore many have this notion that to emulate the West, me must follow their unsustainable paradigm of development. “India needs to be leaders instead of followers,” Says Kartikeya Sarabhai.” We therefore need to think of solutions which have not yet been discovered. Kartikeya Sarabhai proposes education as a means to hasten this process. “We should not be seeking to find out how to build a flyover, for instance, but how to build public transport to avoid pollution and congestion.” Sarabhai feels that the choice for developing countries is to use a “leapfrog” approach into something that is aimed at the future, earning from these experiences rather than imitating them. So the difference between learning and imitating is really the crux of the discussion over what education needs to be.