‘We need qualified people in politics’: Dr TR Paarivendhar of SRM Group

Dr TR Paarivendhar's vision and hard work has seen him scale great heights. He completed B.Sc. (Maths) in Trichy and did A.M.I.E to become an engineer. He is not only a successful first generation entrepreneur but also an inspirational teacher for his students. He also heads the Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK), which gives youngsters a platform to enter politics. In a chat with DT Next , Dr TR Paarivendhar talks about leadership, role of teaching institutions, youngsters taking up politics and much more.  

My focus area was, is and will be education. We need education always. The kind of education you provide to your children will decide the fate of the country. Even though I have several businesses, I look forward to spreading education.

Parents usually think unless my child studies in a tuition centre they won’t score marks. Instead of students we need to change the mentality of the parents. Government should instruct schools that no teacher should be involved in tuition or coaching classes. Parents should be given counselling not to run behind marks. Some students who score 90 per cent are not successful in getting a job through campus interview, whereas an average boy with 60 per cent marks is preferred by the company. This means jobs are not directly proportional to marks as employers look at students from all aspects and not only marks. 

You have to give importance to education in politics. I am not saying those who don’t have education should not join politics. But we need qualified people in politics. All educated people or those who have achieved something in  life should enter politics. Nowadays students who study in foreign countries, earn more money and want to enter politics, but there is no space for them in political parties.

If they had the opportunity to enter politics, India would have grown 10 times more. That’s why I started my party (IJK) to provide space for educated youth and achievers. In our party nobody will be in any post for more than two terms as we want to provide youth an opportunity to be part of the system. An educated youth from an agriculture family should also be given opportunity to rule Tamil Nadu.

Indian students aim at employment and salary, so they look at attaining education abroad and getting qualified to be recruited by top companies. Many institutes like SRM offers campus abroad programme, where third year students have chances to go to institutes like MIT, Harvard and London School of Economics (LSE) to study for  one semester. 

When they go abroad they get good exposure, undergo a complete transformation in personality and end up getting jobs with great pay packages.

Getting good teachers is  a priority but it is difficult. Not many youngsters aspire to become teachers. To get quality teachers, union government should come up with a rule that the top 5 to 10 per cent of IIT graduates should not leave India for a few years but teach in institutions here.Nowadays teachers are paid well.

Any plans for starting new courses in your institute or setting up new campuses? 

We plan to start programmes including marine science and technology and agriculture soon. We have started a state university in Haryana, and the Andhra Pradesh government has invited us to start a university there. We are supposed to start our institute in Andhra Pradesh in June 2017.

Why Indian universities do not figure in the list of top world universities? 

Ranking is based on research. Sadly, top Indian industrialists fund millions of dollars to their alma maters abroad but can’t fund Indian universities, where they have received basic education. Unless research is strengthened in our country we cannot break into the world ranking of education institutions. 

We have received Rs.100 crore funding for research from various funding agencies. I spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the potential of private universities to come up with good quality research and the need for the government to fund us without any discrimination. 

The step motherly treatment of government should not be there and industry should fund institutes liberally to ensure that we enter top slots in world university rankings.