RITU JHA-
The repeal of farm laws caused protests throughout India. More virology institutes. The work was done by the Indian Statistical Institute. Gender issues. The need for All India Institute Of Medical Science chapters in every state… All this was part of discussions April 26 between Stanford University students and Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister.
On day four of her visit to San Francisco, Sitharaman attended a series of meetings, while also spending about 30 minutes in this intense discussion with graduate and undergraduate students.
Devansh Sharma, co-president of the Stanford India Policy and Economics Club and a computer science student at Stanford University who hosted the short meeting told indica in a phone interview that her arrival caused much excitement at the campus.
“We found the minister to be quite affable,” Sharma told indica. “It was evident that she loved talking to the students. Frankly, the students also put up questions… and the fact was she did her best to answer them all.”
Sharma said the students who participated were members of the newly formed club and from other departments.
“We [at SIPEC] are a serious club formed last year. The objective was to discuss serious issues related to India’s politics, policies, and economy, business, finance, and entrepreneurship,” he said.
He said the students highlighted the need to increase focus on the Indian Statistical Institute, especially because it produces some of the best statisticians in the world. Sitharaman said this is an area the Indian government is looking to improve.
Sharma said the students also urged the government to focus on increasing the number of virology institutes in India, AIIMS chapters in every state, and clinics everywhere. Others urged the cautious use of funds.
One student pointed out that while the Indian economy’s digital adoption has increased tremendously, the active cash in circulation is still high. Sharma said the minister considers this as a transitional phase for India as it shifts away from cash.
Speaking about the farm law that led to over a yearlong protest, Sharma described Sitharaman as saying that while the contentious laws did get repealed, a lot of the actions described in it are already being taken. So, despite the repeal, the main motives are getting achieved, one step at a time.
She denied that there has been any talk about the GIFT City being put together in Gandhinagar to work with well-recognized universities in the US.
About gender disparities, Sitharaman said that while there was no one action that could solve it throughout India, “every region needs to address their issues wisely.”
According to Sharma, she also told students that there’s a strong need for Indian students to step up and counter false narratives against issues that have been around forever but are now being projected as authoritarian missteps. The voice of the woke should not overpower the voice of reason and this is the responsibility of us Indian students here, he quoted her as saying.
