Lauding the American higher education system for having respected individual talent, Vinay Rai says that 'Americans, unlike Indians, rightly recognize that that the so-called 'low-performing' students are not necessarily less on the talent quotient'. Given the right institutional framework of care and concern, cognizant of individual talent, ace American universities have nurtured the potential of each and every child from all parts of the world. The founding vision of Rai Foundation, he recalls, is just this: to bring out the best in every student, across rural and urban, especially those in whom the present system had shown no faith and had put them in the precarious rung of less than 80 percent-wallahs. Under the program, "Toward Excellence in Higher Education," Rai Foundation's most recent endeavor, eminent professors from top 50 US universities have been invited to India for a week to interact with students, faculty as well as the media and public at large (top 20 have confirmed their visits). The vision of this program is two fold: one, to enable Indian students to get a whiff of the high standards of 'quality-in-teaching' in the US; and second, to provide an opportunity to visiting professors to experience young India upfront. - Vinay Rai
