Vedanta's Anil Agarwal sees BIG opportunity for India amid ongoing Harvard-Trump row

Mining giant Vedanta's Founder and Executive Chairman, Anil Agarwal, in a social media post, flagged a big opportunity for India to create Harvards and MITs in the nation amid the ongoing Harvard-Trump row over revoking authority to sponsor U.S. visas for international students. 

“Amidst global uncertainty, there is a big opportunity for India, beyond manufacturing. Higher education. More and more Indians want a world-class education. The West is closing its doors. The 800 Indian students at Harvard are facing this unfortunate circumstance,” said Agarwal in his post on LinkedIn.

Emphasising the need for the nation's youth to pursue “world-class education,” Anil Agarwal highlighted that India should build Harvards and MITs on a larger scale with global standards.

“We should create Harvards and MITs in India. Universities built on a large scale with global standards,” he said. 

Agarwal also said that India should focus on capturing this opportunity as other countries are letting go of their international students strength.

“Land should not become a constraint for building large Universities. The returns to society will be phenomenal. Let us seize this opportunity to be a leader in knowledge and research, occupy the space other countries are letting go of,” said Anil Agarwal in his post.

Vedanta's plan for India's education

Anil Agarwal also announced Vedanta's plans to launch an institution in Odisha for students from “less privileged backgrounds” amid the ongoing foreign studies debate.

The CEO also emphasised that the students will get full financial support from the institution to study in the non-profit digital-first university. 

“Vedanta has a plan for one such institution based on the waterfront in Odisha near Puri. It will be a not-for-profit, digital-first university with the best faculty and students from India and abroad. Students from less privileged backgrounds will get full financial support,” said Anil Agarwal in his LinkedIn post.

Harvard-Trump row

US President Donald Trump's federal administration revoked the Massachusetts-based, world-famous Harvard University's authority to sponsor U.S. visas for international students.

The federal government revoked the University's ability to sponsor F and J visas for international students and scholars under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) after Harvard allegedly failed to comply with the Department of Homeland Security's request for information.

The University condemned Trump's move and said it has filed a complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order regarding the action. They also called the move “unlawful and unwarranted,” according to an official email circulated from the office to the Harvard Alumni. 

“Harvard did respond to the Department's requests as required by law,” said the University in the email, shared by Member of Rajya Sabha Raghav Chadha on the platform X.

President Trump also highlighted his concerns how there are nearly 31 per cent of foreigners who are coming in to study at Harvard, and also claimed that the University refused to tell the federal government who the people are.

“Part of the problem with Harvard is that there are about 31 per cent of foreigners coming to Harvard. We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which we're probably not going to be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. But they are 31 per cent, but they refuse to tell us who the people are. We want to know who the people,” said Trump, according to an earlier Mint report.