Lord Swraj Paul, the Indian-born British business magnate, has said that the scams which have come to light in India recently "do not make any Indian proud" and he labelled corruption as "a national shame".
Clearly referring to the 2G licences and spectrum allocation scam and the irregularities in the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, Lord Paul said in an interaction with the Press Trust of India last night, "Corruption should be condemned because it has become a national shame. The most difficult thing is to kill corruption completely".
He said, "If you have to follow the law, then we have to make sure that the people who ought to be punished, should be punished. India has many of the richest people, but on the other hand it has more poor people too. Thirty per cent of Indian children still do not have primary education and that cannot be acceptable."
Calling on corporates to be "more honest with themselves", Lord Paul said, "in corruption, there is always a giver and a taker. It cannot be a one-side story. "The responsibility of removing corruption should not fall on one side and both the giver and taker should be held responsible."
Lord Paul, who is also Chancellor of London's Wolverhampton University, said education in India had become a business. "It is a very dangerous trend happening in India on education. Most importantly, (education) should be done as a contribution to lift society. But it is a problem in India. If you want to (provide) education, then for God's sake give it as a service," he said.
"India is not short of teaching, India is not short of bright students, but we need to give them the right freedom," he said. Admitting that the number of students taking up in their respective fields was minimal in India, Lord Paul said he faced many "hurdles" while setting up a researchinstitution at his hometown Jalandhar, named after his daughter Ambica Paul.
"We are just getting started with the Ambica Paul Punjab of Technology. If I tell you the hurdles which I have gone through (in setting up the institution), I might have become a 10-year-old," he said.
He said that the number of students joining for higher education was comparatively less and that was where India needed to take a big step. "In the Western world, almost 47%-53% of students go for higher education. But, India it is below 10%."
Lord Paul along with senior faculty members of Wolverhampton University were in Chennai on Monday to confer an honorary doctorate to Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu for his contribution to journalism.
Clearly referring to the 2G licences and spectrum allocation scam and the irregularities in the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, Lord Paul said in an interaction with the Press Trust of India last night, "Corruption should be condemned because it has become a national shame. The most difficult thing is to kill corruption completely".
He said, "If you have to follow the law, then we have to make sure that the people who ought to be punished, should be punished. India has many of the richest people, but on the other hand it has more poor people too. Thirty per cent of Indian children still do not have primary education and that cannot be acceptable."
Calling on corporates to be "more honest with themselves", Lord Paul said, "in corruption, there is always a giver and a taker. It cannot be a one-side story. "The responsibility of removing corruption should not fall on one side and both the giver and taker should be held responsible."
Lord Paul, who is also Chancellor of London's Wolverhampton University, said education in India had become a business. "It is a very dangerous trend happening in India on education. Most importantly, (education) should be done as a contribution to lift society. But it is a problem in India. If you want to (provide) education, then for God's sake give it as a service," he said.
"India is not short of teaching, India is not short of bright students, but we need to give them the right freedom," he said. Admitting that the number of students taking up in their respective fields was minimal in India, Lord Paul said he faced many "hurdles" while setting up a researchinstitution at his hometown Jalandhar, named after his daughter Ambica Paul.
"We are just getting started with the Ambica Paul Punjab of Technology. If I tell you the hurdles which I have gone through (in setting up the institution), I might have become a 10-year-old," he said.
He said that the number of students joining for higher education was comparatively less and that was where India needed to take a big step. "In the Western world, almost 47%-53% of students go for higher education. But, India it is below 10%."
Lord Paul along with senior faculty members of Wolverhampton University were in Chennai on Monday to confer an honorary doctorate to Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu for his contribution to journalism.
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