Part of the reforms that Sudhir has undertaken at NLSIU has been an effort to make it globally prominent and feature in the QS rankings. But to live up to the Harvard of the East nickname, it's important for NLSIU to get a higher rank in the QS rankings. Ideally, in the top 5 in Asia. Currently NLSIU is ranked in the 201-250 band in QS, which is in the 30-35 band in Asia. The top 5 in Asia are NUS Singapore, Tokyo University, Hong Kong University, Peking University and Tsinghua University.

So what needs to be done and can Sudhir do it? The first step is attracting good faculty who will publish in good journals. That has been done to a great extent, but some of the deadwood TLC faculty still needs to be weeded out. Another step is attracting international faculty and students, which he is also working towards. But what else? What distinguishes the Top 5 above from NLSIU? is it just money and fancy buildings? Or something else?

NUS poaches star profs from colleges abroad by offering them tons of money and perks, then gives them freedom to publish and minimum teaching. These publications push NUS high up in the rankings. I know two people from Oxford and King's College London who moved to Singapore (I met them during some law firm work). They candidly told me that they were getting paid twice as much and also had a serviced apartment with maid service. Plus freedom to do consultancy for law firms.

But I don't know if students at NUS benefit because the classroom time with the star professors is low. For this reason, I would still recommend the traditional Indian destinations for LLMs (Oxbridge, London, Warwick, NYU, Columbia etc), as well as Australian, Canadian and European colleges (many European colleges now offer courses in English). For example, a SOAS or a Warwick or a Monash or a Frankfurt may be lower ranked than NUS, but I think the student will have a better experience from the perspective of classroom teaching.

Just my view. Not trying to get into a QS rankings fight 🙏

NLSIU can reach top 30-35 globally but higher than that will be tough. In any case, I think a top 30-35 global rank for NLSIU will be a fair reflection of its standards, rather than a top 5/top 10 global ranking. In the current QS ranking, Duke is 29, Queen Mary is 32, Cornell and Michigan are 34. I feel this is the band that NLSIU belongs to and should aspire for. Even though NLSIU is called Harvard of the East, I think a top 5/top 10 ranking like Harvard is out of reach and unrealistic. So NLSIU's real goal should be to become a Duke/Cornell/Michigan/Queen Mary of the East, rather than a Harvard of the East. No shame in that, these are perfectly good colleges!

Here's my assessment:

1) Harvard, Yale. Columbia, Stanford, Oxbridge: Law School can't reach this level, even with Sudhir in charge. Too much of an ask.

2) Duke, Cornell, Penn, Chicago, LSE, KCL, UCL: Law School can reach this level in 10-15 years, with Sudhir in charge.

3) SOAS, QMUL, Warwick, Virginia, Michigan: Law School can reach this level in 5-10 years, with Sudhir in charge.

For now, let's focus on goal 3. Take it step by step. What we need are 3 things:

- Around Rs 50 to 100 crores funding to improve infrastructure. Possible with alumni outreach and if Law School is declared an Institution of National Importance by the centre. It's critical to lobby for INI status. The SC case will be crucial. Hopefully the SC will uphold what the Karnataka HC said.

- More good faculty hires and eventually kicking out all the useless TLC profs. A few of them still remain and they are a hindrance top excellence.

- More internationalisation, via tie-ups with law schools abroad.