New Delhi: According to a recent study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India if the foreign universities are allowed to ply their campus on Indian land then it will help save our country a whopping $7.5 billion (about Rs.34,500 crore) annually that Indian students spend abroad.

The apex body of commercial chambers came out supporting the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal's commitment despite stiff resistance from the Opposition, including the Left.

Assocham President Swati Piramal said that, "Inflow of foreign faculty and campuses would prevent the increasing outflow of students from the country, saving an enormous amount."

Analyzing the reason as to why Indian students are attracted to enroll themselves in foreign universities, the study blames it to the lack of institutions with only 400 of them to serve 1.1 billion people. It also accuses the strict reservation system, which leaves few option for those belonging to the general category.

Piramal, while favouring the drastic Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, which has evoked a mixed reaction across the country said that, "Whenever students shift abroad to study, it costs the country a foreign exchange outflow of US $ 10 billion annually. If we invite the foreign universities to come and settle here, it would save three-fourth of the exodus."

Arguing in favour of the Bill, the Assocham said that by introducing it in the country, it would help solve the problem of brain drain in India.

Apart from the enthusiasm of the industry over the Bill, there are apprehensions from the academicians who are skeptical of these institutions who will ensure their autonomy regarding awarding of degrees and deciding their own fee structure.

They furthered their point and said that, "These new universities when established in India would be at par with the private unaided higher educational institutions who are not obligated to offer the 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation which all the central higher educational institutions are."

Albeena Shakeel, an alumni of Jawaharlal Nehru University and currently the member of the All India Democratic Women's Association said that, "Harvard and Oxford do not even have local branches, nor institutions like these would like to expand further as they would prefer to reserve their brand value."

As far as students studying abroad, particularly the US goers, are concerned, India is second only to China in world.

The US is now worrying that it is gradually losing ground to China and India in terms of quantity of degree-seeking engineers and scientists.