He should become rich and successful – this was what the father wished for his son and the main reason why he began to study, says Jatin Thukral with a wide grin. He wanted to fulfil his father's wishes as far as he was able. Soon, however, his studies began to absorb him, and the will to strive for a better life and a first-class education has never left him since. Education is very highly valued in India, he explains. This was because young people in India had far fewer possibilities than their counterparts in the West. If they were lucky enough to get a good education and start a career, they then did everything they could to succeed. This is also the reason, indirectly, for his own success says Thukral. He finished senior secondary school in India as one of the 600 best out of a total of 600,000 pupils and achieved average grades of 5.86 for his Master's exam at ETH Zurich. With regard to this high grade, Thukral says, modestly, "I was just lucky".

India: still a developing country

His chances for the future are good, in stark contrast to millions of others in India. More than a third of the population is illiterate and every fifth person in India lives on less than a dollar a day (1). Thukral doesn't blame the government for this. It does the best it can to eliminate the problems. He sees a promising approach in the education system. It was because of his above-average grades that Thukral got the chance to go to the best secondary school in the country situated in the city of his birth, in New Delhi. The government gives scholarships to the best students so that children from poorer families also have the chance to get into the best schools.

(To) happy Switzerland

In comparison with India, Switzerland was very fortunate in the education it was able to offer. The result of this, however, was that Swiss students weren't fully aware of how lucky they were. "Here, education doesn't have the same overriding importance." This was one difference he had noticed, said Thukral. "Education makes a better person,“ he says with conviction. One can hardly imagine hearing such an assertion made by a Swiss.

Jatin Thukral is doing his Ph.D. at D-ITET.

In contrast to much of Switzerland's immigrant population, who maintain that the Swiss are rather reserved, Jatin says that it wasn't very difficult to make friends here. Nevertheless, the friends he has made are more often Italians, who, he thinks, are closer to the Indian culture than the Swiss. He grins, and quickly adds, "The Swiss are industrious and very helpful". We must be careful not to give a wrong impression here: Thukral likes it in Switzerland. He is visibly proud to be able to study in Switzerland and grateful for the chance of studying abroad that ETH made possible: "ETH is amazing!"

Indian community

In Switzerland, especially in Zurich, there is a big Indian ex-pat community. In fact Thukral is actively involved in three different associations. Recently, within the framework of a small Indian "theatre spectacle", with other Indians he produced a piece written in English and Hindi. He is also engaged in in benefit work. Thukral is a member of the Swiss group of the global network "Asha“ (3), whose aim is to help as many poor children as possible in India to get a good education. One of Asha's current projects is the "adoption" of an entire village, where, thanks to Asha's financial aid, a new school will be built giving all children free access to education. A small drop in the ocean of India's poverty and educational problems. Nevertheless, Thukral puts himself in the shoes of a child growing up in this village: "I would have a chance of getting an education that I would never have had without the engagement of Asha".

ETH profits from co-operation with India

Jatin Thukral stands at the beginning of a steep career path, also thanks to his ETH education. He considers, however, that the university does not do enough to attract students internationally, above all in India. Too few students in his country knew about the possibility of studying in Switzerland. There was an urgent need for ETH to sell itself in a way similar to US American universities, which have been doing this for a long time. This is why most Indian students who studied abroad went to the United States. The US economy had also profited from this; nearly half of the founders of companies in Silicon Valley originally came from India. "But ETH is on the right track," says Thukral. He himself is also on the right track, because with a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in his pocket he is well on the way to fulfilling his father's wishes.