''Knowledge without application is useless and application without knowledge is a dangerous thing''
In context of India...educational qualification play a major role in the process of selection(call it process of elimination)for a job where you gain experience.
In global scenario....the situation at present is bit different...with experience playing a greater role in case of expert jobs(specially technical).Offcourse Educational qualification matters in case of initial selection...but experience matters for posts/jobs which demand immediet application of skills.
Theory and practical experience would always go together and very few extraordinary people achieve excellence with a single weapon.
Education teaches a human about how he/she would need to channelize the thinking process. Afterall, the education system is built upon the combination of practical experience and scientific research done by the authors. But, one after gaining theoritical knowledge and not putting it into practice is like having the raw food in hand and not cooking it! The raw food has no taste and very tough to digest.
Apart from this, very few people in the world like Dhirubhai, Bill gates(College Drop-out)has a great knack at visualising the future world and they were truly inspired by their vision and here also, having a vision is theory and if they did not have put that into practice those ideas would have gone into the drain. We would not see a Microsoft or a Reliance!
So, one should strive for excellence in both education as well as putting that into practicality. That would be a phenominal achievement both for the self and the society around and it will ignite millions and billions of people who would require an inspiration or an example.
According to me degrees is required for one's success. You can point out some people like Dhiru Bhai Ambani etc. But most of the poeple who touched the pinnacle of the success are having the degree in their kitty. It is required to have the basic knowledge to start up the career from there one can carry on.
we in India give to much importance to degree, after all it is relevant to a point as it shows high IQ of a person ( even this can be debated). what is actually required for sucess is high EQ.this in large part available with expiriance.
Meare education with out practical experience is just like writing sugar on a paper and licking but the workable knowledge is real sugar.There are engineers who can't connect a flourescent light fitting themselves.There are engineers who can thread by their teeth but they can't do it the dies and taps. The very purpose of studying for four years with the hard earned money of the parents is to carry out result oriented work and if it is not materialised, the golden time and money spent by the parents and the government is waste and they become dead wood and if these type of people by chance reaching the top position in any organisation will cause the organisation to doom
I thinks the discussion could be based on the type of product.
Comparision of Infosys and Reliance is Baseless, since they both are in different industries.
The initial struggle to set up their establishments was more or less similar.. Mr. Murthy got his first telephone connection after two years of filing an application.
Degree gives you a foundation..based on tried an tested concepts.. Work experience arms you with the knowledge of ground reality!!!
Combination of both is important..therefore i would say that education system should be designed in such a way that student have the opportunity to study and work at the same time.
The entreprenuership has nothing to do with degree but a good degree always comes handy in furthering the career & business prospects.It is no secret that till recently Reliance had few MBA in management team due to their aversion to engage professionals from highly rated institutes. It has now changed with Brothers taking over the command. The work experience can never be replaced by degree but degreee do help in attracting the talent.
Degrees earned through theoretical training provides foundation/base whereas hands on experience adds more to this base. I think combination of both is the best one than any one of them.