[alephnerd]

> Lucknow university was not toe-to-toe with anything

Back when my Nanu was helping with all this post-independence "mandirs of science" stuff in the 60s-70s period Lucknow University was fairly competitive in Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, and Aerospace because of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd - their secondary R&D and production center was Lucknow as it was close enough to Delhi for government oversight yet far enough that it wouldn't be impacted by a India-Pakistan War.

> universities were left in shambles

Yet Osmania, Panjab, Visevarya, Anna, etc continued to perform (and in some cases still do) in STEM.

They never truly declined in the 1960s-2000s period, while Bihar and UP's GDPs both crashed under Lalu and Mulayam, and largely because of de-industrialization in Eastern UP and Bihar due to their warped version of Lohiaism (which Lohia would have hated)