An Indian industrialist’s $50-million contribution to Harvard Business School—the largest international gift it has ever received—has raised questions about why Indians prefer to give to foreign universities rather than to Indian ones.

Announced last week, the gift by Ratan Tata, a graduate of the business school, is intended to finance a new building and support executive-education programs. It comes on the heels of a $5.2-million gift to Harvard by the family of Narayan Murthy, founder of the Indian information-technology giant Infosys Limited, and a $10-million contribution to the Harvard Humanities Center by the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate.

In the Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of the Centre for Policy Research, wonders about the focus on assisting American institutiona. While giving to India’s higher-education system can be a challenge, he says,  “there is a danger that we are letting this argument become a self-fulfilling one.” If more donors were interested in supporting Indian institutions, then those universities would become better at seeking and using their resources, he argues.

The Daily News & Analysis editorializes that while “the Harvards of the world emphasize excellence over every other ideal,” the same cannot be said of India’s bureaucratic universities. For that reason, it predicts that Indian philanthropists will continue their giving abroad.