It’s about time the world’s largest democracy got some attention around these parts.

Last month’s $50 million gift from a philanthropic fund largely controlled by mega-industrialist Ratan Tata ’62 will go a long way towards strengthening Cornell’s academic and human ties with India, and the half of the gift allocated to endow scholarships for Indians in need will do much to increase the economic diversity of the international student body. “Any person ... any study,” indeed.

It’s true that Cornell has been involved with India on issues like health and agriculture for more than 50 years. Last year, President David Skorton even visited. But of late, Old Uncle Ezra’s wandering eye has more often explored his infatuation with the world’s largest unfree state, China.

We support Cornell’s engagement with China and commend Skorton’s Obama-esque decision to travel to Iran to meet with top Iranian professors and scientists (we hear it’s without preconditions!), and we believe that building relationships with these countries can only serve to liberalize them.

But we can’t help but be glad Cornell is finally turning some serious attention to the Indians, who, unlike the Chinese, somehow manage to administer a population of more than a billion with free and fair elections — instead of beatings, torture, political imprisonments and single-party rule.

It’s also terrific to see Tata’s eponymous holding company, Tata Group, chipping in. Tata controls an enormous conglomerate whose total holdings are something like U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, General Electric and General Motors combined — and, given India’s size, writ large. In an age of corporate greed, it is heartening to see that some masters of the universe still see fit to follow in the traditions of great philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller. Carnegie began life as a poor Scottish immigrant, and Rockefeller was born in a decrepit boxcar not 17 miles from here. While Tata comes from a long line of business-minded Tatas, he too is interested in building the next generation of Horatio Algers. $25 million of the donation will endow a scholarship fund to give a world-class education — and a world of opportunity — to students who might not otherwise be able to afford either.

Without impugning the kinds of Cornell donors who like to see their names on the fronts of buildings (we need you, too!), Tata’s gift is a chunk of change we can believe in.