The article points at some historic reasons for poor productivity in research, including unproductive competition among institutions due to a false sense of self sufficiency, lack of adequate research infrastructure at the institution level and, the long standing government policy in India that has considered teaching to be the core activity in our University system. It emphasizes the need for collaborative action across institutions that by themselves do not have the wherewithal to upgrade the quality of research. It also stresses the need to build specialized competence in individual faculty members to strive for excellence in a core academic activity, be it research, teaching or executive training and administration. The traditional view of a faculty being a superior performer in all aspects of academics may not yield the results needed to attain global standards of excellence.