Varsities should encourage industry-academia interaction: Javadekar

NEW DELHI : Universities should encourage academia-industry interaction on campuses to improve learning and not just restrict it to placements, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said and stressed on quality research and innovation.
“The campus has to be a place for industry-academia interaction not just for placements … It should be a place where people from the industry come for lectures, while students go for earning experience,” he said at an event organised by Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College.
The minister also emphasised that quality research and innovation is essential to take the country ahead in all fields including management.
He rued that despite accounting for 17 per cent of the world’s population, India does not have a commensurate share in global trade. “It is because we have not yet developed our technology to that level and are not cost competitive,” he said.
The minister spoke about the role of better management practices in taking the country in this direction and said research and innovation will usher in the “Age of India” in world trade.
“The country needs ethical managers and not just smart and skilled managers,” Javadekar said.
On the trend of “exceedingly” high cut-offs, he said even the families of children who secure 90 per cent marks are not happy. “We used to score that much in two years,” he quipped. (AGENCIES)