NEW DELHI, Nov 7:
President Pranab Mukherjee today said government’s effort to increase “quantity” in higher education exponentially must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve “quality”.
Inaugurating conference of Directors of National Institutes of Technology, first-ever convened by a President, Mukherjee noted the Government is investing huge amount of resources in higher education.
“The effort to increase ‘quantity’ exponentially must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve ‘quality’. We must lead our institutions into the ranks of the best such institutions in the world,” he said.
“This is for the first time that such a Conference is being convened by the President, who is Visitor to all NITs,” a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
Mukherjee said India’s biggest strength in the coming years is going to be her demographic dividend.
The President said more than 50 percent of the population is under 25 and soon one-fifth of the world’s working age population will be in India.
“This dividend is, however, something we cannot take for granted. We must urgently equip our youth with necessary skills and jobs,” he said.
Underlining the successful launch of country’s Mars mission, the President said the model set by ISRO scientists must be emulated in other areas as well.
Mukherjee said this conference was being held just two days after India attained a very significant milestone in the field of space exploration through the launch of the Mangalaayan Mission.
“Our space scientists and engineers have repeatedly demonstrated that given determination, leadership, hard work and resources, India is fully capable of attaining global excellence in fields of frontier technology. The example set by ISRO can be emulated in a large number of other sectors in our country,” Mukherjee said.
He said engineers play a very important role in every walk of life.
“They convert knowledge of basic sciences into products. They are versatile minds who build bridges between sciences, technology and society. They contribute to the nation’s technological and industrial progress,” he said.
The President said IITs and NITs play an important role by nurturing world class engineers who are not only professionally competent but also committed to mastering frontier areas of technology, improving quality of life of countrymen and taking nation to new heights of achievement.
He expressed the hope that NITs of India will play a central role in leading the drive for quality engineering education across the country.
The President said NITs must evolve clear strategies to encourage research and development, which then leads on to innovation and patents.
“Engineering institutions like NITs must work towards making the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy a success. They must mentor grassroots innovators to develop their ideas into useful products that benefit the common man,” he said. (PTI)