President Pranab Mukherjee Stressed on Better Education through Foreign and Domestic Tie Ups

In order to balance the declining standard of education in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee said that measures need to be taken in this regard. He said, “Multiple interventions are necessary. Attracting quality and continuous faculty development is one. Adjunct faculty from the industry and research institutions, if hired, can provide practical orientation to course modules.”

The President was present at the 26^th Convocation of the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, in which he inaugurated the diamond jubilee celebrations and said that by promoting centres of excellence the basic competencies of any institute could be addressed and nurtured. He stressed on the fact that the Indian institutes should establish healthy educational partnerships with foreign and domestic institutions in the form of signing memorandum of understandings, for the greater good. He also said that there is a need to boost the start-ups in the country and give a positive response to the innovative activities germinating in young minds over the country.

The President in this regard added, “Due to facilitated environments that have evolved, the youth today has a greater share for entrepreneurship. Many start-ups in India have become successful and have shown the path of progress to others.” India has over 4200 start-ups and is the third largest start-up eco-system in the entire world leaving behind superpower like US and UK. He pointed clearly to the responsibility of the higher educational institutes and authorities to refine the entrepreneurial abilities in the students and encourage them to take the leap of faith. He said that the students should rather become job-creators rather remaining job-seekers in the country, where employment is in scarce state of affairs. He further said that by collaborating with other higher educational institute in domestic and international level there could be a mutual sharing of academic expertise, course materials, students and faculty exchanges and huge scope of joint collaborative research to share new ideas and practices.

He concluded by saying, “Towards this end, it will be worthwhile to properly harness the existing information and communication technology networks like the National Knowledge Network.”