President calls for tapping of potential from universities

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee today said that a large pool of talent was lying untapped in Indian universities, which once channelised, could make India a world leader in education.

Underlining that research was key to tapping this potential, the President asked vice-chancellors of Central universities to make the institutions launch pads of innovative ideas.

“India can be a world leader in education, if only we discover the will and leadership to take us to that pinnacle,” Pranab told the second Conference of VCs of Central universities at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

“There is huge potential of these institutions which lies untapped. The brilliance of our scholars and the exuberance of young students is waiting to be channelised into positive action,” he said, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement.

He called upon Central universities to be the launch pads of innovative ideas and institutionalise structures that can identify ingenuous ideas and mentor them into viable products, the statement said.

He expressed appreciation that in the last one year Innovation Clubs had been set up in 22 Central universities and urged remaining CUs to take such pro-active steps.

Mukherjee said a roadmap needed to be prepared after so that issues that were deliberated at the conference could be addressed properly.

The conference was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Human Resource Devlopment Minister MM Pallam Raju and other ministers, VCs of 40 Central universities and officials ofthe UGC and NITs.

The President also expressed concern over large vacancies in Central varsities.

“The vacancy figure which stood at 6,422 last year is now down to only 4,784, which shows just 25 percent of the vacant posts have been filled up,” the statement said.

Underlining the importance of research, Mukherjee said research projects should be undertaken vigorously in these institutes.

“Research is the keystone for widening India’s production potential and Universities must be the hotbeds of research activity,” he said.

He also expressed concern over Indian universities not ranking among the top ones of the world and asked the institutions to take the ranking process “seriously” and appoint a nodal authority to present their achievements to the ranking agencies in proper perspective.

The President also said the situation with regard to indiscipline by students and staff is grave and called for maintaining of discipline in the varsities. “Maintenance of discipline in campuses should be the highest priority of authorities so that an environment where students can study and research without stress or fear can be created,” he said.

Mukherjee also suggested the VCs to engage their alumni in the governance of Universities and prepare a database of alumni who can be involved in the governance of the institutions.

PTI