President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday described IITs as “knowledge leaders” of the nation and asked them to explore how quality of education can be improved and good governance brought in to help the institutes of higher learning compete with the best in the world.
Inaugurating a first of its kind day-long conference of chairmen, board of governors and directors of IITs at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukherjee called upon the Council of IIT’s to draw up a roadmap for governance in line with the best global practices and implement it without any delay. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and HRD Minister Smriti Irani were also present at the conference.
“There is need for soul searching on what is holding back good governance in institutes of higher learning. If our institutes of higher learning are to compete with the best in the world, governance of these institutes must be comparable to the best in the world,” he said.
The President also shared the concerns of the Prime Minister over the country’s dependence on other countries for import of technology from security features and papers for Indian currency to defence equipment despite having technical capabilities to put satellites of other countries into space.
“We need to see how the technologies developed by IIT’s and future research in IIT’s can be used to meet the technology requirements of the nation. The Council of IIT’s should focus on how IIT’s can become a source for meeting technology needs of Government and become a harbinger of the vision — Make in India and Made in India,” Mukherjee said.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister asked the IITs to come together to find innovative solutions to the problems of the common man. He said they should take up the challenge of making products for which India is critically dependent on imports. “Science is universal. Technology must be local,” the PM said, calling upon IITs to bring about a “positive change” in the quality of life of the people in the country.
Citing examples of a range of defence and health sector equipment and sensitive and security-related items like currency ink and tear gas which are imported, he exuded confidence that India has the talent to produce them indigenously. “I refuse to believe that India does not have the talent to make these things” the PM said, asking the IITs to take up such challenges. Modi also asked them to contribute towards user-friendly innovation in Indian Railways.