President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday took up the cause of key programmes of the Modi Government with the National Institutes of Technology (NIT). He exhorted the NITs to be at the forefront of bridging the digital divide in the country in view of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives launched by the Government.
He also asked the Directors of the NITs to adopt at least one village each on the lines of ‘Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojna’ during his address at the two-day conference of NIT Directors.“NITs should also be at the forefront of bridging the digital divide, income asymmetries and rural-urban differentiation in the country especially in view of the ‘Make in India’ and the ‘Digital India’ initiatives unveiled by the Government,” he said.
Asking NITs to deepen their involvement with society by creating model villages worthy of replication across the country, he said, “They must source, if required, experts from other Central institutions to provide solutions to the wide mosaic of issues that such a transformation to model villages will entail.”This was the second conference of Directors of NITs during the present Presidency and is part of the regular and focused interaction the President is having with Central Universities, IITs and IISERs in his capacity as Visitor to these institutions.
Pointing out that most of central the institutions in thecountry were facing acute shortage of faculty at all levels, the President said during his recent visit to Norway and Finland, he had called upon the scientists, researchers and academics amongst Indian diaspora to become a part of Indian campuses, either on a full time or a part time basis, as regular, visiting or adjunct faculty.