President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday expressed his displeasure over “lack of conducive atmosphere” in the academia which was pushing the best talent towards regular jobs instead of critical research. Mukherjee asked the students to take up more research at higher education institutions and urged them to foster a spirit of inquiry, saying, “Knowledge is going to be the order of this age.”
“We have excellent IITs, NITs, management development institutions, where campus recruitment is very high, almost 100 per cent. And, many of the graduates from these top colleges are heading world-class institutions around the world. That is the bright side of it, and it makes me happy. But I am equally unhappy that no Indian scholar working in an Indian university, has won a Nobel Prize since 1930, when CV Raman, did it over 80 years ago. Therefore, the question is, perhaps we have not been able to create the kind of atmosphere conducive to do research,” he said.
The President was addressing a select gathering at the iconic Yellow Drawing Room of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, to mark the closing of the centenary celebrations of Ramjas College. He also released a centenary commemorative stamp and a special volume on the history of the college, set up in 1917.
“Surely, it is a good job to promote the production of a marketing company but surely promotion of sale of a detergent (brand) does not require the skill of an IIT graduate,” Mukherjee said.
“If they had given time and energy to do research, the country would have benefited much more. But, we should not put the onus squarely on these students and graduates... There is no dearth of talent in our country, but perhaps we need to build that atmosphere conducive for doing research, if we need to retain the bright minds,” he said.
The President also made a reference to a global ranking of top 200 universities, in which till two years ago, no Indian university had figured.
Mukherjee also recalled the life of famed mathematician Vashishtha Narayan Singh, hailing from a small town in Bihar, accomplished in the field of research at University of California.