President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday stressed the urgent need to improve the declining education standards in the country while sharing the proud details of the recent achievements of the country at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the 26th Convocation ceremony of the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
In fact, India with over 4,200 start-ups has the third largest start-ups eco-system in the world, behind the US and the UK, said the President. “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,” said Mukherjee.
He said that through promoting such institutions of excellence, by bringing in quality faculty, establishment of research parks, cutting edge-research can be sought, which will further help in developing a world-class eco system in the institutions of our country.
The President also said that institutes can also pursue establishment of partnerships with foreign and domestic institutions by signing Memoranda of Understanding. “There was a need for giving a boost to start-ups to provide a head-start to various innovative activities. I urge the faculty and students of BIT Mesra to continue to thrust on socially responsive projects through science and technology. The students should graduate from such institutions to not become job seekers but, emerge out as job-creators,” said the President.
He also reminded the audience of the time when India played a crucial role in imparting higher quality of education and knowledge with universities like Nalanda, Vikramsila and Taxila flourishing and that the trend should not just fade away.
The President stressed over the continuous fight of the 250 million people still struggling with poverty and said that the burden of the battle is on the shoulders of the youth of the country. While he addressed the mineral-rich state of Jharkhand as the undivided land of Bihar, he said that the overall socio-economic progress of the entire society has to be moulded with the advancement of the particular educated class. He applauded the success of the country’s top two universities that have figured on the top 200 institutions in the world--Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Delhi IIT and urged the students to compete and enter the global list.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das congratulated the students of BIT wherein he referred to the students as ‘Aan, ban and shaan of Jharkhand’. He announced that the state will do every bit in ensuring the institute emerges out as one of the top in the global list.
Das also stressed that the there is a need for the big industrialists to invest in the state. “The state is offering a single window system for industries and the automobile policy will also come out in a months’ time. The policy of the state government is based on the principle of ‘skill, scale and speed’ and now that you all have acquired skill, the scale and speed needs to step in to maximize the benefit of the skill to help Jharkhand shine and India reach further heights,” said the CM.
Governor Draupadi Murmu in her welcome speech said that there is immense potential for industrial growth in this rich and naturally beautiful state that offers hardworking manpower.
“Institutions like BIT could look at the possibility of imparting specific technical skills to the people in those areas of Jharkhand where large projects are being established. Illuminated youth from Engineering institutes or from the field of Business Management should surely be motivated enough to initiate their own enterprises,” said Murmu.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Board of Governors of the Institution announced huge investments planned for the upgradation of the academic structure and infrastructure over the next three years. “The institutions will be investing Rs 200 crore for upgrading the academic structure over the next three years and has also decided to increase the scholarship amount from Rs 75 lakh per year to lakh per year to Rs 2 crore annually,” said CK Birla.
He also declared that the institution’s board has approved the setting up of GP Birla Centre for Innovated Start-ups that excited the current students of the institution. The highly motivating speeches by all the dignitaries present at the event ended with the degrees conferred to the students and the gold medals awarded to the 12 students who have shown outstanding academic performance.