Two-day India Higher Education Summit – 2019 begins in city

Mysuru: Investment on Science and Technology will be the foundation of future India, said Bharat Ratna Prof. C.N.R. Rao. He was delivering the keynote address at the two-day India Higher Education Summit – 2019, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which began at Hotel Radisson Blu here this morning. Prof. Rao spoke through video conferencing from JC Bose Centre at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru

The summit is being held with the theme “Innovation in Education for a Competent Industry.” Prof. Rao, who is the National Research Professor, Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President, JNCASR, said that India needs to give more importance to Research and Innovation and added that the Chinese and the Americans are on the top because they stressed more on research and innovation.

He further said that there is a need for more investment in education as the investment is only 3% now which should go up to 6%. Stating that education at schools nowadays is boring as it is limited only to classroom teaching, Prof. Rao said that students should be given opportunities to study in a peaceful atmosphere rather than confining them to a room.

Opportunities should be given for innovations at universities and students should not be limited only to textbooks, he said and added that India has bright students who are without any opportunities.

Former Minister Prof. B.K. Chandrashekar regretted that the faculty has no freedom to teach and the students have no freedom to learn what they want because Universities depend on Governments and the University Grants Commission (UGC) for funds and hence they (Universities) have to listen to what they say and teach what they are told to teach.

He further said that the rules which were formed in 1954 are still being followed without any changes and added that Universities should create their own funds and must lessen the dependency on the governments so that they can form their own rules and provide better and quality education. Academic institutions need freedom, he opined.

Stating that the examination process should be reformed, Prof. Chandrashekar said that despite high security from the time of printing question papers and distributing them, still question papers are leaked. He said that he has no hopes on the improvement of Higher Education in the State and added that syllabus and examination patterns should be changed.

More than 300 academicians, industrialists, corporates and others are taking part in the summit being held in four broad sessions: (1) Innovation in Higher Education (2) Changes in Policy and Education Delivery Infrastructure (3) Science: Engineering & Technology and Medical Education (4) Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Management Education.

CII Mysuru Zone Chairman Bhaskar Kalale, Vice-Chairman Amit Kumar, N. Muthukumar, President and Whole Time Director of Automotive Axles, Advisor of JSS, Mahavidyapeeta Prof. M.H. Dhananjaya, JSS University Vice-Chancellor Dr. B. Suresh, University of Mysore Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar and others were present.