Mysuru: “The country should strengthen its research capabilities to build a strong nation as India stands third behind United States and China in higher education in the world,” said General President of Indian Science Congress Association and former University of Mysore Vice-Chancellor Prof. K.S. Rangappa.

He was speaking after inaugurating the seven-day National Workshop on ‘Scientific Equipment: Application and Data Analysis in Advanced Research’ organised by Institution of Excellence and University of Mysore at the Vijnana Bhavan premises, in Manasagangothri, here recently. “India is a country with 1.3 billion population, but there are only 216 researchers per million, whereas China has 1,200 researchers per million, while France and United States have 4,300 per million population,” he said and added, “There are about 1,61,412 students enrolled in Ph.D programmes in 2018. This is less than 0.5 per cent of the total enrolment in higher education in the country.”

If one has to aim for a ‘world-class’ University then it cannot be devoid of research as  teaching and research go hand-in-hand. Institutes around the world are reaping the benefits of adopting Under Graduate (UG) research as a practice; there are some Universities such as the MIT that have moved over to a second phase of advanced UG research. However, to control the dwindling number of researchers in the country and tackle the problem of sub-standard research output, it is imperative for both Central and State Governments to experiment with a concept that has proven results in many other places across the world, said Prof. Rangappa.

Recalling the time when he was the VC and had invited 11 Nobel Laureates during the Centenary Celebrations of University of Mysore, he said that in his personal discussions with them about the improvement of educational quality at the University, most of them were of the strong opinion that India has got an excellent and brilliant manpower and this need to be employed in higher education and research.

Former Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Chancellor, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Dr. S. Ayyappan said that there were several challenges in the field of agriculture that continue to remain unsolved. However, it can be solved with a blend of technology and scientific equipment to form a multi-disciplinary approach.

But, he pointed out to a worrying factor that there are still areas in agriculture where equipment are not used. Only 25 to 30 per cent of the capacity of the equipment is being explored as farmers lack adequate knowledge on using it, he added. University of Mysore Vice-Chancellor  Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar, Coordinator of Vijnana Bhavan Dr. S. Chandra Nayak and others were present.