Address at the Meeting of the Vice Chancellors of Technical Universities

Nation Building - Mission of Technical Universities

I am indeed delighted to meet the Vice Chancellors of technical universities and the Principals of Engineering Colleges in this beautiful city. My greetings to all of you, for your valuable contribution in shaping the young minds in multiple technology fields. For that reason I have almost met all the Vice Chancellors of the country in different meetings including the VCs of central universities. I was asking myself, why this mission? What is the purpose? Our universities are generating every year nearly three hundred thousand scientists, engineers and at least ten times more graduates in various other disciplines including commerce, management, arts, literature etc. This is a big young force and the Vice Chancellors are giving the leadership for this force. This force without a mission is indeed a source of instability for the society, that is why, I was with VCs of Bihar, VCs of J&K, VCs of AP, VCs of central universities and nearly two hundred VCs at Tirupati meet. I would like to share with you, what I have learnt from these meetings. There is a necessity to connect India's Vision 2020, that is transforming India into a developed country and the mission of universities in the coming two decades, particularly since the vision of developed India by 2020 has become a reality.

Technical Universities have a major responsibility in nation building through enriching Science, Engineering and Technology and by providing value based education to students to make them moral leaders. Hence, today I have selected the topic for my discussion as "Nation Building - Mission of Technical Universities".

Results of deliberations - Vice Chancellors meet

Based on my meetings with the VCs, I would like to share with you some of the important aspects. First and foremost point was on research tasks in the university. The extent of the research work undertaken by an University becomes a measure of judgment and representation for that university. Experience of research leads to quality teaching, and quality teaching imparted to the young in turn enriches the research and higher learning. Research brings transformation and development and also enhances the quality of education. This sets in a regenerative cycle of excellence.

The second point was about the standing and excellence of the university to build moral leadership to the student. Hence, quality of research and teaching will attract students from many parts of the country, creating new environment and base for development of the Nation.

Dynamics of development

Research today, not only has become important but is now becoming the driving force in the process of self-reliance of all cutting edge technologies. Research in certain universities has been the main contributor and the guiding force in realizing their core competence. Our road map for the next few decades will see many new frontiers in the areas of Nano-science and precision engineering, space technology, advanced materials and composite technology, biotechnology in the fields of drugs and pharmaceuticals etc. It is imperative, that universities come together to realize the importance of these areas and the impact they have in shaping the future. There are 13 scientific organizations like ISRO, DRDO, DAE, DBT, CSIR, DST, DOD, etc., spending more than Rs.500 crores per year in sponsored research. What is needed today is an appropriate networking of universities with these scientific organizations and other government departments to spearhead important research programmes in the emerging areas. The networking of the universities with the above organizations will provide the necessary inputs in realizing self-reliance in the years to come. With this in mind the DST and other departments have introduced novel schemes such as REACH (Relevance and Excellence in ACHieving new heights in educational institutes). Indian industry is working endlessly on ways and means to achieve better quality products. They look to other countries for technology transfer. Instead universities can help the industry through the research projects. In fact, the universities must take a lead in networking of multiple organizations and industries with them. Vice Chancellors should provide opportunities to the students and teachers to undertake advanced research which will enhance our knowledge base and core competence. The universities will get transformed into Centres of Excellence in specific areas.

Virtual Technical University

It is time that we should start looking at the possibility of creating a Virtual Technical University in India through networking of all technical universities and other S&T institutions for imparting universal tele-education with their core competence. Virtual technical university will have the following tasks:

a) Act as a central hub of all technical universities which are networked.

b) Identify experts of national/international eminence in specialized areas and develop the quality educational content and deliver it through e-learning and tele-education tools.

c) Coordinate, organize, schedule and broadcast the lecture of specialists at a mutually convenient time to all participants.

d) Record live transmission of lectures with interaction details in a data bank for easy access by participants for review learning.

e) Digitize all the technical university libraries and make it available for seamless access by all the users.

f) The virtual technical university should become learner centric.

This experiment across the country will provide a common platform for imparting specialized technological knowledge including various vocational programmes. This facility would also help in expansion of telecommunication and IT services among the participating institutions. All this would lead to synergising the strengths of different technical universities in promoting quality education to our students in a cost effective manner.

Partner to Developed India - Missions

Transformation of India into a developed nation will need integrated action in the following areas namely: Agriculture and Food Processing, Education and Health care, Information and Communication Technology, Infrastructure and self-reliance in critical technologies. The key elements which require immediate attention for national development are Interlinking of rivers and Providing Urban facilities in Rural Areas (PURA). The core competence available at various universities will empower you for contributing in these national missions.

Interlinking of rivers is essential for flood and drought control, for availability of drinking water to all regions, for goods navigation and transportation for increased power generation, cultivation land and environmental ecology. This mission will also provide employment opportunities to the rural population. Remote sensing to survey and evolve optimum water routes, environmental mapping and afforestation requirements and Ground Information System (GIS) from satellite constellation. Above all, the interlinking will lead to enhancement of environment and national connectivity. It is an interdisciplinary task involving many specialists from various fields of Science and Technology. Technical universities should actively involve in the interlinking of rivers task force and be partners of this mega mission.

Outreach to Societies

a. Literacy Mission

The universities have the prime responsibilities for education, research and creating enlightened citizens. Let us look beyond the campus and see what opportunities we have to help the society. One of the possible schemes is to undertake a literacy mission to the nearby rural areas. We have nearly 300 universities and 11000 colleges, and also six hundred thousand villages. If the universities can reach to villages in 10 kms distance and help 10,000 adults to be educated and each college helps 1000 adults educated, we will see in a two year period 14 million adults getting educated. If this process continues for a period of 10 years we will be in a position to educate almost all the adults in this country. Some universities and colleges have attempted adult literacy campaign with the help of municipalities and panchayat unions and district education centres. The survey showed that nearly 80% of the adults were very keen to learn.

Universities also can organize exhibitions and camps at villages to enable the village population to up-date themselves and become part of the development of this nation. The Education Bill passed by the Parliament makes education compulsory upto the age of 14 years. This two-pronged approach of primary and secondary education in schools and adult education led by the universities will enhance the literacy percentage to more than 85%.

b. Development of Rural Areas

For India to be a developed nation, it is essential that there is a massive scheme for development of the rural areas, as 70% of our population lives in villages. Hence the Government has announced the introduction of a scheme called PURA i.e. Providing Urban Amenities in Rural areas. PURA model envisages habitat design to improve the quality of life in rural areas and also removes urban congestion. It is essentially conceived around four types of connectivities with the aim to speed up process of achieving total rural prosperity. Physical connectivity enables high mobility to villagers so that they can interact and use common infrastructure such as school, health centres and markets. The electronic connectivity with telephones and internet facilities bring them together and interact with anyone anywhere in the world. Knowledge connectivity will transform the rural area in education, health care, application of science for crop, water and forest and management, environment protection and cooperative product marketing. The combination of all these three connectivities provides the economic connectivity with small-scale industries, agro and food processing, warehouses, micro power plants, renewable energy farms and banks. The four connectivities will bring prosperity to the villagers and improve quality of life.

Enlightened citizens

Expert teams have studied how India can be transformed into a developed nation. National development, is a collective process, and has to be accomplished through the constructive efforts of enlightened citizens. The evolution of enlightened human beings is indeed a big challenge for the world community. I was asking myself, what will be the components of such a mission? There are three components to that. The first component is education with value system, second is religions graduating into spiritual forces to bring universal brotherhood and the third is poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity through a national vision.

Another important mission for the nation for which you can contribute is creation of capacities for nation building. In the education environment we want to give our youth the capacity for contributing to economic development and nation building. What kind of nation does India want to build? India transforming into a developed nation by 2020, is the vision of the nation.

For realizing the above vision, the capacities required in educational institutions are: The capacity for research or inquiry, the capacity for Creativity and Innovation, particularly the creative transfer of knowledge, the capacity to use high technology, the capacity for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the capacity for Moral Leadership.

a. Research and enquiry

The 20th century was for the generation of knowledge. The 21st century will be about the management of all the knowledge and information we have generated and give value to it. We must give our youth, the skills with which they find a way through the sea of knowledge that we have created. Today, we have the ability, through technology, to really and truly teach ourselves and to become the life-long learners that any sustained economic and political development requires.

b. Creativity and innovation

We can best teach ourselves by teaching others. The management of knowledge in 21st century is beyond the capacity of individuals. The amount of information that we have is overwhelming and has exceeded the capacity of individuals. The management of knowledge therefore must move out of the realm of the individual and into the realm of the society. We must learn how to manage knowledge collectively. In other words we must not only teach ourselves, but teach others.

c. Capacity to use of high technology

Every student in our colleges should graduate to know how to use the latest technologies for aiding their learning process. Colleges should equip themselves with adequate computing equipment, laboratory equipments, Internet facilities and provide an environment for the students to enhance their learning ability.

d. Entrepreneurship

When a student goes out of the College/University campus after graduation, he or she should have the confidence to start enterprise individually or jointly. Entrepreneurship development should become a part of university education. The entrepreneurial leadership has three parts. First, statement of the problem and its solution in the context of development. In second part, the entrepreneurs should have the willingness to take risk and be bold to do things differently. We must teach our graduates to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. The third part is the disposition to do things right. This capacity will enable them to take up national tasks.

There has been substantial growth in our higher educational system and we are generating over 3 million graduates every year. However our employment generation system is not in a position to absorb the graduates passing out from the universities leading to increase in educated unemployed, year after year. This situation will lead to instability in the social structure. We need higher education backed by employment opportunities. A multi pronged strategy is needed to make education more attractive and simultaneously create employment potential - how do we do that?

Firstly, the educational system should highlight the importance of entrepreneurship and prepare the students right from the college education to get oriented towards setting up of the enterprises which will provide them creativity, freedom and ability to generate wealth. Apart from entrepreneurship, the youth should have the spirit that "we can do it". Secondly, the banking system should provide venture capital right from every village level to the prospective entrepreneurs for undertaking new enterprises. Banks have to be proactive to support the innovative products for enabling wealth generation by young entrepreneurs by setting aside the "conventional tangible asset syndrome". Definitely this involves certain amount of calculated risks which can be eliminated by making an analysis of successful venture capital enterprises. Thirdly, there is a need to identify marketable products and enhancement of purchasing power among the people. This can come through the implementation of mega programmes such as PURA, Interlinking of Rivers, Infrastructural missions, Power missions and Tourism. Also genuine border trade can improve if we have a friendly border in all sectors.

The universities should become a facilitator for creating this entrepreneurship scheme through the support of the banking system and the marketing system. This is one way of reducing the employment gap leading to upliftment of the 260 million people living below the poverty line.

e. Moral leadership

Moral leadership involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment. A state of things in which human beings could be better off in the future than they are now. Secondly, where entrepreneurial leadership requires people to acquire the habit of doing things right, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do the right thing

Indomitable Spirit

When the students complete the course in the university and enter into the world of opportunities he or she should have the confidence with indomitable spirit acquired from their teachers teaching. If people think big, a nation becomes great. Particularly the young population of India definitely has self esteem and confidence. The challenge in the missions of the developed India calls for an important, cohesive and focused efforts of the young. For success in any mission what we need is indomitable spirit. Let us study the characteristics of indomitable spirit. It has two components. The first component is that there must be a Vision leading to higher goals of achievement. I would like to recall a couplet from Thirukkural by the Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar written 2200 years ago.

Quote:

It means that whatever may be the depth of the river or lake or pond, whatever may be the condition of the water, the lilly flower always comes out and blossoms. Similarly, if there is a definite determination to achieve a goal, even against insurmountable problems, he or she will succeed.

The second component is the ability to overcome all hurdles coming in the way of mission accomplishment. Many of us have gone through large programmes and projects. We would have experienced that success is not in sight and there are many hurdles. The same poet reminds us at this point of time through another couplet:

It means successful leaders can never be defeated by problems. They become master of the situation and defeat the problems. I consider these two Thirukkural characterize the indomitable spirit. I am sure all of you who have assembled here will rise to the occasion and develop leaders enlightened citizens.

Conclusion

The twenty-first century belongs to knowledge society and it has opened up tremendous opportunities in every field. The universities have a vital role to utilize this opportunity and become incubators of knowledge creation and innovation. It is essential to enrich research tasks in multiple areas and build R&D infrastructure for world-class research, in order to make the universities as institutions of higher learning. Each university must strive to have its own core competence and 'brand' for itself. The universities have also the responsibility to shape the students as enlightened citizens. They need to spread their wings in societal missions in the nearby rural areas.

The vision 2020, PURA and Networking of rivers are multidisciplinary areas calling for front research and development that are cutting edge even in a developed nation. The R & D in these areas are not only intellectually challenging but also of relevance to our nation's future. These are fertile grounds that can stimulate the ever alert minds of the students of the Technical Universities across the country.

My best wishes to all the Vice Chancellors for success in all your missions.