Address at the Deendayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University

Evolution of Higher Education with moral leadership

I am delighted to be here in the campus of Deendayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University. I greet the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, professors, teachers and staff for their contribution in shaping young minds to contribute to the nation in multiple fields. The Universities have to play a vital role in transforming the students into leaders in various fields by imparting value based education. Hence today I have selected the topic of discussion as "Evolution of Higher Education with moral leadership".

Last week I had met the Vice Chancellors of all the Central Universities. I thought of sharing with you two important results of the meeting. As you all know the research in the universities gives the quality teaching. Students and quality teaching in turn reinforce the university teaching and it should be research oriented. The second point came up is about the standing and excellence of the university which comes out of quality teachers. The quality teachers because of their intellectual and moral leadership attract the students for research and also they attract development programmes.

Expert teams have studied how India can be transformed into a developed nation. National development, is a collective process, 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.

Vision of the Nation

After 55 years of independence, aspirations are mounting that India should become a developed country. This is the second vision for the nation.

To become a developed India, the essential needs are (a) India has to be economically and commercially powerful, at least to be one of the four top nations in terms of size of economy. Our target should be a GDP growth of 9 percent annually and that the people below the poverty line to be reduced to near zero. (b) Near self-reliance in defence and needs of weapon, equipment with no umbilical attached to the outside world. (c) India should have a right place in world forums. Technology Vision 2020 is a pathway to realise this cherished mission.

We have identified five areas where India has core competence for an integrated action. (1) Agriculture and food processing - we have to place a target of 360 million tons of food and agricultural production. Other areas of agriculture and agro food processing would bring prosperity to rural people and speed up economic growth. (2) Reliable and quality electric power for all parts of the country. (3) Education and healthcare - we have seen, based on experience, education and healthcare are inter related. (4) Information communication technology - this is one of our core competences. We believe this area can be used to promote education in remote areas and also to create national wealth. (5) Strategic sectors - this area, fortunately, witnessed growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology. Other areas like advanced sensors and materials would need a push. The nation has a plan towards 70 percent near self-reliance in a decade in defence equipment.

These five areas are closely inter-related and would lead to national, food, and economic security. A strong partnership among the research and development, academia, industry and the community as a whole with Government departments will be essential to accomplish the Vision.

Knowledge powered PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas)

Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) is an example for creating rural wealth and prosperity. The model envisages a habitat designed to improve the quality of life in rural places and makes special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Naturally our most demanding urban problem is that of congestion removal and efficient supply of water and effective waste disposal in every locality are the paramount civic needs. There is a minimum size below which a habitat is not viable and not competitive with the existing congested city. At the same time, the existing congested city is not economical compared to a new town once a minimum size of expansion is crossed. As against a conventional city say, rectangular in shape and measuring approximately 10 kilometers by 6 kilometers, the model considers an annular ring-shaped town integrating a minimum of 8 to 10 villages of the same 60 square kilometer area. This model provides easy access to villages, saves transportation time and cuts costs substantially and is more convenient for the general public. Knowledge powered rural development is an essential need for transforming India into a knowledge power and high bandwidth rural connectivity is the minimum requirement to take education, health care and economic activities to the rural areas. Knowledge society leading to a knowledge super power can prosper and survive only in the environment of economic security and internal security. Physical connectivity by providing roads, electronic connectivity by providing a reliable communication network and knowledge connectivity by establishing professional institutions and vocational training centers will have to be done in an integrated way so that economic connectivity will emanate. Such a model of establishing a circular connectivity among the rural village complexes will accelerate the rural development process by empowerment.

Capacities for nation building

The most important mission for the nation for which you can contribute is creation of capacities for nation building. In the education environment - what kind of human beings do we want to make of ourselves? What capacities do we want to give our youth? If we want to give them certain capacities, we must ask capacity for what? 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. There is a road map, how to achieve this? There are five areas for simultaneous development: Agriculture and Food processing, Education and healthcare, Information and Communication Technology, Infrastructure development - including River network and self reliance in critical technologies.

For achieving the above mission, 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 children, 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.

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 the tools like hardware, software, laboratory equipments, internet facilities and provide an environment for the students to enhance their learning ability.

d. Entrepreneurial leadership

The Entrepreneurial leadership has three parts to it. First, problem finding and problem solving in the context of development. What do I most strongly feel is my need to know and learning this, how I can help others to satisfy their needs to know? Entrepreneurship starts with understanding our needs and realizing that as human beings we all have similar needs. It begins with wanting to help others as we help ourselves. In the second part, the willingness to take risk. Entrepreneurship requires doing things differently, being bold in our thinking and this is always risky. We must teach our students how to take calculated risks for the sake of larger gain. The third part is the disposition to do things right.

e. Moral leadership

Moral leadership involves two things. 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

Sir CV Raman led teaching and research in Physics and created great scientific leaders and also the birth of Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. I would like to quote Sir CV Raman, at the age of 82, while addressing young graduates. The message is still reverberating in my mind: "I would like to tell the young men and women before me not to lose hope and courage. Success can only come to you by courageous devotion to the task lying in front of you. I can assert without fear of contradiction that the quality of the Indian mind is equal to the quality of any Teutonic, Nordic or Anglo-Saxon mind. What we lack is perhaps courage, what we lack is perhaps driving force which takes one anywhere. We have, I think, developed an inferiority complex. I think what is needed in India today is the destruction of that defeatist spirit. We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun, a spirit which will recognise that we, as inheritors of a proud civilization, are entitled to a rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful destiny."

Those were the words from the Nobel laureate scientist of India. You would see the bridge of science and society. Friends, I request all who are responsible for the young, all who are creators of the young, for the childrens' growth, allow them to dream. Dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into actions.

The importance of connectivity

The universities of Uttar Pradesh should be connected to the other universities of excellence in the country through tele-education. The students of these universities should have a collaborative tele-education network for interacting with renowned scholars in various specialisations. Tele-education will provide knowledge connectivity and will facilitate the creation of a knowledge society, leading to enhanced wealth generation for national development. In order to bring a vibrant educational and research atmosphere, we need to initiate research programmes in collaboration with various scientific and research institutions in the country in the core competence area of the university. This networking will provide larger exposure to the students and the faculty of the university and enable enhanced employment and research opportunities.

I. Knowledge Technology and E-Learning

1. It is essential to use Information Technology extensively and provide interactive tele-education. Information and communication technology has to be used to connect the faculty, who will be teaching from this university, to multiple class rooms in various states. Probably fiber optic leased line cables or combination of Satellite line ( V-SAT ) can be used.

2. Today, technology is advanced to such an extent that we could even think of storing all the human knowledge in digital form. One initiative in this direction is of having a Universal Digital Library, irrespective of languages.

3. I would like to suggest that this university should aim to provide educational learning program in unique areas. Vocational programs in the areas of engineering, programming, may be offered to a large number of educated un-employed youth to make them employable.

4. Digital Library is coming in a big way. In India there is a program to digitize 250 million pages, say about one million books in two years' time. Modern technologies and machineries are available with us to carry-out this digitizing. Professor N. Balakrishnan of IISc, Bangalore is the co-ordinator for this program.

5. I would like to emphasize that women education has to be given highest priority. When the women are empowered, society with stability will get assured. We have to ensure the continuity of secondary education and university education for girls. It is essential to establish connectivity between the university and secondary schools. Distant education packages has to be evolved to cater towards women education. Periodically, secondary level students should be counseled to continue their education both in diploma level and degree level

What can I do for you?

Every one of us has gone through the various phases of education from childhood to profession. A scene appears in front of me. A child, a teenager, an adult and a leader. How does each one react to a particular situation? The situation is human need. The child asks, "What can you do for me"? The teenager says, "I want to do it alone". The young person proclaims, "let us do it together". The leader offers, "What can I do for you". So, the educational institutions have got a tremendous responsibility to transform a youth into a leader - the transformation of 'what can you do for me' to 'what can I do for you'. That will demand educationists and teachers to be visionaries with an inspiring capability. Also he has to ensure that Faculty members impart learning to the students in such a way as to bring out the best in them and for this, he has to be a good teacher himself. I am sure, the best of creativity among the students will emerge by integrated influence of teachers and parents on students.

Righteousness

Recently, I heard a hymn in one divine campus which I would like to share with you. The name of the hymn is 'Peace in the World':

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is a beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.

There is a order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. How to inject righteousness in the human heart? This is indeed the purpose of human creation - that is divinity. Can we inject this amongst students and teachers of this great institution which has a very beautiful environment? We are going through a complex situation as many of us are completely at war with ourselves, with society and with nation. At every instant there is a war in our mind, whether we should go in one direction or another. Whenever there is a dilemma, we must seek the wisdom from the Almighty to lead us to the path of righteousness through education with value system.

Conclusion

When the child is empowered by the parents, at various phases of growth, the child transforms into a responsible citizen. When the teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young human beings with value systems take shape. When the individual or a team is empowered with technology, transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When the leader of any institution empowers his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are empowered, society with stability and peace is assured. When political leaders of the nation empower the people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. The medium for transformation to developed India is empowerment at various levels with power of knowledge. This empowerment should lead to a prosperous, happy, secured and enlightened India. I wish all success to the members of this campus in this great mission.