BENGALURU: Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan said that competition for the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is more global rather than national, and institutes must work towards creating a knowledge society within India.Gopalakrishnan, speaking as the guest of honour at the IISc convocation on Wednesday, said that for India to grow, it must rely not only on government funding, but also on industries-funding research as well as philanthropists.
“If India has to become a developed country, it will need to be at the top of science and technology. We must become a truly knowledge society and a society that is built on our own ideas, IP, products and enterprises. This requires not just government funding, but funding from industries into research as well as funding from philanthropists,” he said.
Gopalakrishnan lauded Mindtree co-founder Subroto Bagchi for his family’s recent contribution towards building a multi-speciality hospital on the IISc campus. Meanwhile, Bagchi said that support must not only come from funding, but also active involvement. “I learnt early on that we must make big commitments to small institutions and the most precious contribution we can make to them is by making ourselves available.
We can only be great global citizens when we make ourselves locally relevant,” he said. The convocation, held on Wednesday, saw 246 PhD scholars and postgraduate students, as well as 98 undergraduate students, conferred their degrees. Further, 64 students were also conferred medals for their excellence in academics.