HYDERABAD: President Pranab Mukherjee, who was on a day-long visit here to attend distinctive ceremonies at two distinct universities in the city, stressed on the sad state of basic research in the country at one event and praised the hard work and collective energies in the areas of language sciences, teacher education and research at the other. However, the common thread remained that sustaining and reinvigorating higher education has become a major challenge, especially so in public institutions.
While addressing a gathering of students, alumni and professors at the inaugural of centenary celebrations at Osmania University, the President rued the country is lagging far behind in basic research, innovation and that excellence in education cannot be achieved if these aspects were neglected.
Recalling his conversation with director of IIT-Kharagpur, the president said that the institution has 100 per-cent placement rate and quite large number of ex-students are devoted to basic research abroad, but not in India.
“When you are celebrating 100-years of your prestigious institution, dear students, esteemed faculty members, I will urge you to look into this aspect. We are lagging far behind in basic research, innovation and we cannot attain excellence in education if this aspects is neglected,” President Pranab Mukherjee said.
Later in the day, speaking at the first ever convocation of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), he said “This University of international repute emerged due to hard work and collective energies of people with international reputation. Today EFLU stands out among the Universities of South Asia with specialized competencies in the areas of language, literary and cultural pedagogies, language sciences, teacher education and research.” He hoped that research profile of this university can play a significant role in reorienting higher education in the country as well as in other emerging nations.