“The change will not happen overnight.  In 1984, India had only two million  telephone lines and today seven million lines are being added every month.  A similar revolution will happen in the higher education sector in the next few years,” Mr Pitroda said from Chicago via a video conference link.

He was responding to questions from delegates in Bangalore at a seminar organised by Bangalore University and Centre for Educational Social Studies to discuss the recommendations of the NKC report on higher education.  The commission in its report had said that the number of universities in the country need to increase from the present 350 to 1,500 universities by 2015.


He said the Planning Commission was also discussing the suggestions made by the NKC for a four-fold increase in number of graduates. The centre is working on a strategy and looking at an investment of nearly 30 billion dollars to achieve the target, he said.

He said the research and teaching need to go hand in hand.

No research
“In India scientists do not teach,  whereas teachers have no resources to do research. This should change,” he said Higher Education Minister D H Shankaramurthy wanted a remedy from Mr Pitroda to some of the burning problems faced by the State in the education sector.

Students are not taking up teaching, everybody wants to take up IT, he said. Mr Pitroda said the salary structure need to improve in other sectors.

“If a engineering graduate can get a salary of Rs 50,000 soon after college, why will he become a teacher where the take home is Rs 10,000 per month. The youth are after wealth and we need to accept the fact,” he said. He said that it was for the older generation to take up social service and it was wrong to expect sacrifices from the younger generation for societal building.