Universities must create conducive environment for students

Delivering the convocation address at the 46th annual convocation of the Bangalore University, he said universities must create a conducive enviroment "so that talents can blossom and students become positive individuals".

"Any attempt to divert the minds of our students to narrower goals will convert our younger population into a pattern of bonsai", he said He advised the teaching faculty to sow the seeds of growth, so that that they grow like gigantic trees. "Don't make students into bonsais", he said.

"A quest for learning and a questioning mind and pushing the frontiers of knowledge will result in delving deep into subjects, researching and innovation" was his words of advice to the graduating students. "As the youth, it should be your aim to become intellectually competent and technically skilled", he said.

"You could be the game changers", he told students. "Unleash your creativity", he said. "The future offers huge opportunity, go grab it. But be equipped to grab it or you will burn yourself", he said.

He said, "Our country has caged knowledge for centuries and centuries. We should not shy away from expansion when the Universities in the West, China have massive student strength. Expansion, inclusion will ultimately result in massive output with quality"

He said some of the apex institutions like IITs IIMs had expanded only one per cent for the last 45 years. But with the implementation of the recommendation of the Oversight Committe of Government of India, they have now been expanded to the extent of 54 per cent. "Opportunities, access and high quality of education will make the so called theme of merit irrelevant", he said.

There should be an endeavour to get into the domain of mass education and quality education and drive away the predjudices and also the status quoism in the field of education, he maintained. India should take advantage of its demographic dividend like the US did two centuries ago and to transform India to blossom itself into a country of youth and provide leadership to the world, he opined.

The government was targetting a three times increase in enrolement in higher education from nearly 14 million to 40 million by 2020. Earlier, Nisar Ahmed, B K Srinivasa Varma and noted research scholar Chidananda Murthy whose name had earlier been rejected by the Governor H R Bhardwaj for his alleged remarks on conversion, but later cleared, were honoured with honorary degrees at the function.