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Speaking after inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal here on Monday, he said “in order to keep abreast with the latest technological developments, we need to promote strong linkages with other advanced countries of the world.”
Expressing concern over the relatively low level of research and development (R & D) efforts and relatively low investment in R & D by the corporate sector, he said this is mainly due to the inadequate number of highly trained and knowledgeable R & D personnel—particularly at the PhD level. The output of doctorate in engineering and technology needs to be rapidly expanded by providing special incentives and schemes aimed at making research a attractive career option.
He said a variety of innovative measures need to be taken to augment the current shortage in faculty and provide the cutting edge infrastructure to science and technology R & D initiatives.
Indian institutions need to open up for international faculty, visiting programmes and faculty exchange on a much wider scale. The recruiting policy of the faculty need to be reviewed for providing flexibility in appointments, he added.
Moily said reforms in apex regulatory institutions of higher education are a necessity. Prof Yashpal Committee report is under consideration of government for implementing certain large scale reforms to meet the challenges of maintaining quality standards.
Stating that Indian economy is moving from old economy to knowledge economy, Moily said “knowledge economy is highly dependent on quality and quantity of scientific and technical manpower available to power the knowledge economy. In the process, we should not become victims of expansion by neglecting the quality. We seriously need to think of getting away with the badly managed institutions with poor quality. The next 20 years is dedicated as the decade of innovation for the prosperity of the country.”
He said the higher education system of the country needs to address the issue of developing competent and skilled manpower. India needs to expand and upgrade the quality of its scientific, technical, educational and training institutions to the world class standards. As per technical survey, during the eleventh plan period (2007-2012), India’s technical education institutions need to grow at 15 per cent growth rate to meet the skilled manpower needs of our growing economy.
Nitte Education Trust Chairman N Vinaya Hegde said ‘there is no great profession like teaching.” He called upon some of the students of NITK to take up the noble profession of teaching.
NITK Board of Governors Chairman Prof Goverdhan Mehta said teaching and research must go hand in hand.
NITK Director Prof Sandeep Sancheti welcomed the gathering. MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and Edurite Technologies CEO Meena Ganesh were present.
Golden jubilee logo, website was launched on the occasion.