‘Entrepreneurship devpt deserves special emphasis in higher education’: B L Mungekar

Bengaluru: Former member of the Planning Commission B L Mungekar said that India’s unemployment and underemployment challenges cannot be addressed solely through the expansion of conventional jobs. 

Delivering the convocation address at Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) University in the city on Monday, he advised, “ A country, producing millions of graduates, cannot rely only on placement-led success models. Higher education must, therefore, equip a larger number of young people to create enterprises, local solutions, social ventures, technology products, services, and self-sustaining livelihoods.”

Stressing the need for innovation in higher education, he said, “Innovation in higher education is not a long-range luxury; it is a near-term urgency with long-term consequences, and it is necessary and urgent. The practical question is how to make it happen.”

“Reform on this scale cannot be left to inspirational speeches, isolated model institutions, or sporadic pilot projects.  It requires a coordinated action framework in which policy, finance, institutional leadership, faculty incentives, industry engagement, and social expectations move in alignment,” he observed. 

He further added, “Among all the innovations required in higher education, entrepreneurship development deserves special emphasis. This is not because every student must become a founder or a businessman, but because entrepreneurial capability represents a deeper orientation toward initiative, problem solving, value creation, and ownership.”

Governor and Chancellor of the University Thaawarchand Gehlot, Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar, Vice-Chancellor Vishwanatha and Registrar Mamatha Devi G S were present. 

Gold medals were presented to six students. Seventeen rank certificates and 171 degree certificates were presented at the university’s second convocation.