“Need to retain meritorious students and improve research in fundamental sciences that can address the pain points of the Nation” – Pranab Mukherjee, President of India. 

Throughout the nation, 600 institutes participated in the video conference including IIM-Udaipur addressed by the Hon’ble president to the students & faculty of institutes of higher learning.

In his speech to all the institutes and students, President started with expressing condolence on the sudden demise of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, and shared how deeply the world of academia is thankful for his contributions.

One of the key areas of the address was emphasis on research in Indian institutes. It also touched upon the importance of ecosystem of nurturing entrepreneurship in institutes of higher learning and use of information technology infrastructure in disruptive innovations.

President Mukherjee said that Research in Indian Universities is not improving which is evident in the number of researchers per million inhabitants. India has only 160 per million who are taking research as the career option, whereas Brazil has 720 and 364 in South Africa.

Addressing this issue he said “The ecosystem for cutting edge research is missing in many universities in India”. The research culture at all levels needs to be developed which shall also complement the economy related activities such as Make in India.

Partnerships with international institutions for faculty, academic resources and pedagogy should be established. Incubation centers, collaboration with alumni should be made at all higher level institutes to retain meritorious students within the nation.

The conference also involved Rahul Pandit from IISc Bangalore, Swarnendu Kumar Chakraborty from NIT, Arunachal Pradesh and a research student, Priyanka Dogra from IISER Mohali presenting to the president about the approach and achievements in research both in academia and sciences. The conference concluded with the vote of thanks by Prof. Girish Chandra Tripathi, Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University.