New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has asked the IITs to develop newer, cutting edge technologies and utilise them for creating a variety of in-house solutions for India’s domestic requirements and export them to developing countries as well.
Addressing the concluding session of the conference of Chairmen, Board of Governors and Directors of IITs here last evening, he also expressed his desire for early implementation of a project connecting students of Northeast to India’s premier engineering institution — the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
He said presentations made by the IITs at the conference underscored their commitment to active engagement with local communities, their desire to undertake cutting-edge research and their pursuit of synergetic industry-academia collaboration.
“Mukherjee called upon IITs to play a pivotal role in our endeavour to develop newer, cutting edge technologies and utilise them for developing a variety of in-house technology solutions for our domestic requirements and also to export the same to other developing countries similarly placed,” said a Rashtrapati Bhawan statement. The President said he was also happy to learn the concept of ‘Ishan Vikas’ — a comprehensive plan to bring school children from the Northeastern states in close contact with the IITs and IISERs during their vacation periods. “Ministry of HRD and the Council of IITs need to coordinate and ensure early implementation of this initiative,” he said.
Some of the suggestions that have emanated from the IITs include sharing of best practices, efforts to increase the number of published papers between three to five per year, promotion of a post-doctoral culture in order to develop and retain quality faculty, continuous revamping and up-gradation of curricula. The President said he was happy to see the presentation made by the Director, IIT-Delhi on technology enabled learning and Massive Open Online Courses.
He said these programmes are the way forward and must be used to supplement conventional methods of teaching in India, particularly in the field of higher education. “It is imperative that a well-defined timeline is put in place for their roll-out and content development with the focus being on making these courses more India-centric,” he said. The agenda of the one day conference included steps required to improve global ranking of IITs, giving impetus to research and innovation, use of technology in pedagogy and online learning, deepening of the engagement of IITs with community and resource mobilisation as well as alumni participation. In all, 29 Chairmen, Board of Governors and Directors of IITs participated in the conference. (PTI)
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