On the concluding day of the Visitor's Conference at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, President Pranab Mukherjee lad emphasis on the need for quality research in the country and said that higher education institutions are the ones which actually show the way to progress.
"Building institutions is not merely a brick-and-mortar activity. It represents a vision of the future, which we all want for our nation and the generations to come," an official release quoted the President.
He also said that for a long time for a long time our institutions have been
victim to a shortage of teaching faculty.
Mukherjee proclaimed, "There is a need for innovative mechanisms to
address the problem of vacancies on a long-term basis," and added
that 70 per cent vacancies in central universities have been filled up.
However according to the statistics provided at the conference, the vacancies
had gone down only marginally, from 39 per cent in 2014 to 36 per cent in 2016.
Appreciating the Visitor's Conference he said that it provided a good platform
for central institutions in various fields like pharmaceuticals, agriculture and
humanities to join institutions of engineering, science, technology and IT in
deliberations.
"Participation by all institutions in the National Institutional Rankings Framework (NIRF) will help create a spirit of healthy competition, eventually reflecting in our approach to international rankings. A successful implementation of 'Project Vishwajeet' could see seven to 10 Indian institutions in the top 100 in the near future."
He also said that alternative funding mechanisms like alumni and corporate sector support should be explored, although Government would need to fund the major part.
"It can come in the form of endowments, sponsored research and creation of joint and shared research facilities," said Mukherjee.
Prakash Javadekar (Human Resource Development Minister), Mahendra Nath Pandey (HRD
Minister of State) and senior officers of Rashtrapati Bhavan and the
government of India were also present at the concluding session of the
Visitor's Conference.