Unless India broke the existing barriers between education, research and technology, the three essentials for progress of any country, the country would be left far behind in next 5-10 years. It could no longer afford to wait for the developed world to show a way to keep pace with most powerful economies of the world. Country's education and research system needed new teeth, a holistic formula, an integration of the three domains. This alone would allow 'original and new' innovations to happen and let the world's fourth's largest economy have a 'technological edge' over others. This was stated by Anil Kakodkar, the former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission.
He has always been the best defender of India's nuclear programme. On Monday, he spoke not a word on nuclear energy but focused on 'education and research' as he delivered the Prof V G Bhide memorial lecture organized by the Bhide family at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT). Bhide was a renowned educationist and former vice-chancellor of Pune University who created the 'Exploratory' in Pune to promote curiosity and research among school children.
Hitting hard at the present system where education, research, and technology are pursued in parallel, Kakodkar said that the past system had failed and the present one was not ready to take on the future challenges. "We have not been able to translate new knowledge into new research and new research into technology and products. People from all three fields have to shed their contempt for each other to solve the big crises ahead. Unless education is conducted in an atmosphere of research- an innovation ecosystem embedded in an environment of education-- there will be no path ahead," said Kakodkar citing his latest experience in heading the committee that prepared the master plan for IITs and the ongoing national initiative for bringing in excellence in basic sciences.
Universities, he said, needed to drive research not remain mere degree generating machines. This, in turn, will drive innovation and trigger the technology transfer to industry. Admitting that India had failed in producing Nobel laureates for want of original and new research, the 'nuclear man' suggested solutions like virtual universities like Homi Bhabha National Institute. China, he said, had no concept of affiliated colleges. It was all campus and residential education with each university having its own science park (300 or more in country) with multinationals with their incubators, start ups. India too needed something similar, he added.
Chairman of board of governors of VNIT and former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) S K Joshi too demanded reorientation of universities where education was curiosity driver and not based on rote learning. S S Gokhale, director of VNIT, while trying to show ways to implement Kakodkar's suggestions also pointed how the harsh ground realities prohibited such a system from coming up. Prof Bhide's wife Prabha, his daughter and son-in-law Dr Vidula and Dr Madan Kapre, Prof V B Sapre and Prof M Y Apte, both physics teachers from Nagpur University, were also present.
He has always been the best defender of India's nuclear programme. On Monday, he spoke not a word on nuclear energy but focused on 'education and research' as he delivered the Prof V G Bhide memorial lecture organized by the Bhide family at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT). Bhide was a renowned educationist and former vice-chancellor of Pune University who created the 'Exploratory' in Pune to promote curiosity and research among school children.
Hitting hard at the present system where education, research, and technology are pursued in parallel, Kakodkar said that the past system had failed and the present one was not ready to take on the future challenges. "We have not been able to translate new knowledge into new research and new research into technology and products. People from all three fields have to shed their contempt for each other to solve the big crises ahead. Unless education is conducted in an atmosphere of research- an innovation ecosystem embedded in an environment of education-- there will be no path ahead," said Kakodkar citing his latest experience in heading the committee that prepared the master plan for IITs and the ongoing national initiative for bringing in excellence in basic sciences.
Universities, he said, needed to drive research not remain mere degree generating machines. This, in turn, will drive innovation and trigger the technology transfer to industry. Admitting that India had failed in producing Nobel laureates for want of original and new research, the 'nuclear man' suggested solutions like virtual universities like Homi Bhabha National Institute. China, he said, had no concept of affiliated colleges. It was all campus and residential education with each university having its own science park (300 or more in country) with multinationals with their incubators, start ups. India too needed something similar, he added.
Chairman of board of governors of VNIT and former director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) S K Joshi too demanded reorientation of universities where education was curiosity driver and not based on rote learning. S S Gokhale, director of VNIT, while trying to show ways to implement Kakodkar's suggestions also pointed how the harsh ground realities prohibited such a system from coming up. Prof Bhide's wife Prabha, his daughter and son-in-law Dr Vidula and Dr Madan Kapre, Prof V B Sapre and Prof M Y Apte, both physics teachers from Nagpur University, were also present.
No comments:
Post a Comment