Ex-Prez for more fund for education

CUTTACK: Former President Pranab Mukherjee stressed on more investment in education sector to upgrade its quality besides focusing on innovation and research activities.Addressing students and faculty at the annual lecture of Ravenshaw University Development Trust (RUDT) here on Tuesday evening, Mukherjee said in olden days Takshashila and Nalanda were the centres of excellence where students from across the globe used to come to pursue education.

“Now, our standard of education has degraded to such an extent that the Indian educational institutions are hardly placed in the top 200 list of World’s best educational institutions. So, we should focus on more investment in education sector,” Mukherjee said.Stating that he had visited many universities while he was President of India and gathered experiences, Mukherjee said the quality of education will be improved if emphasis is given on three things. While the first thing is to make massive teacher-student exchange programme, the second thing is linking innovation with local market and third is to make sustainable investment, he said.

“Besides, we should also focus more on innovation and research,” Mukherjee added.
Stating that the growth in Sensex is not real, the former President said these are only financial transactions. The real growth will take place when income generation reaches every person thereby increasing employment and people possess large wealth, Mukherjee ascertained.The former President also released a book, ‘Trust Redeemed: Birth of Ravenshaw University’, written by former DGP and former RUDT trustee Amiya Bhusan Tripathy on the occasion. The day is being celebrated as part of 150th Foundation Day of Ravenshaw University.