AMN /
President Pranab Mukherjee has emphasized on the need to develop World Class Academic Institutions if India aspires to become one of the Top Nations of the world. Delivering the Debanjan Mukherjee Memorial Lecture in Kolkata today, Mr. Mukherjee brought out that despite having 712 universities and over 36,000 colleges, not a single Indian institution figured in the top 200 rankings till recently.
He said, there was a time when we had renowned seats of learning like Takshashila, Nalanda, Vikramashila, Valabhi, Somapura and Odantapuri. India now has to work towards regaining that glory of the past, added the President.
President also called for greater efforts in improving research and development activities and cross-fertilization of ideas through faculty and student exchanges. He said the innovation process, especially the R&D work in India, regrettably, remains very scanty even compared to the Brazil and China.