Prez asks NITs to get more involved with society

New Delhi: Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday asked the NITs to get more involved with society and suggested they closely work with villages to transform them.

Inaugurating a two-day conference of directors of the National Institute of Technology, Mukherjee said, "NITs should start working with at least one village each in order to transform them into model villages. Your work must find resonance with the needs and aspirations of our people."

"I call upon all NITs to deepen and broadbase their involvement with society. We have to find solutions to ensure that every seat in the NITs is optimally utilised," he said.

"Our engineers and scientists must be equipped to address new-age problems with new-age answers. Economic growth and educational progress share a symbiotic relationship," he said.

The president added that NITs should be the connecting force between "rural innovations, local employment and world class manufacturing".

"The role of NITs becomes even more critical in view of the 'Make in India' and the 'Digital India' initiatives," he added.

Pointing out that most of central institutions in the country are facing acute shortage of faculty at all levels, the President said in his recent visit to Norway and Finland, he had called upon the scientists, researchers and academics amongst Indian diaspora to become a part of Indian campuses, either on a full time or a part time basis, as regular, visiting or adjunct faculty.

Prez institutes awards for best varsity, research:

In order to motivate universities to work towards excellence in higher education, President Pranab Mukherjee has instituted Visitor's awards for best university, research and innovations.

"All central universities, of which the President of India is Visitor, will be eligible for the award for the best university," said a notification issued by the President's secretariat.

All faculty members and students of all the central universities will be eligible for the Visitor's award for innovation as well as Visitor's award for research. Individuals or group of individuals can also apply, it said.

The purpose of the award is to encourage excellence through competition.

"These awards would help promote healthy competition amongst central universities and motivate them to adopt best practises from around the world in the pursuit of excellence," the notification said.

The Visitor's award for the best university will be given on the basis of academic excellence and overall outstanding work by the Central varsity during the year.

The Visitor's award for research will be given for path-breaking research carried out by individual or group of the central university during the year, it said.

The awards will be given annually. While the Visitor's award for the best university will carry citation and trophy the award for innovation and research will carry a citation and cash reward of Rs 1 lakh each, respectively.