Alarming pollution levels show significance of climate change: Pranab

New Delhi : Expressing concern over the alarming pollution levels in the country, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that the right to lead a healthy, happy and productive life in India had been breached with the disturbing climate changes.

"Each of us has the right to lead a healthy, happy and productive life in India. This right has been breached, especially in our cities, where pollution has reached alarming levels. Climate change has acquired real meaning with 2015 turning out to be the warmest year on record," the President in his address on the eve of Republic Day.

Calling on the need for multiple strategies and actions at various levels, he said that change in mindset was of paramount importance in tackling the problem of pollution and environment preservation.

"Innovative solutions of urban planning, use of clean energy, and changing the mindsets of the people call for active participation of all stakeholders. Permanence of such changes can be ensured only if people own these changes," he added.

Highlighting on the importance of education, the President said it was necessary to cultivate an eco-system that fosters critical thinking and makes teaching intellectually stimulating which inspires unfettered respect for knowledge and teachers

"Education helps us develop forces of spirit which can revive lost hopes and it must inspire scholarship and encourage unfettered respect for knowledge and teachers. It must instil a spirit of reverence towards women that will guide social conduct of an individual throughout his life. It must breed a culture of deep thought and create an environment of contemplation and inner peace," he said.

He asserted that the nation's academic institutions must become world-class and said that a beginning has already been made with two Indian institutes of higher education finding place in the top two hundred in international rankings.