PM addressed the Golden Jubilee Convocation
Prime
Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressed the Golden Jubilee Convocation
of IIT Bombay in Mumbai today. Following is the text of Prime Minister’s
Speech:
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The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh addressing at the Golden Jubilee
Convocation of IIT Bombay, in Mumbai on August 18, 2012. The Governor of
Maharashtra, Shri K. Sankaranarayanan and the Union Minister for Human
Resource Development and Communications and Information Technology, Shri
Kapil Sibal are also seen.
18-August-2012
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“I am delighted to be here at your prestigious
institution on this auspicious day. I wish each one you a life of
purposive action and professional fulfillment. Standing here this
afternoon, my thoughts go back to those early days after Independence
when our national leaders built great institutions of learning to help
lay the foundations of a new India. The Indian Institutes of Technology
were part of this great nation building effort. I salute the memory of
all those who dedicated their lives to building this and other such
great institutions of academic excellence.
The IITs have become
an integral constituent of what is known as ‘Brand India’, like our
nuclear science institutions, that Dr Kakodkar has dedicated his life
to, like Mr Premji’s Wipro and Mr. Narayanamurthy's Infosys and like so
many other centres of research and teaching that have given several
generations of young Indians new opportunities that my own generation
could only dream of.
Today, as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of
IIT Bombay, we feel a sense of pride. But that pride must be tempered
by the concern that we still do not have the required number of such
institutions to offer adequate developmental opportunities to all our
bright young women and men.
Every year when I see how many
hundreds of thousands of students apply for admission to these
institutions, and when I see how high have become the minimum cut-off
marks for admission, my heart is pained by the limits we are placing on
the opportunities available to our youth.
That is precisely why
our government took the initiative to expand the opportunities for
higher and technical education in India. During the last eight years
Indian higher education, as well as secondary and technical education,
have experienced a quantum jump in terms of the investment being made
and the number of seats being created for students. I compliment my
colleague Shri Kapil Sibal for leading this effort.
Our
government has opened new IITs, new IIMs and new institutions for
teaching and research in the sciences. We have increased investment in
school education. We have increased scholarships for the disadvantaged
sections of our society.
I am happy that IIT Bombay has made
research a priority. I am told that a number of centres in the institute
are engaged in research on several important areas. These include the
National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education, the 1 Megawatt
National Solar Thermal Test Facility and the Indo-US Clean Energy Centre
for Photovoltaics. I am sure these efforts will result in very useful
outcomes.
As India’s economy becomes bigger and more developed,
so too must our knowledge base. A developing country like ours has to
catch up with other more developed nations and this ‘catch-up’ process
depends vitally on our ability to harness human resources for
development.
Another challenge is to ensure that the investment
we make in higher education in fact contributes more directly to nation
building. Here the IITs face an immediate challenge of making their
curriculum more relevant to our needs. I am aware that this is a subject
of much lively discussion among your faculty and alumnus. How do we
incentivize our engineering graduates to bring their professional
knowledge to bear more directly on our development processes? This would
be in keeping with the vision for IITs that Pandit Nehru articulated
when he laid the foundation stone of IIT Bombay. He said, that the role
of the IITs would be, and I quote, “to provide scientists and
technologists of the highest caliber who would engage in research,
design and development to help building the nation toward self reliance
in her technological needs”.
Many of our best IIT students have,
over the years, migrated abroad in search of better opportunities. I do
not grudge that. Some of them have returned home to serve our
Motherland. Some do so from where they are, in some of the best
institutions of the world. A large number of our IIT graduates move away
from their core disciplines into management, finance, marketing and
even the civil services. Without doubt, they have much to contribute in
their new fields of work.
The students graduating today have a
long list of IIT Bombay alumni to inspire them. Each of the preceding 49
Convocations of this great institution has seen the graduation of a
very talented group of young men and women. They have made important
contributions in a wide range of disciplines and have added lustre to
the global image of India. Several of them have risen to top positions
internationally including Arun Netravali, former head of Bell
Laboratories, and Nitin Nohria, the current Dean of Harvard Business
School. One of our brightest Cabinet Ministers, Shri Jairam Ramesh is an
alumnus of IIT Bombay, as is Shri Nandan Nilekani who carries the
enormous responsibility of implementing India’s ambitious programme for
providing all its citizens with a Unique Identification number.
India
needs millions of engineers and millions more of technically qualified
workers and skilled professionals. There was a time when engineers like
M. Vishwesharayya and K. L. Rao provided leadership to our power
projects and irrigation projects and were regarded as national leaders.
Today India needs national leaders from the fields of engineering and
science. Not just politics, sport and cinema!
Friends, India is
on the move. And so, you enter a world of opportunities. How you make
use of these opportunities, how you shape them, how you create new
opportunities for newer generations of our youth will shape the future
of this ancient land.
I know that in the recent past we have
lived through a period of excessive pessimism and negativism. Some of
this is natural. Our society has been experiencing a ‘revolution of
rising expectations’. Hopes are high, but are often not realized. This
breeds cynicism. The challenge before you is to retain your sense of
hope and optimism even as you surmount the hurdles you face and overcome
the challenges that are posed.
When I look back at my own life I
am humbled and gratified by the distance my generation has travelled. I
studied in the light of a kerosene lamp in a dusty village that had no
power, no school or college. I had to walk miles to school. In all these
matters, there has been an enormous improvement in the 65 years of
independent India. Even then, the progress that has been registered has
often fallen short of the expectations of our people, particularly the
youth. In some ways, the enormity of the task ahead of us as a nation is
daunting, but our achievements so far give us confidence and hope.
India’s
journey, as indeed IIT Bombay’s journey, these past 65 years, is a
matter of great pride. After half a century of zero rate of economic
growth, from 1900 to 1950, we managed to register 3.5 per cent growth
for three decades after Independence, from 1950 to 1980. But from 1980
to now, over the subsequent three decades, we have nearly doubled that
rate of growth. In 2003-08 we showed that we can march forward at an
even higher rate of growth of 9.0 per cent.
These are not just
numbers. They translate into employment opportunities for newer
generations. They create new incomes and new possibilities. They help
increase the government’s revenues so that we can invest more in
education, in health care, in eradicating poverty, hunger, disease and
illiteracy.
I know that in the past year India's economy has
slowed down. But this is not an inevitable or irreversible outcome. The
fundamentals of our economy are sound and with greater effort being made
to mobilize all the latent physical and human resources, we can go back
to the growth rate of 8 to 9 percent per annum achieved from 2003 to
2008. The large investments in the development of human resources that
we have made in the last 8 years would facilitate that outcome.
Science
and technology have to play a major role in the transformation of our
economy. The educated youth of our country have to lead the process of
social and economic change. I am confident that young people like you
will take the flag from our hands and march forward. I am confident that
your generation will make us proud. I am confident about the future of
India, because YOU are that future.
As you enter a new phase of
your life never forget those who have made it possible for you to be
here today. Your parents, your family and friends, your teachers and the
society around you that has enabled you to receive good quality
education and build the foundation of your professional life.
May your path be blessed. Jai Hind!” (PIB)
18-August-2012 17:39 IST
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