Universities not Mere Degree Factories: President Ram Nath Kovind

Hyderabad, Aug 5: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday said that the best scientific universities and institutions of learning are not just teaching shops or degree factories, but increasingly they are sources of innovation and incubators of technology and technology-driven start-ups.

He was speaking at the seventh convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad at Kandi in Sangareddy district near here. “The knowledge ecosystem of public investments in science, academic institutions and universities, research laboratories, commercial applications and private enterprise has an almost magical potential. Its best example is, of course, Silicon Valley in the US. At the core of Silicon Valley are basic science and technology campuses and their talented faculty and students,” he said.

Ram Nath Kovind was happy to note that IIT Hyderabad had made a start by setting up a network of centres for research and promotion of entrepreneurship. He noted that in Hyderabad there were as many as 19 research facilities and laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Biotechnology, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Indian Space Research Organisation. The President said that individually, many of these entities were doing excellent work but there was a need for cross-pollination.

Ram Nath Kovind urged IIT Hyderabad to break out of silos and to encourage others to break out of silos. He said that India will judge the success of IIT Hyderabad by the vitality and the output it can ensure for not just itself but for the entire Hyderabad knowledge ecosystem. (IANS)