Research, innovation, entrepreneurship are thrust areas for Higher Education 2.0, says top NITI Aayog official

Research, innovation, and entrepreneurship volition beryllium the absorption areas successful Higher Education 2.0 to marque the state a developed system by 2047 with universities having to play a cardinal relation to execute it, said Shashank Shah, Director and Senior Specialist, NITI Aayog, connected Sunday.

Speaking astatine the valedictory relation of the 16th variation of graVITas’25, the yearly planetary techno-management fest of the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) held astatine its field here, Mr. Shah said that successful the past 75 years, India has achieved large occurrence successful ensuring entree to higher acquisition with circular 4.5 crore students enrolled successful higher education.

“In Higher Education 2.0, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship are absorption areas to person the Indian system into a developed one. In this endeavour, universities should go centres of probe that make cutting-edge cognition successful frontier areas similar Artificial Intelligence (AI), instrumentality learning, Internet of Things (IOT) alternatively than conscionable teaching institutions,” helium said. “Indian universities person to play a captious relation to lend to the system arsenic concern successful probe volition summation from 0.7% of GDP to 3.5% of involvement of GDP successful the adjacent 25 years,” helium said.

Mr. Shah said that the publication of innovation and entrepreneurship has been reflected successful the dependable emergence of start-ups successful the country. For example, India has grown from astir 600 start-ups to 1,60,000 start-ups successful the past 8 years. In different words, astir 2 percent of students, who postgraduate from the champion of Indian universities opt for entrepreneurship and start-ups. “Today, USA and UK are benchmarks for students opting for start-ups arsenic astir 16% and 5% successful these countries respectively wherever students opt for entrepreneurship connected graduation. If the Indian higher acquisition strategy is capable to execute it, students volition go occupation creators alternatively than occupation seekers done field placements,” helium said.   On the occasion, Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda, MLA for Hoskote assembly constituency and Chairman, Karnataka State Electronics Department Corporation Limited (KEONICS), and Sekar Viswanathan, vice-president, VIT, were present.