President stresses on greater investment in research

Lamenting that no scholar of any of the country's institution has won a Noble Prize in more than 80 years after C V Raman, President Pranab Mukherjee today stressed on greater investment in research and innovative technology to win the world's top academic medal.

"Though we feel glory of Indian born literattis like Hargovind Khurana, Chandrasekhar and Amartya Sen who won the noble prize in different disciplines, they were not attached with the native institutions," Mukherjee said addressing second convocation of IIT Patna here.

He also bemoaned that no university or institution of the country was among the top 200 in the world at present.

"Nalanda, Vikramshila and Taxshila universities, all located in Bihar, were the cradle of learning in the world in ancient times in which students from across the world used to come... Why cannot we regain that glory?" he said.

C V Raman was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for his discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength.

Bihar Governor D Y Patil and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were present at the convocation.

The President on the request of BJP leaders had rescheduled his visit to Patna and cancelled the programme of unveiling the statue of former deputy prime minister Jagjeevan Ram at Ara tomorrow which coincides with Narendra Modi's rally here. Mukherjee left for the national capital in about two hours time.