IIT'S have served our country with great distinction-PM

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday that the Eleventh Five Year plan was basically a knowledge investment plan & his government’s effort has been to create the next big wave of investment in higher education.

Addressing students & the faculty for the Indian Institute of Technology, in Guwahati he said, “ the big opportunity of India will come from an education revolution “that we must undertake as our most important national Endeavour, Collaboration & co-creation are becoming the hall mark of higher education today in an increasingly democratizing & globalized world’ He added.

Stressing on the need for a greater public –private partnership, Dr. Singh said, “We need to facilitate creative partnerships between the public and private sectors in the field of education including higher education”. He further said that, “many eminent educational institutions all over the world are now partnering with industry to set up collaborative knowledge partnerships in their campuses. These are to the mutual advantage of both industry and academia. The knowledge industry is driven more and more by innovation and that innovation is incubated in institutions of higher learning and research”. Prime Minister also said that his government is trying to universalize quality elementary education through the Serva Shiksha Abhiyan and a major expansion of secondary schooling has already begun” He said.

In higher education, “We are building eight new IIT’S seven new IIM’S, 16 central universities,14 world class universities &five new Indian Institutes of Science, Education &Research”. The Prime Minister added.

Dr. Manmohan Singh observed that the, “The IIT’S have served our country with great distinction. But I sincerely believe that the best is yet to come. They are the laboratories of the software revolution in our country and owe their existence to the pioneering vision of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Prime Minister’s two days visit to Assam ends today.