Atmosphere needed to attract brightest minds to teaching:

Former President Pranab Mukherjee Sunday stressed on the need for creating a conducive atmosphere to attract brightest of the bright into teaching, research and innovation.

"There are 767 universities in the country and is expanding. There is a huge development of physical infrastructure in higher education.... But I regret to point out that the quality of education, which we are providing in our our institutions of higher education, are not upto the world standard," Mukherjee said.

"We will have to create a conducive atmosphere in which brightest of the bright come to the teaching, research and innvoation.... Our future progress will depend increasingly on our ability to innovate, to devise efficient processes for the industrial sector and better solutions for governance," Mukherjee said.

He was addressing the annual convocation of the Patna University.

Stating that IIT graduates will be found at top places in international organisations, he said they were not required to advance promotion of product of mercantile company.

He asked, "How many of them (IITians) are engaged in teaching and basic research?"