Nation building requires coordination between AI and human compassion: President

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said there is a need for coordination between artificial intelligence (AI) and human compassion for nation building.

Kovind was speaking at an event here to confer national awards to meritorious teachers from across the country.

"We have abundance of knowledge and then we have good values but in the era of globalisation and competition, we need to have a coordination between artificial intelligence and human compassion, a balance between digital levelling and character building for nation building as it will not only make us knowledgable individuals but better human beings," the president said.

"The world is moving from information era to knowledge era. However, knowledge alone will not be able to ensure the safety of human civilisation. Along with knowledge, it is also necessary to have a conscience. Only when knowledge is combined with wisdom, it can solve human problems," he said.

The president said on the basis of rational knowledge, people of the country can tackle the present challenges such as climate change, pollution, melting glaciers, etc.

"Teachers can contribute significantly in the national campaign of water conservation by instilling in students the importance of water conservation," he said.

Forty-six teachers, shortlisted by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry from across the country, were conferred the awards.

The awards are given to teachers to acknowledge their contribution and honour their commitment to better quality of school education and enriching the lives of students.

The selection procedure had an online self nomination process followed by a three-tier process at the district, state and national level.

The names of the recipients were recommended by an independent national jury. The nominated teachers gave a presentation on their work before the jury.

The president urged teachers to build a new generation that is full of knowledge and wisdom, so that it can successfully address all the contemporary challenges.

"Strong foundations of character-building are laid in schools. The main objective of education is to make the student a good human being. And teachers do so by instilling honesty, discipline and integrity in their students," Kovind said.

"A good human being possessing these values ??will prove to be good in each and every sphere. By ensuring that their students become good human beings, teachers contribute in the nation building process," he added.