Prez calls for building strong innovation culture

President Pranab Mukherjee today called for an initiative to build a strong innovation culture in the country in higher education.
After laying the foundation stone of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University near here, the President who addressed the gathering in Hindi to mark the occasion, said, "I call upon the university to take the initiative to build a strong innovation culture."
The university is being established at Mugalia Kot village near the state capital by the Madhya Pradesh government after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's name, who has been a strong votary of Hindi language.
The President said that 2010-20 has been declared as the decade of innovation.

He said recently he had opened innovation clubs in two central universities in Uttar Pradesh and Assam and attended innovation exhibitions organised there.
Stating that language plays an important role between the government and the people, the President said, "success of social welfare and development programme depends on language. Therefore, we should encourage Hindi and other regional languages."

"Hindi has always played an important role in national integration. It is a symbol of India's social and cultural unity," Mukherjee said.
Referring to the growing incidents of crime against women, he said that education has an important role to play in the development of the society and the nation.

"The recent rise in crimes against women and children is a cause for deep concern. It not only calls for effective measures for their safety and security, but also requires us to urgently introspect and find ways to arrest the erosion of values in our society," he said.