Bengaluru: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said because of its traditional strengths in innovation, IT and frugal engineering, India has the potential to become a global drone hub.
“In this regard, I call upon the universities to create skilled manpower for this sector,” he said addressing the sixth convocation of PES University here.
Naidu emphasised the need to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to R&D and asked universities to lay more emphasis on implementable patents under Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) rather than academic patents to give a fillip to the economy and industry.
He called upon the higher education institutions and universities to review and align their existing courses to the emerging global trends or start new courses in tune with the national needs.
The Vice President said that the 4th industrial revolution is knocking at India’s door and, to make the best out of it, the universities must train the students in emerging areas like 5G technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology.
He referred to India’s glorious past in the field of education and emphasised the special role Technological Universities have to play in transforming India into a knowledge power.
Praising the government’s decision to open the space sector for private players, the Vice President commended the PES University for building and launching two satellites in association with DRDO and ISRO.
“I would urge our private institutions and universities to make the best use of this opportunity and to work towards making India self-reliant and technologically advanced in the space sector,” he added.
On this occasion, Naidu also felicitated Dr V Sambasiva Rao, who mentored the students in the launch of the two satellites.
Observing that many technical books published by foreign authors are used in Indian engineering courses, he exhorted Indian academicians to author books of global standards on contemporary themes.
“Indian authors can better contextualize the engineering course content with regard to Indian socio-economic conditions,” he said and opined that this would help the young students better understand and find solutions to the many problems faced by rural India, farmers and other underprivileged groups.
He also called for creating study material in Indian languages and indigenous publications of academic journals.
Highlighting the importance of socially relevant research and technologies, Naidu asked the universities to work on the issues of global priority such as climate change and sustainable development.
“We frequently read news reports about increasing pollution in Indian cities; I would urge our educational institutions to come up with technological solutions to such pressing problems faced by society, especially in agriculture,” he added.
Calling for effective implementation of National Education Policy 2020, Naidu advised universities to introduce more technical courses in the students’ mother tongue.
Congratulating the graduating students, he asked them to imbibe the ‘spirit of service’ in their professional careers and follow the ancient Indian values of लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु (Let the entire world be happy).
Naidu, who himself is a fitness enthusiast, advised the students to avoid sedentary habits and adopt a healthy lifestyle by regularly taking part in sports or Yoga.
He told the students to inculcate the qualities of discipline, dedication and determination to progress in life.
