On Monday, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu urged higher education institutions to prepare students with 21st-century skills, stating that the 4th industrial revolution is knocking at our door, and India cannot afford to lose out. He also demanded that the National Education Policy be implemented “in text and spirit.” “The information economy and cutting-edge technology advances are driving the 4th industrial revolution, which is currently knocking on our door.
We can’t afford to miss out on this chance, and our higher education institutions must prepare our students for the twenty-first century “Naidu said. He stated NEP-2020 intends to reshape and realign the country’s higher educational institutions towards the problems of the knowledge economy while speaking at PES University’s 6th Convocation.
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According to the Vice President, there is a pressing need to link our university classrooms with growing global trends like as 5G-based technologies, which have applications in agriculture, medicine, administration, commerce, and industrial management. He praised the students and employees of PES University for building and launching the two satellites in collaboration with DRDO and ISRO, saying that the government has implemented far-reaching reforms in the space sector aimed at increasing private sector engagement in space operations.
“We must concentrate our efforts on developing skilled labour for this industry. Indeed, all of our higher education institutions and universities should be aware of national requirements, and they should examine and match their existing courses to developing global trends, or begin new courses that are in line with them “he stated The global economy in the twenty-first century is dominated by knowledge-related activities, he said, adding that India intends to become a multi-trillion-dollar economy by 2050, with at least half of it coming from knowledge-related activities and skills, according to the NEP-2020. Universities of technology have a unique role to play in converting India into a knowledge power.
To give a boost to the economy and industry, the Vice President suggested universities focus more on implementable patents under Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) rather than academic patents. “It would be beneficial if our educated academics could contribute to the knowledge economy by writing books of international standards on current topics. I say this because Indian authors are better able to interpret engineering course content in terms of cultural background. This would benefit young pupils because they would be able to better comprehend and solve the challenges that rural India, farmers, and other underprivileged sections in society confront, he added.
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Naidu also urged indigenous academic publications to keep the copyright and ownership of information developed in the country, which would otherwise be transferred to overseas journals where our research articles are published. In addition to highlighting the importance of socially relevant research and technology, the Vice President stated that colleges must also address nationally relevant and internationally sensitive topics as part of their quest for greatness. Climate change and sustainable development are two such concerns that have recently attracted worldwide attention. Participation in the competition is required of technological universities and national institutes.
