Prioritise higher education and R&D, VIT chancellor urges Centre

 VIJAYAWADA: Founder and chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Dr. G. Viswanathan, urged the central government to accord maximum to higher education, medical education and research and development.

Addressing the 38 convocation of VIT-Vellore, Dr. Viswanathan pointed out that India is currently the fifth largest economy. However, he expressed concern that the nation lags behind in areas such as higher education, medical education, and research and development, when compared to many other countries. This is despite the rapid strides made in school education.

He emphasized that the central government has to increase budgetary allocation to higher education, in which the country’s gross enrolment ratio (GER) stands at 27 percent.

He noted that education was initially in the state list of the Constitution and was shifted to the concurrent list in 1975. However, this did not produce the expected results as far as benefits for the poor and middle-class citizens were concerned, he said.

He urged India to compete with 80 countries that invest five percent or more of GDP while 35 countries allocate six percent or more.

Union minister of state for road transport, General V.K. Singh, recalling the launch of the startup program in 2015, stated that India now stands as the third largest contributor to the number of unicorns worldwide and ranks second in the total count of startups. He urged Viswanathan to consider establishing campuses in Uttar Pradesh and northeastern states.

During the convocation, 6,238 received undergraduate degrees and 2,381 their PG degrees while 278 research graduates were honored with Ph.D.