The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjeeinaugurated the Centenary Building of Asutosh College today (April 1, 2015) in Kolkata.
Speaking on the occasion, the President said the quality of higher education in the country must improve. The 11th Five Year Plan had made provisions for improving the quality of higher education in the country. India has over 700 Universities and around 36,000 Degree colleges. Nearly 2 crore students participate intertiary education. Despite these numbers,international education rating agencies have not placed any of these institutions within the best 200 of the world. On the whole, the quality of education in the country is still low. He appealed to the management of Asutosh College to endeavor to further improve the standard of education in their highly acclaimed college.
The President said while the population of Europe and China are ageing, India will have more than half of the working population of the world. This human resource can become a dividend if it is utilized properly. Otherwise it will become a liability to the country. Hence, their skills need to be developed to make them employable. This is why a plan has been developed to impart skill development training to more than 50 crore population by 2022 so that they find jobs both inside and outside India.
The President stated that during pre-independence era, luminaries like Sir C.V. Raman, Shri S. N. Bose, Shri J.C. Bosebrought laurels to India from Calcutta University. But, after independence Dr. Hargovind Khurana, Dr. Chandrashekhar and Dr. Amartya Sen got the Nobel Prize for their achievements in foreign universities though their foundations were in India. It is, therefore, absolutely critical that the right environment be created for excellence in higher education in the country.