Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM addresses Students and Faculty of IIT, Guwahati

I believe it was Sir Winston Churchill who once said that empires of the future are going to be the empires of the mind. And whenever I visit the institutions of higher level such as the IIT, I feel that our country is on the road to conquer or becoming part of the empire of the mind. The IIT represent the best of the platters in our country both in terms of the faculty and in terms of students that they attract. The IITs has served our country with great distinction. But I sincerely believe that the best is yet to come. I take note of the point that Prof. Gautam Baruah has made with regard to his reservation issue, I take that with me and bring it to the notice of my cabinet colleagues. It goes without saying that I am very happy to be here in the IIT campus of Guwahati. I represent Assam in Parliament and whenever we make progress in diverse fields, it gladdens my heart. It is indeed heartening to see that in a very short period, this IIT has created a niche for itself with a campus of more than 2,000 students and faculty. I am very happy that I have the opportunity to inaugurate the futuristic looking auditorium of yours.

The Indian Institutes of Technology represent in our country the highest traditions of academic excellence not only in India but all over the world. They are the laboratories of the software revolution in our country and owe their existence to the pioneering vision of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Jawaharlal Nehru understood the importance of creating higher institutions of excellence even as we grappled with illiteracy and an underdeveloped primary education system. Today if the world toasts India as a knowledge power, it is to the bold vision of Jawaharlal Nehru that the nation owes its gratitude.

This early investment in higher education is paying off today as we move higher and higher up the value chain in the global knowledge economy. Our tasks and challenges are daunting. But so are the opportunities. We live in a world where human knowledge particularly scientific and technological knowledge is growing at an exponential pace and everywhere there is a recognition that the pace at which a country requires must be more than science and technology is going to be the principle determining of the wealth of the nation. Therefore, your creativity, your contribution to the growing stock of human knowledge is a critical determinant of our place in the comity of nations.

We are one of youngest nations in the world and according to observers, India has the potential to create over 500 million trained people by the year 2020. That would be over a fourth of the global workforce, so I have been told. This big and unique opportunity for India will come from an education revolution that we must undertake as our most important national endeavour.

Our government's effort has been to create the next big wave of investment in higher education and the 11th Five Year Plan, now under implementation, is basically a knowledge investment plan. We have significantly increased allocations to the education sector with a five-fold increase to an unprecedented Rs. 2,75,000 crore.

We are trying to universalize quality elementary education through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. We are beginning a major expansion of secondary schooling. In higher education we are building eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, sixteen new central universities, fourteen world class universities and five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research of which few are already functioning.

Some of these IITs, nearly six of these have already started functioning and I am very happy that IIT Guwahati is mentoring one of the new institute to be established at Patna. Three Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and an IIM at Shillong have also started functioning. We have tried to address the uneven geographical spread of higher education facilities in this phase of rapid expansion. The North-East and in particular Assam has received its due share of such institutions.

We are also implementing a massive National Initiative for Skill Development. It will provide our youth with vocational and professional educational opportunities to realize their individual potential and create a globally competitive India. Ten new National Institutes of Technology, twenty Indian Institutes of Information Technology and a thousand new Polytechnics are all being established in this Five Year Plan.

Our government is doing its very best. We are fully committed to fulfilling all our ambitious plans and targets for educational development in the country. But this will not be enough if we are to tackle the enormity of the problem and the opportunities that lie before us. We need to work in close partnership with the corporate sector, non-governmental entities and community organizations. We need to facilitate creative partnerships between the public and private sectors in the field of education including higher education.

Many eminent educational institutions all over the world are now partnering with industry to set up collaborative knowledge partnerships in their campuses. These are to the mutual advantage of both industry and academia. The knowledge industry is driven more and more by innovation and that innovation is incubated in institutions of higher learning and research.

Before this meeting, I had the pleasure of visiting the TCS Learning Centre in the campus. I must congratulate TCS, Mr. Damodar Iyer, Government of Assam and IIT, Guwahati for collaborating in setting up this unique training centre at your campus. I am particularly happy to note that this is the first industry-led IT training centre in the North East and the first collaborative effort between an IIT and the TCS, which is one of our front-ranking knowledge-based companies.

The English language skills of the youth from the North-East are well known. They are very visible in the service industry in different parts of our country. Now our effort must be to train and educate an increasing number of the youth of the region so that they can develop higher order skill sets.

I am confident that the professionals who are trained here would contribute to the development of the Information Technology industry not only in Assam but in the entire North East.

Collaboration and co-creation are becoming the hallmark of higher education today in an increasingly democratizing and globalised world. We are putting in place an Integrated National Knowledge Network that would have nodes to all major institutions of higher education and learning. This network would help our institutions of higher learning to connect with each other and carry on the relevant interdisciplinary dialogue.

Academic resources can then flow from institutions like the IITs, the IIMs, national research institutions and universities into each other enriching every participating institution. The first phase of the network will become functional before the end of this year and this IIT at Guwahati will be part of it.

Dear students, we should remember the ancient saying education liberates. This is the larger purpose and the larger meaning of education. The atmosphere of an IIT offers you excellent opportunities for personal and professional growth and enrichment. Use this time not only to educate yourself about engineering and IT but also to develop a zest for learning that can build a holistic personality.

Our nation has invested heavily in these centers of excellence so that its best brains are given the opportunity to fire their imaginations, to think big and to dream big dreams for themselves, for their family and for their country. The country expects you to use your creativity, your spirit of adventure and enterprise, your sense of leadership and innovation to solve the problems that challenge us today as a nation.

I am heartened by what I read about new ideas being worked on in our IITs in areas like green energy, popular low-cost transport, new communication devices and so on. The diversity of socio-economic background and human experience that our young IIT students bring to bear on a problem contributes to this great burst of creativity and that is our nation's great national asset.

I have great faith in the power of young India to remake India. In the present century, that the world acknowledges is going to be the Asian century, our time, or rather your time is here and now. I am confident that you will live up to that expectation. May your efforts be blessed.