Entire nation to be 5G enabled by 2023, says Dharmendra Pradhan

Pradhan also said that the brand of IITs and IIMs were sought by the developed countries to partner with their institutions

Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan, said that the entire nation will be equipped with 5G and optical fibres laid out in all the 600,000 villages by the end of 2023. He said this at the International Conclave on the joint collaboration of Deakin University, Australia with Chitkara, Symbiosis and OP Jindal University to set up Deakin University Hubs in their campuses. Deakin University is also partnering with Tata Consultancy Services as an industry expert to facilitate its services.

The conclave, called 'Digital Transformation and Internationalization of Education', comes in the wake of the mandate from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to develop India as an international education hub.

Pradhan added that developed countries were keen to have the IITs and IIMs partner with their institutions.

Speaking to Business Standard, Ian Martin, Vice Chancellor of Deakin University, said it was a “solid start to a deeper partnership with the three universities we hope will grow in the next coming years." He added that the hub is focussed on both undergraduate and post-graduate students and also on PhD research students. Deakin has shared PhD programmes with all three universities. Students get a chance to stay in Australia on a working visa for at least two years. Speaking about the research programmes, Martin said Deakin University is focussed on Business, Economics, Cyber security and water management, among other fields.

"TCS comes as an industry partner along with Deakin. It isn't just an academic programme, but is backed by industry experience," said Ankur Mathur, Business Unit Head-Education, Tata Consultancy Services. He said the course is a co-branded programme with a certification carrying the names of both TCS and Deakin. The course is said to be up to date with the needs of industry, where experience shall come from TCS. The course is to be held digitally and online.

He added that the course is not being positioned as an executive MBA but focussed more as a skilling opportunity. The cost structure is decided by Deakin University.

C Raj Kumar, Vice- chancellor of OP Jindal University, said, “We need to be creative in the process of implementing the vision of the NEP in which significant scholarships and fellowships can be provided, so that education can be made accessible to large numbers of young Indians." For this, help and support from institutions like Deakin is needed while expanding the education sector to cater the 835 million population of India less than the age 35.