External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid Friday said knowledge is ever rising and ever deepening with no end to it.
"Knowledge is like a student who never stops learning. It is ever rising and ever deepening. It has no end to it," Khurshid said in his inaugural address at the One Globe 2014 Knowledge Conference here.
He said there are "high expectations" from India with regard to its human resource in the field of information technology (IT), its Mars mission and institutions like the Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Technology.
"There is enormous amount of applaud and appreciation for India around the world. But back home, the shadow of darkness has lethal dimensions. We have to fight them and overcome. Our real challenge today is the apathy - an unwillingness to open our minds," Khurshid said.
The two-day conference that focuses on building a 21st century knowledge economy in India and South Asia is also a platform for interactions between the audience and experts on various issues including higher education, skill development and technology.
Speaking at a session titled 'Can Higher Education Transform India into a 21st century Knowledge Hub', Prem Kumar Kalra, director, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, said the objective of education should not only be employability.
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"We tend to get lost in employability, and that should not be the objective of education. We should create a balanced compromise between skill-set knowledge and education. There should be different levels of education and all levels should grow simultaneously," he said.
The conference has been organised by the Salwan Media in partnership with Knowledge@Wharton, International New York Times, Brain Gain magazine and the US-India Business Council (USIBC).