President Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday said India "must regain" the lost glory of its educational institutions and once again become a centre for "cross fertilization of ideas from across the world".
Addressing a delegation from QS, ICAA, British Council, FICCI and KPMG who presented the first copy of "QS University Rankings: Asia 2014" to Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan here Monday, the president said India will "sooner than later find its rightful place in the global ranking of higher education institutions".
"Indian educational institutions dominated the world for a period of around 1,800 years from 6th century B.C. to 13th century A.D. and were a magnet for scholars from all over the world," the president said.
"India must regain the lost glory of the past and once again become a centre for cross fertilization of ideas from across the world," he added.
Published annually since 2009, the QS University rankings: Asia highlights the 300 top universities in Asia on nine key performance indicators providing an overview of higher education in one of the world's most dynamic and rapidly developing regions.
The president asserted he had always emphasized on the need for country's educational institutions to improve their global rankings, and expressed happiness that the "efforts were bearing fruit" as the number of Indian institutions in the rankings had increased to 17 this year as compared to 11 in 2013.
Mukherjee assured the delegation that Indian authorities would "extend all possible cooperation" to them in obtaining necessary information in the appropriate format from Indian higher education institutions.
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The institutions should be transparent and all relevant information should be published in their websites, he said.
The president is visitor of 98 higher educational institutions in the country, including central universities, IITs, NITs, IISERs, IISc, Indian Maritime University, and IARI Nalanda.