Pitroda's blueprint for making India global knowledge hub

Mumbai, 2007: The National Knowledge Commission's Chairman, Mr. Sam Pitroda, has urged business leaders to do their bit for persuading the policy makers in New Delhi to accept the Commission's recommendations submitted by him to the Prime Minister recently. Mr. Pitroda was delivering the fifth H M Trivedi Memorial Lecture organized by Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) and the IMC Economic Research and Training Foundation on January 16, 2007.

IMC President Mr. Nayan Patel, said that the Knowledge Commission was established with a three-year term with the mandate to enable India to 'leapfrog in the race for social and economic development' by establishing a knowledge-oriented paradigm of development.

He said in the coming decades India would have the largest set of young people in the world, and hence the demographic advantage of being optimally positioned over other countries in the West and even China for building a knowledge-based society. Elaborating on the IMC perspective, Mr. Nayan Patel said that there is a persistent systemic inadequacy in our educational system that has weakened our capacity to pro-actively respond to the important universal trends.

The system needs reform, for at present it leaves youth, both urban and rural, directionless, with lack of employment skills and vocational education. IMC is committed to provide value added vocational education training. The Chamber, he added, is also undertaking a detailed study about the issues in higher education .Regarding reservations; he said that is not the only way to promote inclusive growth. He also emphasized on the need to liberalise education and let PPP (public private partnership) emerge in this sphere.

Mr. Pitroda said the Commission, based in New Delhi, had originally eight members, but two of them resigned over the issue of reservation. He said the concept of knowledge extended far beyond the frontiers of science and technology, spanning into spheres like learning and research institutions, laboratories, libraries, languages, translation, networks, etc.

He classified these areas into : Access (i.e. increasing the reach and opportunities of individuals or groups excluded from mainstream knowledge systems ), Knowledge Concepts(involving innovative strategies to make secondary school education less strenuous and more appealing to students,. more dynamic system of vocational education, development of distance education, continuous learning, languages, translations etc),Creation(by way of research and innovation, primarily in the field of Science & Technology (S&T) ) Application(for the betterment of the rural poor) and Services (like e-governance).

The Commission has set up numerous committees and subcommittees in these knowledge sectors and subsectors extending to all parts of the country, got inputs from them and prepared its report consisting of far-reaching recommendations to the government. "The commission has in its report touched every aspect of knowledge such as access to it through various levels of institutions, its creation through science, technology and other enterprises , its application in health, agriculture, industries, services and in other forms of human endeavour, and its qualitative aspects," he said.

"I call upon the enlightened sections of society to access the website, www.knowledgecommission.gov.in, understand the structure and functions of the commission, read the recommendations contained in its report, and tell the policymakers in Delhi to implement them. Only the groundswell of public opinion drives the policies and programmes of a democratic government in right directions", he said.

He said e-governance in education was important in future for its expansion into all aspects of human interests, for inclusiveness of all sections of mankind, and for achieving excellence in every sense of all-round development.

"I am convinced that we need to relook at education. The conventional model of schools with duster, chalk, blackboard and teacher is not relevant any more. There is a vast educational content of very high quality available on the Internet, as Nobel laureates and other best brains in the world are putting them in public domain through websites. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has uploaded on the Web 1800 courses for free use by the public. We don't need teachers who forced children to mug the outdated courses, but we need them to mentor, guide and make the students think," he said.

He said Indian children of even humble origin were exceptionally gifted, and "we must find ways to give them fullest opportunities to blossom. Unfortunately, most Indian institutions of higher education - barring a few like IITs - have got generally fossilized and failed to kindle thinking abilities and inspire students".

He said the commission recommended creation of knowledge networks that would link universities, National Laboratories and National Research Centres. "In India we have built in a network of huge fibre optic cables infrastructure. Let us use our bandwidth, and make it available to our talented youths. The modern learning model is through simulated games on the computer, in which students can afford to face failures again and again, and finally get rewarded with success". He said: "Our policy makers have no clue of modern education, and those who have the clue are not policy makers. Educated youths are needed in Delhi to make out policies."

He was astounded to find that Bombay University had 800 colleges affiliated to it, which was too large and did not make sense. "We need to convert this university into a research centre and divest it of the administrative functions which gobbled up all its time and resources; and colleges could be left free to do the teaching. Today we have flabby 350 universities, but we need 1500 of them - leaner and more focussed, efficient".

Talking of India's outdated bureaucratic system of education, he asked why should Chief Ministers select the Vice-Chancellors for appointment? Why should the government be involved in running local schools? The local governments and organizations could do the job more efficiently.

If we can open up and set right our educational centres, we will be able to attract a large number of our students who go abroad for higher education. "More than 80,000 Indian students go abroad every year for education in foreign institutions spending more than $5 billion. If anyone wants to spend a billion dollar to set up a university and affiliated colleges, let us not put hurdles in his way," he said.

He said, "The Knowledge Commission has just begun peeling the uppermost layer on surface of the onion. It will now speedily move to the deeper layers. Next year, it will come up with suggestions in action plans which will include setting up portals, literacy, engineering, management and medical education etc. It will suggest ways to enable more students to go for PhD."

The Commission would be required to respond adequately to stakeholders such as students, farmers, industry sectors who would all ask:' How does your work help me?' Well, all this would need a lot of debate for churning out recommendations. He urged the business community "to play a key role in moulding the public opinion and make the government translate our recommendations into policies for implementation."

Mr. Niraj Bajaj, Vice-President, IMC delivered the Vote of thanks. He thanked Mr. Pitroda for succinctly unveiling the Knowledge Commission's blueprint for making India a Global Knowledge Hub .He also thanked Smt Jyotiben Trivedi, the eminent educationist for her gracious presence on the occasion.