"The death of infants in Malda is unfortunate...The problem exists and I hope it will be solved soon," Narayanan said in his chancellor's address at the 33rd convocation of Burdwan University.
A total 27 infants have died at the hospital since Saturday in a rerun of the scare that took place last winter and caused a large number of crib deaths.
Narayanan also expressed concern over the assault of college teachers in the state.
"The local administration and college authorities should take steps to see such incidents don't recur. This way the relations between students and teachers will also improve," he said.
Referring to the university, he said as per Indian Journal of Science and Technology, it ranked 17th in the country and 12th as per the success in the NET examination conducted by UGC.
"But there has not been much advancement in international research," he said and asked the vice-chancellors and deans of the university to be more careful before sending the performance report of researchers to UGC.
Acclaimed physicist Bikash Sinha was conferred the DSc and historian Benoy Bhushan Chowdhury, DLit, on the occasion.