Time ripe for maritime university in Goa: Sam Pitroda

The large number of seafarers make Goa an ideal place for a marine university, said Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Knowledge Commission of India (KCI).

"The state has a highly literate population and is the perfect place for knowledge institutions. The city has a knowledge city as well," Pitroda said, while delivering a lecture on knowledge economy recently.

"Goa is an ideal place for setting up a maritime studies university, given the host of maritime institutions in the state. If the state government were to submit a proposal, KCI will push the idea," he said.

Pitroda, who had pioneered a transformation in the telecom sector in the 90s, underlined the need to shake up the existing system and change the mindset to build a knowledge society.

"KCI is looking at long term perspectives. We can't expect miracles overnight, but there is a need to restructure the institutions from ground zero," he said.

Lamenting on the absence of creativity in India, he emphasised the need to focus on innovations to solve problems plaguing the country in the spheres of health, water, sanitation and primary education.

Claiming that the KCI would look into all kinds of needs in the education sector, Pitroda said, "There is a need to bring research back into the universities across India and more students need to go back to mathematics and physics."

He said that the country, with a population of one billion ought to have at least 2,000 universities, of which 100 should be of the international standards. "The quality of education is poor and the quantity too, is not adequate," Pitroda pointed out.

Calling for a need to revive libraries, he said that the KCI wanted to bring about a network of schools, institutions and universities to share resources. KCI has taken up the task of creating portals on various subjects.