Prez asks central varsities to set up centres of excellence

President Pranab Mukherjee has asked the country's 40 central universities to establish a new centre each in their establishment which will collaborate for knowledge and innovation within the county and outside. The President told this to the conference of the Vice Chancellors convened here on February 5, a Rashtrapati Bhawan statement said today. The President "called upon the universities to establish atleast one centre of excellence each and to enhance collaboration with specialists from India and abroad." He also called upon the VCs to make greater use of the information technology tools made available by Ministry of Human Resource Development and promised that he himself would be available to interact with students and teachers through video conferencing. The President asked the VCs that they should also identify inspired teachers to interact with each other as well as students. "Innovation Clubs should be set up in each university and exhibitions of innovations be organised," Mukherjee told the top academicians after the deliberations of the day-long conference. "The President called upon the VCs and the Ministry of Human Resource Development to try and fill up vacancies to faculty positions within six months to the best extent possible and assured that vacancies of Visitor's nominees would also be filled up in three to six months," the statement added. The President also told the conference that during his future visits to universities he would interact with inspired teachers and innovators. MORE