AICTE vice-chairman M P Poonia today called upon the West Bengal government to set up a park to promote the state's unique heritage and art.
Poonia, who came here to address the two-day 'International Symposium on Gen Next Initiative for Digital India', told PTI one the sidelines of a meet "Why can't West Bengal have a heritage park? I am going to do something for Punjab."
Poonia, who advocated linking rural Bengal digitally, said "Since we know about Bengal's unique jute products, can't this sector be promoted through such parks? The state government should help Start-ups."
He said once the government took steps like providing basic infrastructure and electricity, there would be no shortage of grants from the Centre.
Poonia, in-charge of North-East Quality Control Programme, said "We are not just a regulator. AICTE's vision has changed in the last ten years. We are working as mentors for self-finance institutes."
Poonia, who was present at the announcement of a tie-up between private JIS College of Engineering and four Russian universities, said AICTE wished to change the concept of classes starting at 9 AM and closing at 5 PM.
"We want to act as facilitators to change the mindset. For us, a student should go to lab even after 9 PM," Poonia, actively involved in the ambitious SWAYAM - Information Technology platform to host Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and high quality education project said.
Head of the Russian delegation and Director General, Russian Indian Science and Technology Centre, Sergey Ya Sukonin said "We aim at empowering rural Bengal to become a part of the Digital India movement."
Noting that specialists in the software industry in India were very qualified, Sukonin said "I feel the exchange of experts from both ends will help us mutually.
"We are looking forward towards exchange of private and state universities - both students from India as well as our students coming to India," he said.
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