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Manmohan: we are destined to become knowledge superpower

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

IIT’S MISSION: (From left) Tata Steel Managing Director B. Muthuraman, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar and IIT Madras Director M.S. Ananth at the inaugural session of PAN IIT 2008 in Chennai on Friday.

CHENNAI: Inaugurating Pan IIT 2008 through video-conferencing on Friday, Prime Minister talked about India’s destiny to become a knowledge superpower. In a sense, he echoed what Pandit Nehru said 52 years ago while attending a convocation of IIT Kharagpur: “This picture is symbolic of the changes that are coming to India.” Or what the gathered delegates including Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar said was the IITs’ mission: to use technology to transform India.

The three-day global conference of IIT alumni, held for the first time on an IIT campus, and hosted by IIT Madras which is celebrating its golden jubilee year, has an impressive array of speakers and delegates including top leaders in industry, policymaking and academia.

Dr. Singh set the tone for the conference, emphasising the need for evaluating change by the amount of transformation wrought to the whole country.

“We also need to be alive to the need for providing access to quality education to the poor and the disadvantaged,” he said while congratulating IIT alumni on their seminal contributions in various fields.

He asked the IIT fraternity to “to become partners in the process of transformation of India into a knowledge society.”

Dr. Singh said autonomy, an important requirement for institutions of higher education, would be safeguarded, while more institutions of IIT calibre would be started to allow the best and most talented students to benefit from world-class education.

While applauding the success of the IITs in providing an exemplary image of India abroad through their work in various fields, he also reminded the audience of the contributions by private engineering colleges and the National Institutes of Technology and others in the information technology revolution that has brought India close to becoming an economic superpower.

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