Anil Kakodkar, DAE Homi Bhabha Chair, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, said on Saturday that it was necessary to promote high quality research in the universities of the country.
He was delivering the convocation address at Manipal University, here. Over 2,400 students were awarded degrees on the occasion. In addition, 34 PhD scholars received their doctorates and 14 meritorious students were awarded the Dr. T.M.A. Pai gold medals.
Dr. Kakodkar said research should push frontiers of knowledge and evolve technologies to implement them for development. “This would require several dimensions to be incorporated in the research domain in our institutions. Our research should become comparable to the best in the world,” he said.
Several faculty would need to come together to address such grand challenges in a coordinated manner. “We should have an environment that incubates industrial enterprise making use of the research and development (R&D) carried out in our institutions. We should have presence of industry research on the campus in the form of research parks where our students and faculty have opportunity to participate,” he said.
Similarly, there should be presence of national laboratories engaged in key national programmes on the university campuses. “In my view, all this would make our education more holistic and also create an ecosystem that nurtures the spirit of innovation that we so desperately need to inculcate,” he said.
While such enrichment on the campus was a very desirable feature, it was necessary to bridge the gap in the mutual confidence that existed between the academia and industry. “We need to reach a condition wherein both sides see a win-win situation”, he said. It was necessary to explore opportunities to engage in R&D of relevance to society. “Our students getting exposed to such activities would not only give them a good problem solving experience but also emotionally bind them with India in true sense”, Dr. Kakodkar said.
Chancellor of Manipal University Ramdas M. Pai, Pro Chancellor H.S. Ballal and Vice Chancellor K. Ramnaryan were present.
Among the 14 gold medal winners, 10 are undergraduates and four postgraduates.
Medal winners
Apurva Shantharaj Gowda (B.E.), Priya Kumari (B. Pharm), Avni Bhasin (BDS), Varun Cyrus Vesuvala (BHM), Philby Babu Menachery (B.Sc. Nursing), Nikhil Kumar (BAJC), Shahnawaz Alam (Allied Health Sciences), Baijayanti Ghosh (B.Sc. Biotechnology), Pavithra Ananthanarayanan (BBA Jewellery Design and Management), and B Srivarshini (B. Arch).
Sonika Singh (M. Pharm), Akshata R. Acharya (M.S. Communication) Mithila Harikrishna Holla (M.S. Information Science), Vathika Kamath (MBA, Manipal Institute of Management).
