President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday appealed to the central universities to adopt five villages each to transform them into model villages.
Addressing 12 of Directors of National Institute of Technology (NIT)s held in Rashtrapati Bhavan last month, he gave a call to the NITs to start working with at least five villages each to transform them into model villages and he expected the Central Universities, including Tezpur University, to follow. “The University must organise resource persons and experts, if so required, from other Central institutions to provide solutions to the wide range of issues concerning the adopted villages,” he said.
He also called upon the universities to implement the decision taken at the Conference of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities held in Rashtrapati Bhavan this year that each Central University ought to set up an Industry Interface Cell and added, “Success of initiatives like ‘Make in India’ hinges on manufacturing quality industrial products where academia-industry interface would play a very crucial role.”
The President, who arrived on two-day visit to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, said in his speech that India, as a developing nation, has to search for solutions to issues like renewable energy, climate changes, drinking water, sanitation and urbanisation.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that whenever he visited Tezpur University, it reminded him about the contribution of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi. “Even today, many States do not have a single central university, not to speak of two central universities. Today, I am happy to see the university making invaluable contributions to the growth of education in our country.”
