New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday emphasised on the need for better synergy between colleges and universities and directed for the implementation of all the provisions of the National Education Policy from pre-nursery to PhD "quickly".
The Prime Minister expressed his views while addressing a webinar on effective implementation of Budget provisions regarding the Education sector, saying, "the Budget will be of immense help in this regard."
The Prime Minister pointed out that to build a self-reliant India, confidence of the youth of the country is equally important and said that confidence comes only when the youth have complete faith in their education and knowledge.
He said that confidence comes only when they realize that their studies are giving them the opportunity to do their work and also the necessary skills.
Modi said that the new National Education Policy has been made with this thinking and stressed the need to "implement all the provisions of the National Education Policy from pre-nursery to PhD quickly".
The Prime Minister said the second biggest focus after health in this year's budget is on education, skill, research and innovation and at the same time pushed for "a better synergy between colleges and universities of the country".
Noting the emphasis placed in this budget on skill development, upgradation and apprenticeship, the Prime Minister said this budget has further expanded the efforts made to link education with employability and entrepreneurial capabilities over the years.
As a result of these efforts, he said, today "India has come in the top three countries in terms of scientific publications, number of PhD scholars and start-up ecosystem".
"India has joined the top 50 ranks in Global Innovation Index and is continuously improving. New opportunities are growing for the students and young scientists with the constant focus on higher education, research and innovation."
The Prime Minister said for the first time, the focus is on issues ranging from Atal Tinkering Labs in schools to Atal Incubation Centres in higher institutions.
"A new tradition of Hackathons for start-ups has been created in the country, which is becoming a huge force for both the youth and industry of the country."
He informed that through the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovation, more than 3,500 start-ups are being nurtured. Similarly, under the National Supercomputing Mission, three supercomputers: Param Shivay, Param Shakti and Param Bramha have been established in IIT BHU, IIT-Kharagpur and IISER, Pune.
The Prime Minister said with the thinking that restricting knowledge and research is a great injustice to the country's potential, many avenues in sectors like space, atomic energy, DRDO and agriculture are being opened for talented youth.
He said for the first time, the country has met the international standards related to Metrology which leads to R&D and improving our Global Competency a lot.
"Geo-spatial data has been opened up recently and this would lead to immense opportunity for the space sector and the youth of the country. The entire ecosystem will benefit immensely."
Informing that a National Research Foundation is being built for the first time in the country, the Prime Minister said 50,000 crore rupees have been allocated for the project which aims at strengthening the governance structure of the research related institutions and will improve linkages between research and development, academia and industry.