The Hindu Business Line : Govt to create knowledge commission: PM

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on Wednesday declared the Government's decision to create a `knowledge commission', to "strengthen the roots and sinews of our capacity and capability-building, so that we are better prepared for the challenges of the 21st Century."

Speaking at the inaugural plenary session of the CII Partnership Summit 2005, the Prime Minister said the commission would be a catalyst in setting ambitious knowledge targets and enabling agencies to attain these. Clarifying that this was the new exercise thought of by the Government to innovate and rejuvenate "our knowledge institutions", he said the agenda of the commission will be shaped by a knowledge pentagon with five areas of action, to increase access to knowledge for public benefit, develop new concepts of higher education, rejuvenate science and technology institutions, enable application of knowledge by industry to enhance manufacturing competitiveness and encourage intensive use of knowledge-based services by the Government to empower citizens.

Urging reorientation of Indian industries to create application of knowledge to increase productivity, gain competitive advantage and improve the conditions of people engaged in work, the Prime Minister said, "above all, we must become not merely a knowledge producing society but a knowledge-sharing and knowledge-consuming society."

Access to knowledge will strengthen liberal democracy at the grassroots, he pointed out.

Suggesting that building a knowledge-economy and knowledge-society was the only way to meet the challenge of globalisation, he said, "I want business leaders as well as our political and intellectual leaders to work with the Knowledge Commission so that we can build a more open society and a more open economy."

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