Liberal arts and humanities must be given attention on a par with science, said President Ram Nath Kovind while addressing a higher education summit organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here on Wednesday.
“I am happy that universities have already made progress with an inter-disciplinary approach, combining courses in mathematics with music and artificial intelligence with animal husbandry. Much more work is required on this count,” he said.
Kovind further said that if India establishes robust industry-academy linkage, it has the potential to become the R&D capital of the world.
“The world of tomorrow will be driven by knowledge and digital pathways.
To prepare ourselves for this transformation and to leverage its limitless opportunities, we have to re-task our higher education with new courses and deeper research orientation,” he added.
Regional imbalance
Speaking about the regional imbalance in the quality of education, he said: “We are trying to narrow the gap but a lot more initiatives are required.”
National Education Policy
He added that the National Education Policy will lay the path for transforming the Indian education landscape, making it better suited for today’s needs.
The summit, ‘Creative Economy, Nation Building: Higher Education as the Catalyst’, was organised by FICCI in collaboration with the HR and Commerce ministries.