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New Delhi : The Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on April 22, 2019, expressed his anguish over continued terror attacks in various parts of the world and called upon international agencies such as the United Nations to conclude deliberations on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism put forth by India to criminalise all forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms and safe havens. Naidu urged the world community to initiate concerted action to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from the earth.
Addressing the 54th Annual Convocation of Bangalore University at Bengaluru on April 22, Naidu said it was high time that the world takes concerted action to deal with the inhuman menace of terror by alienating those aiding abetting and encouraging terror as a state policy. “Mere condemnation and compensation will not suffice. We have to contain and root out terror in all its forms by going to the root cause,” he added. Pointing out that world over, thousands of innocent people were being killed, the Vice President opined that without attaining peace, progress would have no meaning.
Expressing anguish over the barbaric terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, which claimed the lives of several innocent people, Naidu said India stands in solidarity with the Sri Lankan Government and its people in this hour of distress.
The Vice President observed that higher education must transcend the barriers of caste, creed, religion and gender. He pointed that the principles of social equity and gender parity were of paramount concern as far as higher education was concerned. Providing quality education on par with global standards was the need of the hour, he added.
Reminding the gathering about India’s illustrious heritage, Naidu said that India must resurrect the glory of the bygone era and take up the production and dissemination of knowledge on a wide scale through initiatives such as the digitisation of higher education through expansion of online courses, massive open online courses (MOOC) and distance education. He called upon higher educational institutions to promote interactive academic programmes with diverse specialisations and facilitate convergence of disciplines. ” The system of Higher education must prepare the youth to be competent enough to serve the current techno-capitalist world system and its knowledge economy,” he added.
Observing that a knowledge oriented paradigm of development would enable India to leverage its tremendous demographic advantage, the Vice President stressed that greater emphasis must be accorded to a skill based education by incorporating a three-pronged strategy of ‘skill, reskill and unskill’ as well as ‘learn, relearn and unlearn’. He said there was a need to revamp and reform our higher education system to not only make our institutions global centres of learning but also to ensure that the students were able to meet challenges posed on the employment front.
Expressing his concern that the Gross Enrolment Ratio in Higher Education in India was a mere 27 % compared to USA and China, with 85.8% and 43.4 % respectively, the Vice President called for measures to enhance the Gross Enrolment Ratio.