01/09/2020
SPEECH OF SHRI PRANAB MUKHERJEE ON THE CELEBRATION OF 77TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DR K N MODI FOUNDATION ON 18TH OCTOBER, 2019 FROM 1845 – 1930 HRS AT THE CONSTITUTION CLUB, NEW DELHI
I am happy to be present here for the ‘Ashirvachanam’ on the occasion of 77th Foundation Day celebration of Dr K.N. Modi Foundation. At the outset I wish to congratulate the recipients of the Doctorate of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) for their immense contributions towards the welfare of the society. I would also like to congratulate the members associated with this educational group – Dr KN Modi Foundation for their dedicated service towards the nation in the field of education.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen,
2. I am told that Dr K. N. Modi Foundation was established in the year 1942 by Dr K.N. Modi, with a mission to be the nucleus of excellence in varied fields of education along with the hope of inculcating positive attitude, high values, commitment and dedication amongst its students. And I am happy to be informed that through its 18 Educational Institutions and over 700 Faculty members, they have been successful in nurturing the lives of over a million students in the last eight decades.
3. For the vision that education must reach each and every citizen of India, Dr Modi made sure that they provide educational facilities for the children of the Industrial workers in the 5 Industrial towns he established. In pre-Independent India, this was an unheard-of noble act. And I am happy to note that he was way ahead of his time in his endeavour.
Dear Friends,
4. I had the opportunity of meeting Dr K N Modi a few times when he was President of FICCI. He always had new ideas about the future of our country. He not only had a deep understanding of business and economic problems, but also had deep knowledge of the financial aspects of society. It is heartening to see Prof Dr Devendra K Modi taking the Foundation to newer heights. Starting humbly with one school, today the Foundation is providing education through the medium of business schools, engineering colleges, post graduate colleges, global school and much more.
Dear Students,
5. India is not just a country – it is one of the oldest civilizations of the world and Education is the most important part of the socio-cultural milieu of this country from time immemorial. I am reminded of the famous Sanskrit proverb that resonates of the power and value of Education and the importance of education in our lives.
विद्यां ददाति विनयं विनयाद् याति पात्रताम् ।
पात्रत्वात् धनमाप्नोति धनात् धर्मं ततः सुखम् ॥
Vidyam Dadati Vinayam,
Vinayad yati Paatrataam।
Paatr-tvaat Dhanama-pronati,
Dhanaat Dharmam Tatah Sukham॥
It means, Education gives Humility; Humility gives Character; from Character one gets Wealth; from Wealth one gets Righteous (dharma) life; from a Righteous life one gets Happiness.
6. However, education in today’s context has lost its true significance of acquiring knowledge and learning and has been reduced to a tool of earning a livelihood. I would like to quote Mahatma Gandhi who said, “The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the students to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated as long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education.” (Unquote)
7. Ladies & Gentlemen, today we have over 15 lakh schools, more than 40,000 colleges, 935 Universities , but we are yet to achieve excellence in Education. It is no more about just building schools, appointing teachers or providing mid day meals in schools. It is about the quality and relevance of learning. It is about universal and healthy appreciation of different streams of thought.
8. To my mind, we are a nation that is capable of achieving this, because our roots of education emanate from high caliber knowledge systems – our illustrious institutions of education of the past. If today, Indian born, Abhijeet Vinayak Banerjee, who graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata and obtained his Masters in Economics from Jawaharlal University wins a Nobel Prize in Economics or if today India proclaims loudly to be the first nation in the world to reach Mars in its maiden attempt and at the lowest cost, then these are not accidents, rather they are outcomes of knowledge systems that have been fruitfully utilized with setting up of our esteemed institutions like ISRO, AIIMS, IIMs, IITs, IISERs and much more.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen,
9. India cannot afford to lose direction nor can it afford to go astray as we are in a race against time. India’s challenges stem from its need to harness the energies of its teeming millions in a very young age group and give them direction. India can and should strive to use this young population pool to not just stay competitive in a globalized world but also set the pace of growth and development as it did in the past. Decades ago, our Constitution builders laid the foundation of a nation they envisioned. The blueprint they laid for us is not an ambiguous thought but a grand design based on values, hopes and aspirations of the people of our nation.
10. We, the people of India, gave ourselves our Constitution on the 26th of January, 1950, to build an inclusive and modern India. We promised to secure Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for our people. These are the values that must, once again, become the beacon for our journey forward and education must become the medium to impart, inculcate and enhance these values.
11. Today, 80% of the education is in the hands of private sectors. And thus, institutions like yours have a much bigger role to play. It is a well known fact that India is all set to become the largest individual contributor to the global demographic transition with the working population (Ages 15-64) set to reach 869 million by 2020. It is also predicted that India will experience “demographic bonus”, where the growth rate of the working population would exceed that of the total population until 2020. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has predicted that by 2020, India will have 116 million workers in the work-starting age bracket of 20 to 24 years, as compared to China's 94 million.
The IMF reported that if India’s demographic dividend continues, it has the potential to add 2 percentage points per annum to India’s per capita GDP growth over the next two decades. Clearly a well-educated, highly skilled workforce will be a huge advantage. We cannot let this opportunity pass us by. As India’s population increases, we need the private sector to step forward, more than ever before.
12. The trends of education suggest that in times to come education will have to be outcome-based & not output-based. Skills will count more, than the marks obtained in the exam, similarly, innovation would be considered as the most important criteria for human resources development. And I am happy to note that the industry-academia connect which is responsible for outcome-based education, is developed in all the campuses of the Dr. KN Modi foundation.
13. When we look at the challenges of higher education at the global level we find the lot of work still needs to be done in this sector. Our Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in comparison to the countries with the developed world is very low. The government plans to increase the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) to 30%. Though important, just an increase in number will not lead to a commensurate improvement in quality. We need to re-think our approach and align our education policy to focus on outcomes and globally recognized quality.
14. For the first time since 2012, not a single Indian institution has figured among the top 300 in World University Rankings 2020, compiled by UK-based Times Higher Education (THE). I believe, lack of research opportunities, insufficient funds for taking research education, lack of emphasis given to humanities stream etc are major challenges before us. It is also important to understand why foreign universities are doing better than their Indian counterparts. Because I refuse to believe that we lack talent. But we ought to explore ways in which universities in India can compete with the world’s best universities in the rankings today and perhaps regain her lost position as the leader in Global education and progress.
15. Towards the end, I wish Dr K.N. Modi Foundation as well as the associated members of faculty and the students good luck in their efforts towards excelling in achieving the highest standards of quality of education. I also hope that they continue to impart education in its true sense by shaping our children into responsible citizens of tomorrow. Let me conclude by once again quoting the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi. He said, “What is really needed to make democracy function is not a knowledge of facts, but right education”.
Thank you.
Jai Hind.
