Pranab Mukherjee makes his last speech as president at an educational institution

BENGALURU: “This is my last visit to a central institution as the 13th President of India. And I’m satisfied I’m concluding by visiting an institution that has made India proud,” said President Pranab Mukherjee at the packed JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science.

He was speaking at the annual convocation which saw graduation of 624 students and researchers pursuing various post-graduate and doctoral programmes.

His speech emphasized the need to provide skills for 500 million young Indians, create a conducive environment at universities to retain India’s talent and the need for good teachers. By 2030, India’s population will be dominated by the youth. If the young population of 500 million is not trained well, this demographic advantage will be a demographic liability, he said.

Pointing out the need for having good educational institutions to provide skills for the 500 million workforce in 2030, he said it is important to retain India’s talent rather than losing them to foreign universities. “A conducive environment which can support and retain our talent in our institutes of high learning has to be created.”

Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala said the old slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan should be expanded to include Jai Vigyan. He asked students to take inspiration from small countries like Israel and

Japan

for their technological advances. Interestingly, he also mentioned North Korea among the countries to draw inspiration from.

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