HYDERABAD: Improving higher education infrastructure, having a common platform for scientists, social scientists and administrators, encouraging innovative entrepreneurship and boosting sector-specific R&D should be the focus areas for the country to become a leader in the knowledge economy.

This view was expressed by V.S. Ramamurthy, chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, while inaugurating a workshop on "Issues before the National Knowledge Commission" organised by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here on Thursday.

Crunch of teachers

Voicing concern over the problems faced by educational institutions arising out of shortage of faculty, he said that even IITs were facing a 30 per cent shortage of teachers. He underscored the need for planners to think 20 years ahead and see that the human resources pipeline was kept full, with good students, teachers and teaching environment.

Prof. Ramamurthy dwelt on how good students were considering industry as a better option than teaching. "While we pay about Rs. 4,000 for a student as stipend/grant to pursue higher education/research, corporates like Infosys and Microsoft come to campuses and offer basic graduates Rs. 40,000," he said.

Primary objective

P.M. Bhargava, Vice-Chairman of the Knowledge Commission, said its primary objective was the generation of new knowledge to make the country a leader, dissemination and utilisation, including traditional knowledge for development.

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