STEEPED IN HISTORY: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visits the renovated Senate Hall of Madras University in Chennai on Monday. — Photo: DIPR

CHENNAI: Universities should be empowered with adequate functional autonomy to enable higher education institutions generate human capital for the knowledge era, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said on Monday.

He was inaugurating the 150th Foundation Day celebrations of Madras University here.

The State government should integrate all universities in Tamil Nadu under the virtual university system promoted by Madras University, as access to education for all was a key element of the emerging knowledge economy. A good educational model was the need of the hour, Mr. Kalam said in his address on `University system for a knowledge era'.

"Our nation is going through a major challenge of uplifting 220 million people who are below the poverty line out of the one billon plus people. They need habitat, food, health care, education and employment.

While our GDP is growing at nearly eight per cent per annum, economists suggest that to uplift the poor, the economy has to grow at the rate of an additional minimum of 2 per cent per annum consistently for over a decade,'' Mr. Kalam said. India should leverage its leadership in key areas of the knowledge economy.

He said five areas where India had core competency for integrated action were agriculture and food processing; education and healthcare; infrastructure such as reliable and quality electric power and surface and air transport; information and communication technology and self-reliance in strategic sectors.

India had 540 million people under the age of 25 and higher educational institutions must help youth acquire special skills and research and technology expertise.

Bandwidth was the demolisher of imbalances and the Centre should make high bandwidth available free of cost to help higher educational institutions network amongst themselves, the President said.

Mr. Kalam recalled his university days during 1950-1954 when his life had been shaped by "extraordinary teachers'' the institution had produced.

Dravidian Movement

Inaugurating the Centre for Research on Dravidian Movement, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said the movement had been the crucible of social justice and the Madras University Act of 1923 enabled the socially disadvantaged to access higher education.

The State would support all moves by the Centre to ensure social justice in education, especially when it came to reservations for the socially disadvantaged.

The Foundation Day celebrations were attended by a host of Union and State Ministers, distinguished alumni, industrialists, academics and diplomats. The President released a commemorative postage stamp and First Day cover brought out by the Department of Posts.

He felicitated 20 "distinguished contributors," including students who designed the 150th year logo and the team behind the restoration of the historic Senate House, which he had inaugurated earlier.

A virtual university portal and a seminar on `Talents, Technology and Knowledge-Power for India' were declared open by Mr. Kalam.

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