The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Atre deplores lack of research schemes

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Sunday, Aug 10, 2008
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Atre deplores lack of research schemes

Special Correspondent

Students reluctant to take up career in research for want of options, funds

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

ACCENT ON RESEARCH: Arvind Limbavali (left), Minister for Higher Education; N.R. Shetty, former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University; V.K. Atre, former Adviser to the Prime Minister; and L.M. Patnaik, Vice-Chancellor, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology; at the ICIP 2008 in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: Experts participating in the Second International Conference on Information Processing (ICIP) here on Saturday decried the lack of quality in higher education and research facilities in the country.

The conference was held under the aegis of the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE).

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of the conference, the former Advisor to the Prime Minister V.K. Atre said that research was the key component for a country to become a technological power.

Reluctance

Despite a large number of students taking up professional courses and their excellent performance in basic sciences, they were not able to take up research in their respective subjects because of severe shortage of funding and lack of research programmes.

Dr. Atre said research field needed critical and incremental human resources inputs on the lines of Information Technology.

Because of lack of bondage or linkage between the industry and the institute, the research field was languishing for funds.

The Government could fund research activities in fundamental and basic sciences but application research should be taken up by the institute with the help of the industry. Such tie-ups were long lasting and result-oriented, he added.

Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Higher Education Minister Arvind Limbavali said the quality of human life largely depended on the quality and spread of knowledge in practical and theoretical aspects.

IT-driven ventures

He said Information Technology could be applied to improve the quality of education in rural areas.

The State Government was keen on adopting the techniques developed by IT-driven educational programmes to rural areas.

He said the Government had made it clear that there was no dearth of funds for infusing new techniques of learning and teaching in higher education.

The former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University N.R. Shetty and Vice-Chancellor of Defence Institute of Advanced Technology L.M. Patnaik spoke.

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