Fill up faculty posts fast for quality education: Kovind
New Delhi, July 13 : President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday advised higher learning institutes to fill vacant faculty positions fast to ensure quality education and research.
Kovind said this while addressing the heads, directors and vice chancellors of 19 central-level institutions in an yearly meeting.
"Wherever posts are yet to be created, it has to be done at the earliest. Filling up of vacant faculty positions is critical for ensuring quality education and research. I am sure you will take all the possible steps to ensure all these positions are filled up before next meet," Kovind said.
The 19 higher learning institutes included the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Hajipur and Hyderabad), Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, National Institute of Design and the Nalanda University.
This was the fourth such meeting held at Rashtrapati Bhavan by the President who is Visitor to 146 Central Universities and institutions of higher learning. For ease of management and type, the universities were divided in cohorts.
The fifth meeting -- to be held next week -- with another cohort will complete Kovind's engagement with all the 146 institutions within a year.
Addressing the heads, the President urged them to plan the future of their centres keeping India's large youth population in mind and also the prospect of five trillion dollar GDP target by 2025.
"This requires us to think big and to take risks - and each of your institutes must be equal to the challenge," he said.
He told the pharma institutes that this was the time to take a "quantum leap" in the field through drug discoveries and eradicating long-standing diseases like tuberculosis. He also called for a thrust on "management of emerging lifestyle diseases."
To the agriculture institutes, Kovind suggested adopting of new technologies that "we have so far shunned to maximise on the scarce resources".
"We need to be mindful that the pressure on land and on water is immense. New technologies, including technologies we have so far shied away from, will need to be studied and adopted, as feasible," he said.
Kovind gave corresponding advice to the aviation, maritime and design institutes.
"In conclusion, I would nudge you towards partnering with universities in our country and outside; in your respective fields and beyond. Knowledge cannot grow in silos and it is essential that each of you participate in the growth of the other," he said.
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We are together at home: Sharad Pawar on Ajit Pawar
Mumbai (PTI): Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that he and nephew Ajit Pawar are together as a family, but made it clear that the latter was heading a different political party.
“Gharat tari ekatrach ahet (we are together at home least),” the veteran politician said at a press conference at Chiplun in coastal Konkan region.
He was responding to a query about the demand from “various quarters in the state” that the uncle-nephew duo should come together once again.
In July last year, Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle to join the Eknath Shinde-led government in the state as deputy chief minister. Of late, there has been speculation over his continuation in the ruling alliance.
Asked about Ajit Pawar’s recent remarks the decision to make his wife Sunetra Pawar contest the Lok Sabha polls against Supriya Sule in Baramati was a mistake, the veteran politician said, “He is in a different party. Why should we comment on decisions taken by another party?”
Asked if the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of NCP (SP), Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) had decided its chef ministerial face, Pawar said, “I don’t think that it is an urgent issue at the moment”.
When elections were held after the Emergency, Morarji Desai’s name as PM candidate was not disclosed before polling, he added.
“Our (MVA) attempt is to give a progressive alternative in Maharashtra with help of other parties like Samajwadi Party and Peasants and Workers Party,” he said.
“Our observation is that the people of Maharashtra have made up their mind to give us (MVA) a chance in the ensuing elections,” he said.
Asked about Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu’s claim that sub-standard ghee with 'animal fat' was used to make prasad laddoos at Tirupati temple during Jaganmohan Reddy's tenure as CM, Pawar said, “If anything was mixed, it is very wrong and action should be taken against those involved”.
