Collaborate with industry, government, president tells varsities

Jammu: President Pranab Mukherjee Monday asked universities in the country to become drivers of innovation with focus on collaborative relationships with the industry and the government.

Addressing the 14th convocation of the University of Jammu here Monday, Mukherjee said: "Entrepreneurial activities in the universities could take various forms such as contract research, consultancy, patenting, licensing, spin outs, start-ups, incubating companies etc.

"It is important that the universities create the right environment for promoting entrepreneurship among students as well as the academicians."

The president said Jammu university had been listed as one of the 29 universities in the country under the Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) programme of the department of science and technology.

He congratulated the university for its pioneering effort in setting up the national apple germ plasm repository at its Bhaderwah campus.

He also said that Jammu university had achieved a milestone by hosting the 101 session of the Indian Science Congress first time ever in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the university has involved itself in world-class research through its participation in a large ion collider experiment (ALICE) as part of the Indian team involved in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at the European Council for Nuclear Research, Geneva.

"The state of Jammu and Kashmir is emerging as a knowledge hub in the country with nine universities and more than 300 affiliated colleges.

"All these institutions would benefit by collaborating in teaching and research and by establishing common research facilities," he said.

The president, however, said world-class quality education was still far from having been achieved by the country as none of our universities is yet listed among the top 200 universities in the world.

Mukherjee called upon Jammu university to move towards establishing research clusters to enable scholars and faculty members to explore emerging research areas related to local and regional needs.