Indian educational institutions must maintain high standards

Chennai: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday urged Indian educational institutions to maintain high standards and foster academic excellence.

Speaking at the convocation of Great Lakes Institute of Management here, Naidu said India is an attractive destination for global investors.

Naidu said India was poised to become a USD 5 trillion economy in the next few years and there was a need to remove economic imbalances, urban-rural divide, end gender and social discrimination and enhance the prestige of all institutions, including the Supreme Court, Central Vigilance Commission, Election Commission, Parliament and state legislatures.

He said nobody should say or do anything to undermine the sanctity of these institutions. There are appropriate forums to redress grievances, if any, he added. He urged educational institutions to maintain high standards and foster academic excellence.

Asking the graduating students to respect their alma mater and always act to enhance its reputation, Naidu advised them to focus on achieving academic excellence and become socially conscientious citizens.

He said that the atmosphere on university campuses should not be vitiated by extraneous issues and added that he was happy that barring a few, most of the 900 universities in India were free from any disturbance.

The Vice President also told them not to neglect their parents, mother tongue, native place, motherland and "Gurus" (teachers).

He said the scope of management studies should cover the rural economy, agriculture and allied industries and provide solutions to make these sectors viable and vibrant.

Naidu asked Indian management institutions to adopt globally accepted teaching practices, methodologies and curriculum to ensure that students are duly recognised in the global job market.

"Indian institutions have to adopt globally accepted benchmarks to achieve global prominence and align with other management institutions. Such academic alliances with institutions of international repute are a great way to provide learning experience to students," he added.