India's National Knowledge Commission-11: Indan Prime Minister launches knowledge commission, says India had the potential to become "the knowledge engine of the world."
The Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said that India had the potential to become "the knowledge engine of the world" if it exploited its vast youth power and drew foreign investment to broaden its knowledge base while launching India's recently setup national knowledge commission in its first meeting on August 2, 2005 in New Delhi according to a press report. Check the full press report, reproduced below* for convenience, at
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=85129
Dr D.C.Misra
August 3, 2005
_____________________________________________________________________________________*PM launches knowledge commission
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Aug. 2. – The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said today that India had the potential to become "the knowledgeengine of the world" if it exploited its vast youth power and drewforeign investment to broaden its knowledge base.
"In the next few decades, India will have the world's largestset of young people. Even as other countries age, India will remain a country of young people," he said at the first meeting of the Knowledge Commission constituted recently. While sounding sanguine throughout his speech, the Prime Minister, however, pondered and cautioned: "But these youth can be an asset only if we invest in their capabilities. A knowledge-driven generation will be an asset. Denied this investment, it will be a social and economic liability. Hence, we must invest in building the knowledge base of the coming generations."
India has more than 250 universities, many more research and development institutions and the world's largest chain ofpublicly funded laboratories. In addition, 350,000 engineers and 5,000 Ph.D graduates each year, he noted. "With such a vast poolof qualified, English-speaking scientific and technological manpower, India must have the ambition to become a large base of research and development activity. We should be able to attract global investment into research and development activity at home. I think we should put in place the required legal and physical infrastructure that can attract more foreign investment in research activity." "Our universities and centres of excellence arefalling behind the best in the world, both in terms of human capital and physical infrastructure. The time has come to create a second wave of institution building and of excellence in the field of education, research and capacity building in India so that we are better prepared for the 21st century," he said.
____________________________________________________________________________________(Source: Statesman News Service (2005): PM launches knowledge commission, The Statesman, New Delhi, August 3, Wednesday, p-5, India, http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=85129 (accessed: August 3, 2005)
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