Rural minds ought to be tapped, if India has to reach its full potential. Prof CNR Rao, chairman, scientific advisory council, on Tuesday said that he would propose setting up top colleges that will provide free education for deserving students.
“We have been trying to reach the chief minister for a while now. The rural areas house some of the best minds, but it is unfair that bright students from these areas don’t get the opportunities to attend pre-university. I am going to propose to the government a set-up wherein top colleges are set up in all corners of the state. The best students will get free lodging, food, and other facilities provided to them,” said Rao.
Rao was speaking at the prize distribution ceremony of the state awards for scientists and engineers for the year 2010 at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He also elaborated that he would like to see the proposal achieve fruition by the end of this year. Rao expressed his concerns towards the lack of quality research published in the country. “India is in an odd position. We are not bad or great. China publishes 10 times the number of research papers that we do. Our scientists are publishing less than 1% of the top 1% research being published worldwide,” he added.
MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary, departments of IT, BT and S&T, said that the state should focus on education and innovation.
“They are the future currencies. A few years ago, the state budget for science and technology was mere `2 crore. This year, it was `40 crore. By 2013, we expect the budget to be `95 crore,” he said.
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