India must regain its lost glory in education: President Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday said India “must regain” the lost glory of its educational institutions and once again become a centre for “cross fertilization of ideas from across the world.”

Addressing a delegation from QS, ICAA, British Council, FICCI and KPMG who presented the first copy of “QS University Rankings: Asia 2014” to Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan here Monday, the president said India will “sooner than later find its rightful place in the global ranking of higher education institutions.” “Indian educational institutions dominated the world for a period of around 1800 years from 6th century B.C. to 13th century A.D. and were a magnet for scholars from all over the world,” the president said.

“India must regain the lost glory of the past and once again become a centre for cross fertilization of ideas from across the world,” he added. Asserting that he had always emphasized on the need for country’s educational institutions to improve their global rankings, Mukherjee expressed happiness that the “efforts were bearing fruit” as the number of Indian institutions in the ranking had increased to 17 this year as compared to 11 in 2013.

The president assured the delegation that Indian authorities would “extend all possible cooperation” to them in obtaining necessary information in the appropriate format from Indian higher education institutions. The institutions should be transparent and all relevant information should be published in their websites, he said.