BJP veteran and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday said the Indian education system seeks to create a world where the material, intellectual and spiritual aspects of human development are in harmony.
Joshi was speaking at the 21st FICCI Higher Education Summit, which began at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on Thursday. The two-day summit is being held on the theme, “Higher Education for a New World Order: Reform, Resilience and Relevance”.
On the sidelines of the event, Joshi said students’ legitimate demands should be heard with sympathy and criticised the use of force to deal with student protests.
“Reasonable or legitimate demands of students should always be heard and should be heard with a great deal of sympathy. This method of using batons is not appropriate. You can never find a solution this way. If there are problems, listen to them. They are our children,” Joshi told reporters.
The Padma Vibhushan awardee said, “Indian education system believes in creating a world where all aspects of human development — material, intellectual and spiritual — are harmonised.”
At the summit, Joshi also released a report titled “From AI Adoption to Readiness – Preparing Indian Higher Education for the AI-era”.
Symbiosis University Chancellor Vidya Yeravdekar said that in a world shaped by technology and artificial intelligence, higher education institutions have a responsibility to make students resilient and future-ready.
FICCI Secretary General Anant Swarup said artificial intelligence is rapidly changing what graduates need to know. “Artificial intelligence is changing what a graduate needs to know faster than any syllabus committee can meet. Universities everywhere are being asked to do more with less certainty about the world their students will enter,” he said.
Padmakumar Nair, Vice Chancellor of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, said universities must learn to balance compassion and excellence.
“Ruthless compassion in the way we treat people and an uncompromising pursuit of excellence in what we do must be two aspirations that our universities must learn to hold together,” he added.
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