PUNE: Lamenting the fact that India lags behind in the field of research, Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar said that educational institutions must ensure and take efforts for doing relevant research studies in the country.
He was speaking at the Kale Memorial Lecture on the 24th convocation ceremony of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics on Monday.
Javadekar spoke about the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) whom he had once suggested to conduct a research study on demonetisation, but the institution failed to do so.
He said, “It was interesting to observe how citizens have accepted and reacted to demonetisation. Therefore, I had once suggested to IIM to conduct a research study on how people perceived this move and adjusted to it."
“The institute said it would take three months to design a model structure of this research study. By the time the institution would prepare for the research, the phase of demonetisation would have nullified,” said Javadekar.
“Our country has much potential in its diversity that can be considered for research work,” said Javadekar.
He said that though an acclaimed movie Toilet - Ek Prem Katha has been released, there is no research on the topic at educational institutions.
Emphasisng that institutions should have relevant research work, Javadekar said, “The small and big changes in the society must be studied by students, academicians and researchers.”
REFORMS ON THE CARDS
Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar said that to improve the quality of education three major regulators University Grant Commission (UGC), All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) will soon be reformed and brought under one body with similar rules and processes to bring about more efficiency. He also spoke about the graded regulatory mechanism as part of key reforms in the UGC to usher in greater transparency, freedom and autonomy to institutions.
