India to be Most Developed Nation by 2047 if Higher Education Leveraged: AICTE Chairman

India will become the most developed nation in the world by 2047 if it takes higher education to the next level and works on various transformational reforms, AICTE Chairman Prof T G Sitharam said here Thursday. He also lauded the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020, saying its implementation would make India the “knowledge capital” of the world.

The chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) shared his views during the Ministry of Education’s Institution Innovation’s Council (IIC) Regional Meet held at Amity University. “India will become the most developed nation of the world by 2047 and during this Amrit Kaal, we have to take higher education to the next level and work on various transformational reforms,” Sitharam said. “NEP, 2020, includes excellent policies and initiatives which must be implemented in the next 25 years to make India the knowledge capital of the world. But it is not being followed,” the former IIT-Guwahati director said. Sitharam further said the vision for Amrit Kaal includes providing education in the mother tongue so that it can reach the maximum number of people.

“Therefore, we have published many books in regional languages and have also created reforms in examinations. Rote learning and writing in examinations has to change,” he said. “We have also taken a big step forward to integrate skilling into education since skill development is extremely crucial for the development of the country,” the AICTE chairman added.

He stressed that India’s vision is not only to become “Aatma Nirbhar” or self-reliant but also to become a “Vishwa Daata” — a giver — as witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic when India provided vaccines to more than 100 countries and helped them. The Education Ministry’s regional meets are the flagship programme of its Innovation Cell, designed to provide a networking platform for innovation to institutions. Around 800 to 1,000 participants, including innovators and startups, policymakers, and state and central government agencies, joined Thursday’s meeting at Amity University in Noida.