PM talks of Knowledge Commission with Pitroda

The National Knowledge Commission will take its ideas across the country and build a consensus, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Jan 12, 2007, 23:04:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asked the National Knowledge Commission to take its ideas across the country and build consensus, while admitting that higher education needed a comprehensive reform.

Commenting on a set of recommendations presented by NKC chairperson Sam Pitroda, in the Report to the Nation 2006, the PM said the recommendations on vocational education merit 'immediate' attention for expanding the employment potential of the economy. On public libraries, the PM stressed for active translation system to facilitate the spread of knowledge.

PM Singh also had something to add to the commission’s plan for knowledge network connecting all universities and research institutes. “There has to be a translation component to this as well. The idea of creating national portals in all Indian languages is a welcome one,” he said. In the same vein, he also acknowledged that access was at the bottom of the pyramid, which the commission has addressed in six of its ten recommendations.

Inaugurating two web portals --- on water and energy --- supported by the commission, the PM said, a host of developmental activities were being carried out in these sectors and there was a need for sharing of information, and resources on a continue basis. “In order to ensure that the benefits of these portals reach people, we need to ensure that the portals are available in all major languages and that they address the practical needs of our citizens,” he said.

But, the PM said the final challenge was to change ‘mindsets’ and ensure that each citizen of India is an asset. “We need both financial investment and creative thinking in addressing this challenge,” he said, while admitting that the government would have to look for resources to implement the recommendations.

The report released by the PM states that access to knowledge and learning can transform India’s potential for development. The report also highlights key areas ---- education, learning process, vocational education, governance --- where change would significantly improve people’s inclusion and capability in existing and new fields of knowledge use.

Ends
Email id : chetan@hindustantimes.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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