India needs to invest heavily in education, research: President Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: Asserting that there is no shortcut to success, President Pranab Mukherjee said the country needs to invest heavily in education, research and innovation to claim its rightful place as an advanced economy in the world.

Speaking at an award function of NDTV to honour India's 25 Greatest Global Living Legends, the President said as has been rightfully pointed out India must have a rightful place in the community of nations as an advanced economy.

"But if we want to achieve that, we must at the same time recognise the fact that without advancement of education, research and innovation, we cannot achieve that," he said at the function to mark completion of 25 years by NDTV.

Mukherjee, who presented awards to 25 'living legends' including Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and V Rama Krishnan and master batsman Sachin Tendular, said that while listening to the comments of the awardees, "I found out that one striking commonality in all of them that each and every one of them believes in hard work, honesty, commitment to the job.

"Therefore, what is needed today, what you can draw lessons from the outstanding performance of these 25 great Indians is that we cannot have a shortcut or bypass to achieve the success to reach the top," he said.

The President, who is a visitor to over 100 central universities, IITs and NITs, asked why India had been unable to produce any Nobel Laureate from Indian university after C V Raman in 1930s.

"After C V Raman in the late 1930s of the last century, no Indian scholar, no Indian researcher working in an Indian university obtained a Nobel prize. Why?

"There is no lack of talented teachers, students but what we are failing in is to coordinate them, to give them the priority to create the atmosphere which can produce Amartya Sen, Venkat Rama Krishan, Har Gobind Khorana and many others," he said.