Become independent of foreign technology: Kakodkar

“Though knowledge is shared globally,sharing of technology is not without constraints and costs,” he added. Stressing the need for students to be India-focused rather than West-focused,he said: “If we remain dependent on foreign technology,we can never become world leaders. We cannot survive global competition,unless we achieve global leadership at least in some areas.”

“Higher education,research and its complimentary technological domain have to be pursued hand-in-hand. In contrast,today we have created tall boundary walls with all openings guarded by an inflexible system of rules that neither nurture excellence nor cooperative workings across these boundaries,” he said.

“Our higher education system must empower our youth to feel confident about addressing the issues of development based on scientific and innovative inputs tailored to the needs of our society,” he added.