In his first public appearance after being sworn in,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday spelt out his vision for the state balanced development,with a stress on transparency in the system. With the help of our alliance partner,we will give priority to sectors such as education,healthcare,agriculture and infrastructure. Maharashtra should lead the country in every demographic parameter. Chavan was speaking at the inaugural function of the All-India Vice-Chancellors Conference organised by the Bharati Vidyapeeth University (BVU) in association with University Grants Commission (UGC) and Association of Indian Universities (AIU). Speaking at length about challenges such as water scarcity,food security,healthcare,energy crisis,global warming and gross enrollment ratio in higher education,he called for equitable growth with focus on good governance. If you expand without good governance,there would be a question of equity and quality. There are challenges before the state as centres of excellence are concentrated in areas such as Pune,Mumbai or Nagpur. It raises the overall average rate of growth of the state. However,in tribal areas of Melghat in Vidarbha,deaths are taking place due to malnutrition. We cannot allow this. On higher education,Chavan called for fulfilling the challenge thrown by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of making this decade a decade of innovation for the country. He briefed the audience about various initiatives in higher education such as scholarships for basic sciences,foreign education providers bill and checking unfair practices. He appealed to the vice-chancellors to participate in initiatives. There is not a single Indian university in the top 200 list. The list may be faulty,but it is still not acceptable.
