Education remains the foundation to get opportunities and excel in one’s career, said G. Viswanathan, founder chancellor, VIT, on Sunday.
In his presidential address at the Ruby Jubilee Alumni meet, known as VITTA Day 2025, organised by VIT at its campus here, Mr. Viswanathan said that many remote areas struggle to have access to higher education. India still remains backward in higher education,” he said.
Further he said that the new education policy aims to achieve 50% in GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) from its existing 28%. More allocation of funds in higher education is required to achieve that target. For example, budget allocation for higher education has been declining for the past fews years, reaching the lowest allocation of 2.8% in 2024. Increase of funds for higher education by Centre will help students from poor and middle-class families pursue higher studies including research, he said.
The chancellor said that research studies get the least fund allocation from the governments. Such poor fund allocation has been reflected in the number of patents registered by the country. For example, South Korea tops in the total number of patents registered with 2,000 patents for every one million population, followed by USA (1,000 patents), China (296 patents) and India (only six patents for every one million population). “The six percent of total GDP for education recommended under the New Education Policy was advocated by the Kothari Commission decades ago in 1964. Sixty years later, the idea is still being pursued,” he said.
In the manufacturing sector, Mr. Viswanathan said that India is lagging far behind neighbouring China. Three decades ago, India was ahead of the dragon country in the early 1990s when India’s per capita income was $50 above that of China. Much has changed in the following decades with China’s per capita income now around $13,000 as against India’s per capita income of $2,700. In other words, around one-third of the world’s manufacturing is controlled by China whereas India’s share is only three percent, he said.
On the occasion, Justice Malai Subramanian, former Judge, Madras High Court, who was the chief guest, VIT vice-presidents, Sankar Viswanathan and Sekar Viswanathan were present. Earlier, Mr. Viswanathan unfurled the national flag in the presence of Justice Mr. Subramanian.
