90% Indian universities have outdated curriculum: CNR Rao

Eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna awardee CNR Rao believes that 90% of the universities and higher educational institutions in the country have an outdated curriculum, keeping them from making into the top institutes of the world.

"90% of the universities in our country have an outdated curriculum. We talk about increasing funds, increasing infrastructure but there is no improvement in the content we are teaching in our hi-tech classrooms," Rao said on Wednesday during the ongoing Visitor's Conference at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

"One of the major reasons behind why Indian institutions don't make it to the top 100 universities in the world. There are a lot of Indian students abroad who want to study in our country and come back, but there are no quality colleges to offer them the same kind of environment and education," he said.

Maintaining that Indian institutions need to improve, Rao, who is currently serving as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, also asserted that the talent search in the country is "marginal".

"Talent search in our country has always been marginal. We teach our students what Newton and Faraday did, but there is no mechanism to look out for similar talent in interiors of the country," he said.

Rao also called for eliminating the bureaucratic hassles in the education system.

"You want to introduce a course, institute a fellowship, establish an exchange programme, utilise the already allocated funds... there are so many laws, too many bureaucratic rooms.
I think that process should be simplified," he said.

Heads of 114 institutions where President Pranab Mukherjee is the Visitor are participating in the three-day Visitors' Conference which started on Thursday.

The subjects that will be deliberated upon during the conference include creating inter-linkages of Industry-Academia, interfacing with ranking agencies, providing impetus to research and innovation in educational eco-system, establishing international networks and workforce sustainability, among others.

Also addressing the conference were Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and renowned geneticist MS Swaminathan.

"Though the introduction of Right to Education (RTE) has contributed to a significant progress in the sector but the lack of three things - inclusion, quality and equity, are still roadblocks in ensuring progress at the ground level," Satyarthi said.

Swaminathan, known as 'Indian Father of Green Revolution', called for developing courses in "Sustainability Science" in all the institutions.