India needs to produce lakhs of PhDs to become technical super power: Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that India needs to produce lakhs of PhDs to become a technical super power.

Addressing the annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, here, Mukherjee said: “This country needs to produce not thousands but lakhs of Ph.D. to become a technical super power. IIT Delhi through its innovative schemes can really take a lead in this direction and become a role model for other institutions to follow.

He said IITs in general and IIT Delhi in particular, are now laying emphasis on producing quality engineers and scientists.

Urging IIT students to emphasize research and development, Mukherjee said the satisfaction and excitement they can get by generating new knowledge can never be matched by Financial benefits

The President said in India, against the total student strength of 71,000 in National Institutes of Technologies, there are only about 4000 Ph.D. students. In IITs, against the total student strength of 60,000 there are only around 3000 Ph.D. students.

The President said India ranks 12th amongst top 20 countries, in terms of publications on science and technology. It has 119 researchers in R & D per million people as compared to 715 of China and 468 of the United States.

“There is a need to improve our standing in terms of publications and researchers employed in R & D field. That is possible only if the brightest students take up research and development at a young age,” he added.