NASSCOM seeks education reform in the country

Chennai, Jul 5 (UNI) NASSCOM,a premier trade body of IT, Software and Services industry, today reitreated that there should be educational reforms to increase the 'high-end education' across the country.

Talking to mediapersons here today NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik said "one of the biggest human-power challenges being faced at the level of higher-end education was paucity of Ph.Ds and research scientists".

"Currently, Post-Graduate education is lagging behind undergraduate learning, with barely a handful of takers for the top-of-the-line Ph.D programmes", he added.

Mr Kiran pointed out "in the current education scenario, only 4,000 people were passing out from IITs, which is getting reduced every year".

He said NASSCOM has been working with the Ministry of Human Resource Development on a proposal to create 'top of the pyramid', highly specilised professionals with skill sets in emerging, 'on-the-horizon' technologies that were not yet mainstream".

"These will typically include research in areas such as banking, insurance, analytics, remote sensing, water, agriculture, energy, transportation, environment, geosphere, natural sciences, nanotechnology, healthcare, networks and mobile computing", he said.

Mr Kiran said Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) with support from NASSCOM and the IT industry has recommended the launch of five IITs, based on the public private partnership model by 2008.

UNI