New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) today inaugurated the 15th FICCI Higher Education Summit and Exhibition 2019 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The conference and exhibition attracted delegates from more than 65 countries including regions such as Africa, CIS, Middle East and Asia.
The three-day event is dedicated to covering: “Creative Economy Nation Building: Higher Education as the catalyst.”
President of India, Ram Nath Kovind was the chief guest for the event. Union Minister for HRD, Ramesh Pokharial Nishank was also present along with FICCI Chairman Vidya Yeravdekar and FICCI President Sandip Somany.
Addressing the Higher Education Summit organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here, the President said India needs to recast the courses available to meet the demands of the future.
“Liberal arts education should get as much importance as science and technology. Our universities have made progress in interdisciplinary approach,” he said.
“I am happy our universities have combined courses in mathematics with music and Artificial Intelligence (AI), but much more work is required on this account,” Kovind added.
The President also called for pedagogical changes in the curriculum.
“The world of tomorrow will be driven by knowledge, machine intelligence and digital pathways. To prepare ourselves for this transformation and to leverage its limitless opportunities, we have to recast our higher education with new courses and deeper research orientation. Ideation, innovation and incubation should be given primacy in our curriculum,” he said.
“We have begun nation wide consultations on the New National Education policy,” he said. FICCI, jointly with Ministry of Human Resources and Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is organising the summit.
Speaking at the event HRD Minister talked about the new education policy that is being prepared. He said, “The policy will include sports, moral values and every aspect of life. We have done a lot of discussion over the policy and seeked suggestion from more than 2 lakh people accros the country and also tried to implement those suggestions in the policy. Over 80% of the people appreciated the policy and soon it will be implemented.’
“I am glad to share that this education policy will be the most discussed policy in the world”
