We in India have tried to move our educational system along a dynamic path of growth. Several high-level Commissions have studied and reported on the need for educational reforms. Presently we are implementing the objectives and guidelines adumbrated in the National Education policy adopted in 1986, reviewed in 1990 and placed before the Parliament last year. But the weight of the past does not seem to permit us to depart too much from colonial continuity, the reforms recommended could not always be carried out into practice, and the changes brought about could not be far-reaching enough. In the meantime the educational sector has grown enormously in the range and depth of studies and in the sheer number of students accompanied by lack of funds and facilities. A deplorable feature is the absence of close integration between education and the economic and social needs of the country, and also a certain lack of balance between primary and higher education. Higher education has received greater attention, though even here there has been a dilution of standards mainly due to the enormous growth in the number of students. However, what is remarkable is that the best educational institutions in India, like the University that I have the privilege of addressing to-day, are equal to the best in the world, and the best students of an ordinary University can vie with the topmost of any University abroad. That is a tribute to our intellectual traditions and cultural background. 

The crucial lacuna in our educational system is our failure in meeting the targets set for primary education and in the sphere of adult literacy. Article 45 of the Constitution enjoins upon us that the State shall endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the age of 6 and 14. In the Seventh Five Year Plan the date for universalisation of elementary education was set as 1990. But even to-day the proportion of students attending school in this age-group is only 48.72%. Apart from this we are confronted with a situation where there is a large drop-out rate. This is a daunting educational problem rooted in economic, social and cultural factors. The problem of illiteracy is also enormous. Though we have made some substantial progress in reaching 58% in general literacy, there are still about 340 million illiterates in our country. Of late mass literacy campaigns have been launched to eliminate illiteracy altogether. I am proud to say that my State of Kerala has achieved 100% literacy. So has some of the Northeastern States, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and Karnataka States are forging ahead towards high levels of literacy. Students in fortunate and elite Universities like this have the responsibility of participating in the campaign for total literacy. A massive social goal like this cannot be achieved by governmental action and traditional methods alone. 

We are all acutely aware that literacy among women in India is one of the lowest in the world. It is true that Indian civilization has always placed the woman on a high pedestal and idealized her charm and virtues. At the same time we have made her victim of male exploitation in actual practice. Many of the social problems of our country can be traced to illiteracy and ignorance among our women folk. Studies conducted in India and abroad have conclusively shown that education of women is at the foundation of social and even economic development in a society. Solution of such basic and colossal problems like population control, reduction of infantile mortality, improvement of family health, and indeed the general well-being of society and the very quality of living are dependent upon the education of women. For the sake of national development as well as social equity the educational system and the general public can no longer afford to neglect this crucial aspect. 

At this University of Engineering I cannot refrain from saying a few words about education in science and technology. We live in an age when science and technology have come to dominate our lives. The problem to-day is not how to escape from modern technology, because there is no escape from it, but how to master it and put it to beneficial uses. We in India were fortunate to have as our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a man of vision with a sense of the importance of science. The Scientific Policy Resolution of 1958 drafted by Nehru himself, declared : "It is an inherent obligation of a great country like India with its tradition of scholarship and original thinking and its great cultural heritage to participate fully in the search of science, which is probably mankind's greatest enterprise to-day." The purpose of this participation was spelt out to be "to secure for the people of the country all the benefits that can accrue from the acquisition and application of scientific method." It is in pursuance of this Resolution that India embarked upon the pursuit of science for the benefit of the people and also as a high intellectual adventure. It has been argued sometimes that for a country like India what is needed is not science as such but technology, appropriate technologies for development. I think it was Louis Pasteur who said that there was no science and technology, but only science and its applications. Another great scientist said that there were only applied science and science not as yet applied. To-day, perhaps, the distinction between science and technology has vanished, and it is technological development that often gives rise to new scientific propositions. 

In my opinion this modern dominance of technology should not result in neglect of the pursuit of basic sciences. The Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr. Abdus Salam has said "So far as developing countries are concerned, by and large we have tended to neglect this area of Science (i.e. basic sciences) assuming for some reason that we could live off the scientific results obtained by others. This has been unmitigated disaster in that it has deprived us of men and women who would know about the basics of their disciplines." In our context it is only from the matrix of the knowledge of basic sciences that technologies will come out, and also spread in society the spirit and temper of science so much required for sane thinking in the realm of politics and ecnomics. Therefore, we need a strong programme for teaching general sciences in our schools and colleges. And we need to go ahead with basic research in our Universities and in the great laboratories under the CSIR system. It is necessary for us to try to climb the peaks of science while putting science and technology to the service of the masses. 

It is in this spirit that we embarked upon the development of atomic, space and defence sciences right from the inception of our independent existence as a nation. The achievements of our scientists and technologists in these fields, with hardly any help from outside, are monuments to the excellence of Indian science. But they are also of direct benefit to the people to-day in terms of electricity, medical facilities, broadcasting, television, communications, remote sensing, and national security. Now that we have reached an advanced stage of development, there are pressures working upon us to stop further progress along these hightech lines. I have heard a story that in the early days of British rule an East Bengali masterweaver presented to one of the high British officials an exquisite handwoven piece of cloth. The reward he got for this gift was an order to have his fingers cut off so that he would not make such beautiful cloth again to compete with the Manchester textile industry! I need not say that we cannot to-day allow the fingers of our great scientists chopped off. 

I am not putting any unbalanced emphasis on theoritical sciences and high technology. A developing country and a colossal rural society like that of ours need science and technology to solve our major social and economic problems, to remove poverty, disease and ignorance and to provide the basic necessities of life to our people. One of the first attempts in this direction on the part of independent India was in the programme of Community Development and National Extension Services in the 1950s. This involved certain thin dissemination of simple scientific techniques for rural development. A major and brilliantly successful attempt was the application of an integrated technological package in agriculture which produced the Green Revolution. We have innumerable technologies half developed or fully developed but not applied on a larger scale lying in the CSIR Laboratories. Our scientists ought to move into the area of application of their knowledge. On a more simplified scale there is the necessity for scientific extension organized by the government, voluntary organizations and scientists themselves for bringing to bear upon various developmental programmes their knowledge and ingenuity. Dr. Abdus Salam has advocated application of scientific methodology to developmental problems and held that research effort in order to be effective must be supplemented with extension services. I may quote again from Dr. Abdus Salam: "Scientists themselves must play a role in ensuring that extension services do exist and their research does not go waste. This is the additional cross which must be carried by applied scientists in a developing country." I should add that it ought to be the effort of Government also in building up or causing to be built up scientific extension services to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the multifaceted developmental activities in which it is engaged particularly in the rural areas. 

Research and development has a capital role to play in the advance of science and in the application of science and technology to industrial and agricultural development. While India's expenditure on S & T grew from Rs.20 crores in the First Five Year Plan to Rs.8245 crores in the Seventh Plan, its expenditure on R & D remains just about 1% of the GNP. And this R&D expenditure has been primarily in the State sector. It is time, especially when a major liberalisation and privatisation process is taking place, for the private sector to take a major share in R & D and ensure that there occurs a doubling of the percentage in the near future. Indeed we need close interaction among laboratories, Universities and private enterprises for ensuring significant improvements in production and productivity in the economy as a whole. It is the application of science and technology that is responsible for the spectacular economic difference between the developed and developing countries. It is aagain science and technology that is behind the success of the Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese economic successes. Liberalisation and privatisation alone will not bring concrete results in economic production. It is science and technology that can do it. It is interesting to recall that China had followed the dictum that Deng Xiaping put forward a few years ago viz. "Science and technology are the first factors in productivity." 

Engineering is one of the crucial sciences in all development, particularly in modern development. It is engineers who give body and shape to the dreaams and designs of entrepreneurs and administrators. They are the builders of our economic structure. Combined with social engineering, I am aware that the study of social sciences is an integral part of the curriculam in this University, engineers can and do make a vital contribution to the building up of modern India. May I extend my warm congratulations to the students who have taken the degrees to-day and wish them every success in the careers and the services to the nation that await them.

Thank you very much.