The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will host the second Visitor’sConferencei.e. aconferenceof Vice Chancellors/Directors/Director Generals of Institutions of higher learning for which he is Visitor from November 16 to 18, 2016 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This is the second time such a conference bringing together in one forum all heads of higher education institutions is being convened by President Mukherjee.Earlier, separate conferences were held of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities, Directors of NITs, IITs, IISERs and IISC.

The agenda for the Visitor’s Conference includes: (a) Creating world-class higher educational institutions; (b) Creating global alliance of institutes for research, innovation and technology development; (c) Making India a favoured destination for higher learning; (d) Technology-induced models of pedagogy; and (e) Funding options for higher education.

On the first day of the Conference, the President will launch the National Student Startup Policy in the presence of Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar and Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE. The National Student Startup Policy has been formulated by AICTE with the aim to propel Indian youth to contribute to the nation’s socio-economic progress through promotion of technology-driven student start-ups. Through an exposure on entrepreneurship, the policy will lend crucial soft skills like decision-making in the students.

On the same day, eminent persons like Shri K.V. Kamath, President, New Development Bank; Smt. Ela Ramesh Bhatt, Founder, SEWA; Prof. Ramachandra Guha, Historian; Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys will address the participants. An Industry-Academia session will also take place on the first day of the Conference where eminent personalities from Industry and Academy will participate. 32 Central Institutions and 65 industry organizations will exchange as many as 68 MOUs on the occasion.

On the second and third day of the Conference, there will be panel discussions and group work on agenda items of the Conference as well as a presentation on converting Rashtrapati Bhavan into a smart township and extending the experience to select villages through Smart Model Gram project.

President Mukherjee is Visitor of 126 central institutes of higher learning. The Conferences at Rashtrapati Bhavan have accorded an opportunity to heads of central institutions to share their views on a host of important issues that affect the higher education sector in India. Recommendations and action points emerging from the deliberations are pursued by the administrative ministries, regulatory bodies, the institutions of higher learning and others concerned. This has resulted in significant improvements in our institutions and in the higher education system of our country over the last four years.

This release issued at 1740 hrs.