FICCI HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT 2014

Prof. (Dr.) B. M. K. Prasad, Director, DCE and Prof. Vishal Bharti, Head, Dept. of CSE, along with thirty students from all branches, represented Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon at the 10th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014: a Global Conference organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) on November 13th, 2014 at FICCI New Delhi. The Summit was supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the Planning Commission, Government of India. The theme of the Conference was Internationalization of Higher Education and Implementation Framework for ‘Higher Education Vision 2030: Making it Happen in India,’ which was released by FICCI during the 9th FICCI Higher Education Summit last year.

Ms. Shobha Mishra Ghosh, Senior Director, FICCI inaugurated the session. The welcome address was given by Dr. Jyotsna Suri, President Elect, FICCI. Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, FICCI Higher Education Committee, discussed about Indian Economy during his theme address. Mr. Pai was also one of the panellists for judgement. Mr. Nikki Randhawa Haley, Governor of South Carolina, USA talked about the Achievement story of South Carolina in the field of higher education. Mr. Greg Clark, Minister of State for Universities, Science and Cities, UK, announced a program as 2500 Students Exchange Program, under which around 2500 students will be exchanged between India and UK. He also declared that this program will start from 14th November 2014.

The Chief Guest of the event was Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon'ble Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India who talked on several points such as Affordable & Quality Education, "Know your College Portal." Smt. Irani also highlighted several issues on which the work is to be done. She also talked about Swayam, which is the Indian Version of MOOC. She also discussed about Rashtriya Aavishkaar Abhiyaan, and Enquiry based Learning.

FICCI-EY Knowledge Paper entitled "Higher Education in India: Moving towards Global Relevance and Competitiveness" was also released during the Summit. This was followed by Awards Presentations Ceremony in which ICT Category Award was presented to BITS Pilani by Mr. Greg Clark. The Overall Excellence Award was given to Tamilnadu Agriculture University by Mr. Nikki Randhawa Haley. The Certificate of Recognition was given to Manipal University by Ms. Jyotsna Suri. The Individual Category Life-time Achievement in Judiciary Education Award was presented to Prof. N. R. Madhav Menon. The event covered various aspects such as discussions on policy roadmap and major issues in Higher Education; various viewpoints of policymakers and their perspective; updates on issues and implications pertinent to the sector; exposure to global best practices; collaborations with domestic and foreign partners.

The concluding remarks were given by Prof. Rajan Saxena followed by the Vote of Thanks by Mr. Avinash Vashishtha, Co-chair, FICCI Higher Education Committee.

Some Glimpses of the Summit: