Chandigarh, Sep 4: Congress MP Manish Tewari on Friday urged Vice President C P Radhakrishnan to establish a fully funded central university in Chandigarh dedicated to semiconductor research and robotics, saying such an institution would help India build capacity in critical technologies.
Responding to Tewari's request, the vice president spoke about the inclusion of the latest scientific subjects in Panjab University as he laid emphasis on making it one of the best universities globally.
The vice president visited Panjab University where he inaugurated the upgraded advanced instrumentation facility at the Sophisticated Analytical Instrumentation Facility/ Central Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIF/CIL) and the PU Technology Innovation Forum (PU TIF), formerly BioNEST.
On this occasion, Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh and Tewari were also present.
During his address, Tewari, the Chandigarh MP, said he wanted to make a personal request to the vice president.
Tewari said recently, the government of India recently gave Andhra Pradesh a Rs 730-crore fully funded central university for artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
"I would like to request you that Mohali, which was my former parliamentary constituency, had India's first semiconductor complex established there in the 1980s. Therefore, we are the pioneers in so far as semiconductors are concerned," pointed out Tewari.
"I would like to request you that Chandigarh requires a dedicated university for semiconductor research and robotics, and such a facility is not there anywhere in North India. I would like to take this occasion to personally request you and both the governors, since it is the capital of Punjab and Haryana also," he said.
If India has to take the lead in these cutting-edge and critical technologies, it requires the capacity and the bandwidth insofar as research is concerned, the MP noted.
"I would personally be grateful if you could take it up with the government of India, and we could have a fully funded central university," he said.
Calling Tewari his good friend, Radhakrishnan, during his address, responded to the Congress MP's request for one more central university here.
"While he is putting that, because he is a Lok Sabha member, I do understand his political compulsions. He has said one word that something has gone to Andhra Pradesh.
"That is not my attitude. My attitude is, what I want, I will get it. What others have to get is their grievances, and that also has to be addressed. But Tewari ji is a great nationalist. I know that he can understand everything in the best way," said the vice president, who is the chancellor of the Panjab University.
He further said the university's 80 per cent funding is done by the central government and 20 per cent by the state government.
"So it is already 80 per cent a central university only. I am not going into that detail. What I am going to do is, his genuine grievance is that all the latest scientific subjects should be included in our university.
"That (is what) I am going to do. We will do it within this university itself, so this university will become one of the best universities not only in 'Bharat' but also globally," he said.
Earlier in his address, Tewari stressed that India must build an efficacious ecosystem that connects universities, laboratories, entrepreneurs, finance, energy, factories, supply chains and markets.
"And we need to do it now. India has to build capacity in all these critical applications, primarily because applications accelerate discovery. Discovery produces technology. Technology transforms industry, and industrial strength generates national power that directly translates into geostrategic and geopolitical heft for the country," said the MP.
Tewari said the remaining 74 years of the 21st century will belong to that nation or those nations which are at the cutting edge of the fourth industrial revolution.
"It is a matter of concern that on 74 critical technologies which are internationally benchmarked, China leads in 67 of them, and that presents a clear challenge to us as a nation because most of those technologies have a dual-use application.
"Given the revolution in military affairs which has taken place, it is imperative that India has to be at the forefront of all these cutting-edge technologies which are going to shape the remaining decades of the 21st century," he said.
