India has three times the population of other developed countries, yet it produces few PhD scholars, said F C Kohli, father of the Indian software industry here Thursday.
He pointed out that the country has over 50 premium engineering colleges and if they are given autonomy, they would be able to produce about 6,000 PhDs every year as against the present 600.
“There are nearly 800 million Indians who don’t know English and computerisation in English is far more a complex problem than in China, Middle East and even some African nations,” he said adding that India has over 22 languages, while China has just two.
Commemorating Kohli’s contribution to the domestic software industry, TCS, which was started by Kohli himself, on Thursday announced setting up of the FC Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) at IIIT-Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, TCS CEO N Chandrasekaran said 21 out of the 200 research scholars that TCS funded over the past five years were from IIIT-Hyderabad.
Underscoring the quality of talent that IIIT-Hyderabad produces, he said the company, which aids research scholarship programme as part of its co-innovation programme, hopes to fund more PhDs from the premier institution.
“We are committed to research and continue to invest significantly on research and development. For the next five years, we will promote research in futuristic programmes like robotics and artificial intelligence,” he said after laying the foundation stone for the upcoming FC Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems at IIIT-Hyderabad here Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, IT Minister K T Rama Rao, said Hyderabad has the second largest number of employees for the Tata group after Jamshedpur.
According to Prof P J Narayanan, IIIT-Hyderabad, the institute has already incubated over 100 ideas and is in the process of nurturing another 50.
He added that the forthcoming T-Hub, being set up by the State Government in association with industry and academia, will encourage startup culture.
Mistry Meets KCR
Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry called on Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at the latter’s camp office here Thursday.
Source: The New Indian Express