Dr Ambedkar considered knowledge, self-respect and politeness as his three revered deities, said the Prime Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that India has been the mother of democracy in the world and “democracy has been an integral part of our civilization and our way of life.”

Addressing the Association of Indian Universities’ 95th annual meet and national seminar of vice chancellors through video conferencing, the Prime Minister paid tribute to Bharat Ratna, Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar on his birth anniversary.

He said Babasaheb laid a strong foundation to move forward while strengthening India’s democratic heritage, said the Prime Minister. On this occasion, the Prime Minister also launched four books related to Dr BR Ambedkar.

Talking about the philosophy of Babasaheb, the Prime Minister said that Dr Ambedkar considered knowledge, self-respect and politeness as his three revered deities. Self-respect comes with knowledge and makes a person aware of his or her rights.

Through equal rights, social harmony emerges and with this, the country's progresses. “Our education system and universities have this responsibility to carry the country forward on the path shown by Babasaheb,” Modi added.

On National Education Policy, the Prime Minister said that every student has certain capabilities. These capabilities pose three questions before the student and the teacher. First- what can they do? Second, what is their potential if they are properly taught? And, third, what they want to do? The answer to the first question is the inner strength of the students.

However, if institutional strength is added to that inner strength, their development will get expanded and they will be able to do what they want to do, the Prime Minister added.

Quoting India’s second President, Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the Prime Minister said that the NEP is aimed at fulfilling Dr Radhakrishnan’s vision of education that frees and empowers the student to participate in national development.

Education management should be undertaken keeping the whole world as a unit but also, focussing on Indian character of education.

Talking about the growing demand for skills in the emerging Atma Nirbhar Bharat, the Prime Minister said that India is being looked upon as future centre of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Big Data, 3D printing, Virtual Reality and robotics, mobile technology, geo-informatics, smart health care and defence sector.

To meet the requirement of skills, Indian Institutes of Skills are being set up in three big metropolitans of the country. In Mumbai, first batch of Indian Institute of Skills has already started. In 2018, Future Skills Initiative was launched with NASSCOM, informed the Prime Minister.

He said, “We want that all universities should be multidisciplinary as we want to give students flexibility. He called upon the Vice Chancellors to work for this goal.”

Elaborating on Babasaheb’s conviction for equal rights and equal opportunity for all, the Prime Minister emphasized that schemes like Jan Dhan accounts are leading to financial inclusion of every person and through DBT money is reaching directly to their accounts.

The Prime Minister reiterated the country's commitment to take the message of Babasaheb to each and every person. Developing the key places related to the life of Babasaheb as PanchTeerth is a step in that direction.

He also said that measures like Jal Jeevan Mission, free housing, free electricity, support during pandemic and initiatives for women empowerment are taking forward the dreams of Babasaheb.