CHENNAI: India is destined to become the knowledge park of the world and the Indian government is geared to make this a reality, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Dec 19.

Inaugurating PanIIT 2008, the three-day global conference of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni through a video conference from New Delhi, he said: “The government is setting up several higher education institutes towards this mission.”

The prime minister added: “If we are to become knowledge superpower all sectors should be ready for scientific and technical knowledge.”

The government has sanctioned setting up of eight IITs, 30 central universities, 10 National Institutes of Technology, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology, five Indian Institutes of Science Education, two new schools of architecture, 373 new colleges and over 1000 polytechnics, he informed. According to Manmohan Singh, there is an urgent need to strengthen the research capability of IITs so that more research activities are done by them.

At the grass roots level, a series of school scholarship schemes have been launched by the government to provide access to quality education for under-privileged sections of the society, the prime minister said.

Acknowledging the contribution made by the 170,000 IIT graduates in various technology breakthroughs, he said: “Vast majority of IIT alumni have become leaders in different fields - science, business, and policy making bodies.”

In his address, principal scientific adviser R. Chidambaram said national development and national security are two sides of the same coin.

“The second national knowledge network has put India at par with developed countries on the scientific field. We are in the process of strengthening the technology delivery systems for the rural areas,” he added.