Indian Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar inaugurated the annual two-day conference of Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of State, Central, and private universities in Tamil Nadu on Friday at Raj Bhavan, Ooty in The Nilgiris.

The conference held annually since 2022 under the leadership of Tamil Nadu Governor R.N.Ravi did not have participation from State-run Universities.

VP Dhankar while addressing the participants, asserted that accessibility and affordability of education is vital and the education offered that way should be of high quality. "Only quality education system for all can be transformative," he said.

We need to nurture our education ecosystem in the backdrop of our historical legacy - the Gurukul. Calling the Gurukul Concept as a sublime one, he said there was free access to those who had yearning for knowledge and education in this concept. "The Guru in a Gurukul took everyone under his fold as a part of that family, that is our legacy. That calls for a revival," he opined.

Underlining the importance of Research, he said R&D is now quintessential to progress. He expressed that India can no longer depend to gain from research elsewhere, and he urged Indian educational institutions, universities, institutes of excellence in science to be labs of research and innovation.

"Our institutions must transform themselves to be crucibles of innovations and character. We cannot reduce our institutions just to handout degrees. A degree from a university must be a potent power in the hand of the holder that can help him/her fully exploit his potential, realize talent and ambition," he said.

Speaking further he said "Research must correlate to much needed solutions, it must be authentic. Research for the sake of research is no research. A research paper must magnetically attract others as a solutions provider."

Earlier while delivering his address, Tamil Nadu's Governor R.N.Ravi said that in this two-day conference, resource persons, including those from industry and academia will touch upon maximizing learning through application of A.I., and also about capacity building of students and faculty.

Besides this there will be a session on how to efficiently manage universities' finances, "because our universities are in a very bad situations. Many of our universities have not paid salaries to teachers for last several months, and govt has said there under no obligation to bail them out," the governor criticized.

Speaking further he said the vice chancellors of state-universities have not participated in this conference, because they have informed him (Governor) even in writing that they have been warned by State Government not to participate.

"There was a midnight knock at their doors (of VCs) where the secret police/special branch went and told them if you participate in the conference you will not be able to go home and meet your family. I advised them to take care of their family and don't jeopardize their interest" he alleged.