Droupadi Murmu, President of India, established ‘herSTART’ – a start-up platform of Gujarat University in Ahmedabad recently. She laid the foundation stone virtually from Gujarat University for various projects of the government of Gujarat related to education and tribal development.
Speaking on the occasion, she said that it is a matter of pride for Gujarat University that not only Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi but also the father of India’s space program, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Former Chairman of ISRO, Dr. K. Kasturirangan; and Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah are alumni of this university.
She also said that it is natural for an institution that has alumni like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, to be a pioneer in science, research, and innovation. There are more than 450 start-ups working on the campus of Gujarat University, and more than 125 women-led start-ups are being actively supported by this university, she commented. Around 15,000 women entrepreneurs are associated online or offline with this initiative.
She was pleased to inaugurate a start-up platform that is dedicated to women entrepreneurs in such a start-up-friendly university. She expressed confidence that this platform will not only boost the innovation, and start-up efforts of women entrepreneurs but also demonstrate to be an effective platform for connecting women entrepreneurs with various government and private enterprises.
The president was also elated to inaugurate projects like Sainik School, Girls Literacy Residential School, and Eklavya Model Residential School related to education, especially girls and tribal education in Gujarat. Because the foundation stone for further strengthening India’s position in science, research, and innovation will be built through school education.
“Gujarat has made remarkable progress in the field of education among other sectors. The school drop-out rate in the state has come down from 22 per cent to 1.37 percent in the last two decades. The teacher-student ratio has also improved from 40 to 26,” she added.
The real-time monitoring of students and teachers is being done in about 55,000 schools via ‘Vidya Samiksha Kendra’, which is resulting in an expansion in the learning outcome of the students.
She noted that under the ‘Mission School of Excellence’, a target has been set to upgrade the infrastructure of about 20,000 schools in the state in the next five years.
Gujarat has also made significant progress in the field of higher education. While the number of colleges in the state was 775 in 2001-02, in 2020-21 this number increased to more than 3,100.
India’s first education quality and monitoring cell, ‘Garima Cell’ has been established in this state for evaluation of higher education. She said that with the effective implementation of ‘Van Bandhu-Kalyan Yojana’, there has been a significant increase in the literacy rate in the tribal society. This scheme has also improved the school dropout rate among tribal students.
She additionally said, “Every state has its own model of development which is determined by the resources and needs of the state, but the manner in which Gujarat has made all-around progress, has shown the path of inclusive development to other states.”
She expressed confidence that India will secure its place as a developed country during Amrit-Kaal, if all states move forward by learning from each other and adopting their successful models.
