"Knowledge alone holds the key to finding solutions to the problems we face in our world, nation and society. Research and innovation can play an important role in lifting our people out of poverty, ensuring their health and well-being or attaining food and energy security," he said at one-day meet of Vice Chancellors of Central Universities at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
During the meeting which was also attended by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, he also presented the Visitor's Awards for Research in the field of Basic and Applied Science and in the field of Humanities, Arts and Social Science.
"Researchers and innovators can help develop solutions to the problems we experience on a daily basis. Universities can also develop mechanisms to support innovation by ordinary people and help such grassroots innovators to further refine their work," he added.
The President also said that universities should incorporate community-oriented initiatives in their academic programmes and engage with the communities near to their campuses.
"Those universities which are located in backward regions have a special responsibility of working with communities around them. Such community initiatives will further expand the horizon of their students and prepare them well for life ahead," he noted.
Kovind also called for universities to take up the lead in addressing the specific challenges faced by the nation.
"Many of these challenges require creative and innovative solutions. It is their paramount duty to ensure that their campuses emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas, where experimentation is encouraged and failure is not ridiculed but is seen as learning," he said.
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