Minister for Higher Education C.N.Ashwath Narayan said that Mandya Unitary University which was established in 2019 should strive to promote technology relevant to the local community and help to empower them.
He was speaking in Mandya on Friday after interacting with the varsity staff on how best to ramp up the standards of the fledgling university and how best to make it relevant to the community around it.
Mr. Ashwath Narayan said varsities should cease to blindly adopt a template that is not rooted in the ground realities of the area in which they are established and instead take up studies that will help improve the community standards.
He said the economy of Mandya district was agrarian and was known for sugarcane cultivation. Hence the varsity’s research should focus on how best to increase the productivity and crop output with minimal consumption of water. This is only an example and the varsity should have short, medium and long-term visions to achieve its objectives.
Mr. Ashwath Narayan promised to extend all support to ramp up the standards of the varsity though it would be in a phase-wise manner. Till then the varsity should team up with University of Mysore and utilise its facilities including the laboratory, he said.
The Minister also directed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore G. Hemantha Kumar to handhold and help Mandya Unitary University to develop and share experiences and facilities.
