Jammu has emerged as education hub in north India: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Jammu has emerged as an education hub in north India with the establishment of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and AIIMS among others, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

Referring to the abrogation of Article 370 provisions on August 5 last year, he said with the historical Constitutional changes, the barriers of academic growth have been done away with and the best faculty of different fields from across India are ready to come to Jammu and Kashmir to serve with dedication.

Apprehensions have now gone with the new domicile law coming into existence, Singh said.

"The biggest outcome of this domicile law would be the enrichment of academic faculty in Jammu at all the new premier institutes," said Singh, the Union Minister of State for Personnel, after e-inaugurating a five-day orientation program at IIM, Jammu, for the fifth batch of MBA and the first batch of the PhD programme.

According to a Personnel Ministry statement, he said that setting up of IIM-Jammu is one of the major achievements of the Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the education sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

Giving an insight into the development and particularly educational boost brought about in the last six years in Jammu by the Narendra Modi-government, Singh said Jammu has emerged as an education hub in North India with the establishment of an IIM, IIT, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, AIIMS and upgradation of Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine among other institutions.

National Institute of High Altitude Medicine is coming up at Bhaderwah, Industrial Biotech Park at Kathua besides other centrally funded institutes like four government medical colleges, RUSA-funded engineering colleges, an ayurvedic college, and a homoeopathic college in the Jammu, he said.

The Union minister also said that AIIMS, IIM, IIT and other institutes have been set up at the right time in Jammu as this place is now opening up for big investments.

To begin with, the Union Territory administration has started an outreach programme with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore which will pave the way for the establishment of new industrial hubs and industrial estates even in the smaller districts like Udhampur, Singh said.

At the inauguration, he said, "India is on the verge of becoming global manufacturing and IT hub and our research outputs and research inferences of the Department of Space are now being procured by some of the premier world institutes like NASA of the US which shows the kind of credibility and supremacy this country has already established." ISRO is going to have a human space flight mission Gaganyaan very soon and in the post-COVID-19 era, India is going to have a similar kind of resurgence as far as the economy is concerned, Singh said.

In his presidential Address, Milind Kamble, chairman, board of governors (BoG), IIM, Jammu, said that it is heartening to see that the institute is making rapid strides and has earned an outstanding reputation in such a short period of time because of its academic excellence, research, executive education and corporatised international linkages.

Earlier during the e-inauguration, Professor B S Sahay, Director, IIM, Jammu in his welcome address said the vision is to develop leaders and entrepreneurs who can perform globally and give valuable contribution to the society and the mission is to make IIM-Jammu the top business school of India with global outlook and with national and regional focus.

(Photo Credit: PTI)