Many Indian varsities have potential to be globally best: President

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday expressed confidence that several higher education institutes in the country could emerge as the best amongst their global counterparts, even as he expressed concern over no Indian university getting such a ranking till now.

"Unfortunately, we have not been able to find the place commensurate to our size, culture, civilisation and population in the world ranking of the universities," he said while addressing scholars and educationists of BRICS nations at an event at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

He was speaking on the theme: 'Why emerging economies need world class universities', being hosted by Times Higher Education and O P Jindal University.

The President has always been speaking, during his public speeches and while meeting academicians, about Indian universities getting a suitable place in the top world rankings.

"Being a visitor of nearly 140 central universities in the capacity of the President of Republic, almost like parrot from 2012, I used to emphasise on this aspect how to improve the quality and standard of higher institutions in India," he said.

Mukherjee went on to quote his old statement that "I refuse to believe that having 15 IITs, 30 NITs and more than 700 universities, not a single one came up to the standard required for the world benchmark.

"But I am happy that finally, in the third year of my Presidency, I have the privilege of witnessing that two Indian institutions have been ranked amongst the top 200 universities in the world...It is my firm belief that there are many higher education institutions in India that have the potential to become one of the best in the world," he said.