Sunday, March 12 2006 14:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: India is urgently in need of enhanced scientific manpower for which leading education institutions should revamp their faculty and infrastructure and attract more talent, Dr K Kasturirangan, Director of National Institute of Advanced Research, said here.

"India urgently needs large number of scientific manpower in the field of advanced technologies of Railways, aeronautics, nuclear power, biotechnology, electronics and nanotechnology," Kasturirangan said while addressing the 47th Foundation day of Indian Institute of Technology here during the week end.

"It is the university systems which have to churn out large number of young talents," he said.

Kasturirangan called for revamping of faculties and infrastructure of the leading institutes of technology and stressed that increasing outlays for science and technology was not enough.

"We need to attract young talents and also impart training to students of other institutes to harness hidden talents from all sections of students," he told the IITians.

Lauding the IITs for their pioneering work, he said students from these institutes 'make not only world class emgineers but also shine as world leaders'.

The three oldest universities Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata should revamp their faculty and infrastructure and also the administrative procedures to build up the kind of scientific manpower we need in the near future, Kasturirangan (MP) said.