Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan has said that Keralam must focus on high-tech industries to create jobs and facilitate reverse migration.

“High-tech industries should come to Keralam as the State has all the natural resources. You should concentrate on that so that migration from Kerala will stop and reverse migration should take place,” he said in his inaugural address at the silver jubilee celebrations of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Kakkanad, here on Monday.

“In Kerala, land is a scarce commodity. But you have to develop the State with more opportunities. Traditional industry may not be possible because of the land cost,” he said.

He said that education cannot merely be about memorising information or earning a professional certificate. “You cannot simply produce graduates. We have to understand what is required for society and the market,” he said.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said that higher education in the country had witnessed tremendous expansion during the past 12 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He added that new higher education institutions, including 16 Indian Institutes of Information Technology, eight Indian Institutes of Management, seven Indian Institutes of Technology, and 12 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), among others, had been established since 2014.

“I am sure that Kerala is also going to get one AIIMS in the near future,” he said. The Vice-President urged the youth to “say no to drugs” and to utilise their talents for the betterment of themselves, society, and humanity.

Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan inaugurates the silver jubilee celebrations of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Kakkanad, on Monday.

H. VIBHU

He also inaugurated ‘Confluence 3.0’, an industry-academia summit on ‘India, Impact of AI’ on the occasion.

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar; Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan; Union Minister Suresh Gopi; Minister for Higher Education Roji M. John, Prof. Colin J. Stirling, Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University, Australia; Fr. Poulose Kidangen, Provincial of the CMI Sacred Heart Province and Manager, RSET; Dr. Prasant Palakkapilly, Director, RSET; and Dr. Jaison Paul Mulerikkal, Principal, RSET attended.