Communicating at the inaugurating the Higher Education Summit 2011: Plans for Growth in Higher Education in India, organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ahluwalia said the challenge before planners, educationist and policy makers, both in the government and private sector was making a world class Indian Universities that could be counted in the top 200 rating list. “In the next 20 years we must see a significant number of educational institutions in that category,” he declared.

In his speech on the second day of the summit, Pitroda revealed details of the US$ 5billion National Knowledge Network (NKN) which was being created by the government and was expected to be ready in about nine months. The network would be a state-of-the-art multi-gigabit pan-India network for providing a unified high speed network backbone for all knowledge related institutions in the country. It would facilitate the building of quality institutions with requisite research facilities and creating a pool of highly trained professionals. The NKN will enable scientists, researchers and students from different backgrounds and diverse geographies to work closely for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas.

The NKN would be a platform for delivering effective distance education where teachers and students can interact in real time. This is significant inIndia, where access to education is limited by factors such as geography, lack of infrastructure facilities etc.