itanagar advocating a major restructuring of the education system president pranab mukherjee on saturday called for streamlining academic regulations in order to make them more flexible transparent and at par with global standards of excellence the examination system must incorporate modern innovative and technologybased teaching and evaluation which must must be adopted by the nations higher education institutes mukherjee stressed while delivering the convocation address at rajiv gandhi university at doimukh he added that a spirit of competition should be infused among the universities which will promote a culture of excellence every university must identify one or two departments that define its core competency and develop them into centres of excellence he said today our universities are inferior to the best in the world we cannot afford to propagate an education system which is even slightly below the global standard india is poised to become a world power therefore we have to stem this decline in our countrys higher education as a matter of priority he said encouraging academicians to pursue extensive research the president said that there is an urgent need for alternative models of growth as overexploitation of natural resources causes environmental degradation which is unsustainable in the longrun you must carry out interdisciplinary research on natural resource management the challenges facing world economy conflict between traditional and modern institutions border trade opportunities and integration of the northeasts economy with that of the nation and the world he suggested outlining the scope for conducting innovative research in the region citizens need to surmount contemporary moral challenges mukherjee said educational institutions have a pivotal role in inculcating core civilizational values of patriotism duty compassion pluralism respect for women honesty selfrestraint discipline and a sense of responsibility he said asserting that education is the bedrock of an enlightened society he said that there is a pressing need for tolerance of divergent views our country has done well in terms of economic development yet we cannot claim to have evolved into a truly developed society he said development is more than factories dams and roads development in my opinion is about people their values and their devotion to the spiritual and cultural heritage of our nation he said meanwhile the peoples party of arunachal ppa urged the president for early deportation of chakma and hajong refugees from the state resolving the issue of illegal settlers through diplomatic initiatives with bangladesh is urgently required the ppa stated in its memorandum to mukherjee the ppa lamented that despite numerous protests and representations regarding the contentious stapled visa issue and repeated incursions by the chinese army neither the centre nor china has put forth a reassurance in writing the arunachal civil society acs also submitted a threepoint memorandum to mukherjee urging him to take note of the stapled visas issued to arunachal residents by china propose an amicable solution to the vexed arunachalassam boundary issue and declare arunachal to be an integral part of india acs urged the president to issue a clarification in