kolkata the planning commissions recent proposal in the draft 12th five year plan to promote forprofit initiatives in higher education is likely to have an effect on the education system felt speakers at a seminar on the role of higher education in building a knowledge society the panel discussion was held on monday by the o p jindal global university sonipat in haryana national capital region of delhi held the panel discussion on monday at a city club it was attended by educationists principals teachers of city schools and colleges lawyers and others the speakers were asok kumar ganguly the chairman of the west bengal human rights commission justice kalyanjyoti sengupta judge uttarakhand high court malabika sarkar the vicechancellor of presidency university sujata sen of the british council c raj kumar the vicechancellor of the host university and r rajesh babu of iim calcutta the speakers showed a new path to reframe and reform the standard of indian academia and also suggested how the institutes can adapt to the changes that have taken place globally in the field of higher education president pranab mukherjees recent observation at an event in iit kharagpur that india had gained independence for over 60 years but still did not have a university of world renown was one of the main reasons for organizing the panel discussion padmanabha ramanujam the assistant professor and assistant dean academic programmes of jindal global law school said the objective of the event is to understand whether the institutions that offer higher education are on the right path it is necessary to create a knowledge society for the uplift of human resources and the institutes play a significant role in this regard he added ganguly defended the planning commissions proposal that welcomes commercialization in education and rued that the right to education act was still not implemented properly throughout the country sharing his views he said knowledge is power and in india those who have knowledge have little power at their disposal having started my professional career as a teacher i think schools colleges and universities are more important than religious institutions the majority of our countrymen are ignorant about several things including legal issues due to their illiteracy it is time for the indian institutes to gear up for the sea change in the academic field private institutes are demanding huge amount of money as fees every month which middle class people cannot afford to make a strong knowledge society we need to keep the door for higher education open for all students irrespective of their family backgrounds caste and creed he added sarkar said that state universities were treasure houses of knowledge but could not beef up infrastructure because of a funds crunch for international rankings there are certain parameters which seem to deter indian universities from being marked in ther list to some extent the policy makers should keep in mind that the education system entails revision and review her point was that awakening young minds is