patna lamenting that no indian university figures among the top 500 globally prime minister narendra modi on saturday said the government intends to unshackle these institutions and provide rs 10000 crore to 20 varsities to ensure that they are counted among the best in the worldaddressing a function on the centenary celebrations of the patna university here he said measures like grant of central status were a thing of the past and his government has taken a step forward towards making 10 private universities and 10 government ones world classmy government took an important step towards unshackling the iims freeing them from the clutches of restrictions and regulations set by the governmentwe intend to do the same for our universities and ensure that our centres of higher learning figure among the best 500 in the world modi said herein his speech that lasted a little over 30 minutes the prime minister stressed on the need for universities to give more emphasis on learning and innovation and give up old teaching methods which focused on cramming students minds with informationthe prime minister also replied in his characteristic style to a fervent plea by bihar chief minister nitish kumar who in his welcome address had urged modi with folded hands that central status be granted to patna universityi would like to say something about a demand that was raised here and met with loud cheers by the young crowd attending this ceremony issues like grant of central status have become a thing of the past we are taking a step forwardwe will provide an assistance of rs 10000 crore to 10 private universities and an equal number of government ones for a period of five years all these universities have to do is to demonstrate their potential to become world class he saidthe universities will not be selected by the prime minister or a chief minister or any other political figure he said adding their potential will be assessed by a professional third party agencyi exhort patna university to seize this opportunity he said in the presence of a host of dignitaries which included kumar and his deputy sushil kumar modihailing the role of young it professionals in changing the global outlook towards india modi quipped earlier we were seen as a land of snake charmers exorcism and superstitionslong back while on a visit to taiwan i told a friend that we as a nation have moved from snakes to the mouse he saidmodi said we are a nation of 800 million young people 65 per cent of our population is below the age of 35 years there is nothing that we cannot achieve with such a huge demographic advantagethe pm began his speech on a humorous note saying the chief minister said in his speech that i was the first prime minister to visit this university it seems my predecessors have left quite a few tasks for mehe also paid rich tributes to the rich and glorious history of bihar saying