"In today's knowledge economy, it is economics, not politics, that brings power. Economies are driven by business and technological innovation and advances. Strong science and engineering Ph.D programmes are precisely the catalysts for the amazing growth of China," he said.

Referring to a study, Ramadorai said that India's share in R&D spending to the total global R&D spending stands at 2.1 percent while the share of China is 12.5 percent.

"Also the number of Ph.Ds has been growing at the rate of about 9 percent in India compared to around 18 percent in China. So if India has to be technologically strong, research is an imperative," he added.

"I believe that the time has really come for our campuses to reshape the learning culture to bring in more of the real world just like IIIT Hyderabad is attempting to do," Ramadorai said, adding that more institutions need to remold the entire learning process and curriculum of the campus so that more bright students focus on addressing the tough problems of the day.

Ramadorai further said that more campuses need to think in terms of introducing an incubator model of learning where students can stoke their entrepreneurial spirit and dare to apply technology to tackle India's problems at scale without fear of failure.

"One tough problem that certainly needs to be addressed is the primary sector - agriculture. Our agricultural yield is amongst the lowest in the world.

"The fact that a small nation like the Netherlands is the world's third largest agricultural exporter should inspire us to create more value from our farms. This can happen only through the application of innovative new technologies and cutting edge science," he said.

Telangana Information Technology Minister K Taraka Rama Rao also spoke on the occasion. Around 450 undergraduate and post-graduate students, besides five doctoral candidates, were conferred the degrees during the convocation.

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