Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today inaugurated Uttarakhand’s first Saathi Kendra at Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Government PG College, Khatima, in collaboration with IIT Kanpur. According to our correspondent, the centre will provide offline coaching and mentoring facilities to 80 students, benefiting talented youth from Khatima and surrounding rural areas.
The Chief Minister said that the quality of education is the foundation of a country’s social and economic development. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision through the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the launch of the Saathi Project in 2023 have transformed education by making it more employment-oriented and accessible.
Our correspondent adds that the Saathi Project connects students with professors from IITs and IISc, who conduct online classes to help them prepare for competitive examinations. These include engineering, medical, banking, railways, and CLAT, among others.
Over 15 lakh students across India have benefited from the project so far.
In Uttarakhand, nearly 29,000 students have enrolled in the initiative.
More than 500 students from the state cleared various competitive examinations last year with the project’s support.
Dhami noted that such initiatives are a major step towards ensuring that students from even the remotest areas get equal opportunities to compete and succeed.
Strengthening Higher Education in Uttarakhand
The Chief Minister underlined that the state government is committed to improving education and research infrastructure. Key initiatives include:
Introducing courses in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data at universities and research institutions.
Construction of Science City and Astro Park to promote scientific research.
Establishment of nine new government colleges in different districts.
Implementation of the Mukhyamantri Research Promotion Scheme, under which faculty members receive up to ₹18 lakh in research grants.
Incentives for publishing quality research papers.
Leaders and Officials Present
The event was attended by Education Minister Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat, Member of Parliament Ajay Bhatt, IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal, senior officials including Higher Education Secretary Dr. Ranjit Kumar Sinha and Director Dr. B.N. Khali, local representatives, teachers, and students.
