Bharat Biotech MD Krishna Ella encourages students to be innovative, entrepreneurial

He suggested that spending time in nature is key to promote imagination and innovation.

Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, who was the chief guest, said India is a young country as 50 per cent of the country is less than the age of 27.

While India has done well in general in the last 75 years, it is still regarded as a developing country, he said.

India and China had a similar size of economy in 1987, but China is at USD 16 trillion GDP today, he said. "We still keep dreaming the USD 5 trillion dream," he said.

"I don't want to point fingers. I don't want to say anything which is political. But, I have to say this. I think the future of India will augur well for us if we are not distracted from economics. Politics can wait. It can happen once every six months in five years," Rama Rao said.

Top industrialist Anand Mahindra, Chancellor, Mahindra University, said, in the Mahindra Group, they have made a "religion out of education". For over 75 years, they have run schools, given scholarships, supported educational institutions and created academic opportunities for girls and disadvantaged youngsters, he said.

However, after all these initiatives, the Mahindra University is by far the most ambitious, he said.

Mahindra spoke about his vision for the university to be a pathbreaker in education.