He said the government has prioritised higher education and supported it with increased resources, and enrollment to higher education institutions in the country has increased from 1.39 crore in 2006-07 to 2.18 crore in 2011-12.

"India has today 659 degree-awarding institutions and 33,023 colleges," he said.

However, despite the rise in the number of higher education institutes, India has very few institutes of global standards, Mukherjee said.

"Time has now come for us to reclaim our leadership position in the world as far as higher education is concerned. Our effort to increase 'quantity' must be matched with commensurate efforts to improve 'quality'," Mukherjee said.

He said that in a world that is facing increasing constraints on natural resources, innovation was another key area India should focus on.

"China and the US are amongst the countries at the forefront of innovation with over five lakh (500,000) patent applications filed by each country in 2011," he said.
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