Hyderabad, Aug 23: Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday exhorted the academicians and educational institutions to reach to those unreached students so as to facilitate their online learning.

“If we fail to reach out to the underprivileged students, who do not have access to the gadgets and internet connectivity to be part of the online learning, it will result in the digital divide in accessibility,” she added.

The Governor was participating as the chief guest at the inaugural of the 3-day international virtual conference on “Innovations for the new normal,” organised by the Government Degree College, Parkal in Warangal district.

Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan pointed out that majority of the students in remote rural and tribal areas were not having access to internet, smart phones and other gadgets to take part in the online education.

Any infrastructure initiative in this direction must be aimed at providing them with the equal access to quality online education. There must not be any discrimination and nobody should be left out of the education and online learning.

The Governor pointed out that students were enthusiastic to be part of the online education and added that in many remote areas students were climbing trees and rooftops to access the internet to be part of online education.

Citing the observations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said that innovation is an ongoing process and it is a driving force for the creation of new India, the Governor appealed to the people to innovate through out-of-the-box thinking to address different issues that plague India strive to create New India.

Referring to the National Recruitment Agency (NRA), Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said that it was a great welcome step to streamline the recruitment and prevent the aspirants from going through untold hardship taking numerous exams in different locations.

The Governor appealed to all those involved in higher education to work to train the students with employability skills in order to face the global competition.

Collegiate Education Commissioner Navin Mittal, Conference Coordinator Dr. Tiruvengala Chary, IIM faculty member Dr. G. Srinivas, Keynote speaker Prof. Girija Shankar of Western Sydney University and around 200 paper presenters were part of the inaugural.