Coimbatore: The gross enrolment ratio in higher education in Tamil Nadu has reached 50%, significantly higher than the national average of 28.4%, owing to various state govt education schemes, said U Kamachi Mudali, vice-chancellor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai.Speaking as the chief guest at the 40th convocation of Bharathiar University here on Friday, Mudali lauded TN govt’s flagship schemes such as ‘Naan Mudhalvan’, ‘Pudhumai Penn’ and ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’, which he said had substantially improved access to higher education in the state. He said the gross enrolment ratio of females in higher education in TN had reached 47.3%, reflecting considerable gender parity in higher education access. The gross enrolment ratio of females belonging to scheduled caste in higher education in TN is 40.4% and that of scheduled tribe is 37.6%, both higher than the national averages. Highlighting future challenges, he said India’s per capita electricity consumption remains a concern. “In 2024-25, per capita electricity consumption in India was about 1,450kWh, which is roughly one-third of the global average of 3,500 kWh.” Although India is the world’s third-largest electricity producer, achieving developed nation status would require a 10-fold increase in electricity generation capacity over the next 50 years, he said. The country’s current installed capacity of over 500GW would need to increase to about 850GW by 2030, considering a projected population of 1.4 billion, he said. To increase nuclear power capacity from the present 8,880MW to 22,480MW by 2031, Mudali said the Union govt had allocated Rs20,000 crore and passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act in Parliament to enable private sector participation in building and operating nuclear power plants. Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi participated in the ceremony and conferred degrees on 1,308 students. Higher education secretary Shankar IAS was present as well.
