Preamble

There is a paucity of teaching resources in higher education. The current lack of connectivity between academic scholarship and teaching is detrimental to both activities. India has hundreds of national research institutions in a wide variety of academic areas, with thousands of scientists with high scholarship competence. National research institutions currently have little by way of systematic teaching commitments beyond pre-PhD courses, and none at the undergraduate level.

In a speech on Teachers' Day, the Hon'ble Prime Minister had called upon Indian scientists to actively involve themselves in teaching in colleges. The Ministry of Science & Technology had sent a communication in this regard, and the same was duly received by the National Institute of Immunology (NII) through the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) on 17.09.2014.