Pilani (Rajasthan): Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), yesterday visited the Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences (BITS), Pilani as the chief guest for inaugurating the International Conference on Soft Skills Development Strategies: Corporate and Academia Perspectives.

In his inaugural speech, Prof. Pillai said that, "The purpose of education is to improve the quality of life and BITS is undoubtedly a pioneer in educational innovation for developing a model which has inbuilt mechanism for imparting soft skills and fostering industry-university collaborations".

Prof. Pillai also praised the work integrated learning philosophy based off campus distance learning programme initiatives of the institute.

After inaugurating the conference, Prof. Pillai visited the BITS library and the Centre for Educational Technology, which has the digital video studio equipped with the satellite (EDUSAT) based as well as leased line based high-quality video conferencing facilities for delivering lectures to various BITS on-campus and off-campus programmes.

Prof. Rahul Bannerjee, Chief of Software Development and Educational Technology (SDET) unit explained and demonstrated to Prof. Pillai, the internet-based highly scalable desktop video conferencing facility with interactive features for delivering lectures to the off campus distance learning programme students of the institute.

In the meeting with the Vice Chancellor and other senior officers of the Institute, Prof. Pillai shared his thoughts on distance learning and said that the journey for excellence in education must deploy more and more emerging technologies.