This is all we can expect from the so called president. If she wants IITians to come up with solutions for rural problems, she has no idea what research means. The only and the surest way to overcome rural problem is removal of corruption, obviously she has to take the lead in doing that and not IITs. As the saying - charity begins at home - goes, first she should try to be clean and non-corrupt. As a first step I request her to clear all the allegations that are there against her of her involvement in some bank cases.
It only goes on to show her naivety in understanding research. Researcher's usually try to advance a field; in many cases it takes a while before the research ideas become practical solutions to problems. It is amazing to see how little idea this person has about research. No wonder India's research output is no where compared to even China, we borrow all technologies and decomissioned ships from russia paying billions of dollars.
