On her first visit to Mumbai and her alma mater after becoming the country's President, Patil was speaking at the inauguration of the health centre and community radio facility of the university at its Fort campus on Friday.

“I understand that the radio facility would be catering to almost one million listeners. It is an opportunity to promote the creativity of students and should take up issues of relevance to students,” said Patil. Here too, the President emphasised that the radio must reach out to the “neighbouring localities” and address issues like eradication of social evils, alcoholism and drug-addiction, among others.

She was felicitated by the university on the occasion.

The health centre will cater to the students, teaching and non-teaching staff of the university. The foundation stone of the centre was laid by Planning Commission Member B L Mungekar when he was the vice chancellor of the university.

The Mumbai University Students’ Transmission or Radio MUST will combine a mix of information and entertainment. It will be on air on the frequency 107.8 and the broadcast range will be restricted to a radius of three km.

While Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the centre could work on developing preventive measures in future and how the youth could be stopped from taking to social evils like smoking, Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna said he would like the centre to also provide consultation and counseling to youths who are still in their formative years. “This will enable them to cope with the physical and psychological changes they face as youths,” he said.

Meanwhile, even as the Union Budget today increased the total allocation for education by 20 per cent, Patil in her speech stressed on “expansion, excellence and inclusion”. She said that while the country's young demographic profile gives an advantage in terms of manpower availability, talent supply shortages have begun to emerge. She stated that currently India produces around 5,000 PhDs annually in science and about 800 PhDs in engineering and to continue to be a serious player as a knowledge-based economic power, it is estimated that five times the number of PhDs would be required. “Moreover, we have to ensure that their quality is of the highest level. Here the work of the National Skill Development Mission to address the skill deficiency in some sectors of our economy could be very helpful,” she said.