Chennai: Investments made in education will transform India in the years to come, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Friday.

"India of the twenty-first century will be built in the classrooms of our institutions of learning and they will remake both India and the world," the prime minister said while addressing a gathering at the sesquicentennial celebrations of the Madras University.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi also attended the function.

"India is making determined efforts to extend the right to education and learning to all our citizens. The investments we are now making in education, in elementary, secondary, higher and technical education will transform our country in years to come by expanding quantitatively and growing qualitatively," he said.

The prime ministers paid glowing tributes to the varsity's alumni, including two Nobel laureates and seven who have won India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna.

"You have the distinction of having produced seven awardees of our nation's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna. You have produced two Nobel Laureates - Sir C. V. Raman in 1930 and Dr. S. Chandrasekhar in 1983 (and) S.R. Srinivasa Varadhan (the) winner of the Abel Prize (in 2007) which is an equivalent of the Nobel in the world of mathematics," Manmohan Singh told the huge number of invitees that included educationists, students, ministers and legislators.

He also praised Tamil Nadu for its impressive educational track record.

"I would like the rest of India to learn from Tamil Nadu (whose) track record in increasing female literacy and education of the girl child is most impressive."

Echoing the prime minister's sentiments, the Congress president said the central government was widening its endeavour to provide quantitative and qualitative education to all sections of the population by augmenting the number of teaching institutions in the country and increasing educational loans to a large section of the populace.

State Governor and University Chancellor Surjit Singh Barnala conferred honorary doctorates on Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Karunanidhi. IANS