The students empowered by education must give something to the society and also motivate other members of the society towards progress, said the Governor of Uttarakhand, Dr KK Paul while addressing the inaugural ceremony of a five-day long Toppers Conclave at Raj Bhawan on Monday.
The conclave is second such event in which the toppers from State universities are participating. In his speech, the Governor called upon the young achievers to preserve their success carefully and work harder to sustain it. Congratulating the toppers, he said the conclave was aimed at giving the State’s university toppers exposure to catalyze their thoughts, developing interactive skills, inculcating self-confidence and inspiring other students to do better by looking at role models from among them.
He said the toppers would soon realise that coming on the top of their institutions was not an end but actually the beginning of their journey towards success. “You are the best amongst the best–the chosen few, and as such you have a greater responsibility towards the society, the State and the nation. In your careers and your lives you will be faced with great challenges for which you will need patience and maturity”, he said.
The Governor said that the teachers should encourage students to experiment with their minds and students should have the curiosity to learn new things. The Governor narrated an inspiring story of larry Page, the Co-founder of Google, who followed his dreams and finally realised them.
He also stressed upon the need for students to cultivate the reading habit. He said reading good books would help them build their character and sharpen their intellect. Dr Paul said all universities in the State needed to provide sponsorships of higher education for underprivileged students, especially girls from remote hill areas of the State. He said that there is a need to link education with research and innovation in a seamless manner.
In his welcome address, Kumaun University’s Vice Chancellor (VC) HS Dhami threw light on the objectives of the conclave and gave several inspirational messages to the toppers and other students. The guest speaker of the session, former Chief Secretary RS Tolia gave a detailed talk on Good Governance in the context of Uttarakhand.
He included the toppers in the discussion and said that merely improvement in administration was not good governance and political and economic aspects must also be looked into. He said that limited resources need to be well organised to fulfill the basic needs of society. All the VCs of the State universities of Uttarakhand, the Director General of Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) and 19 topers of different universities were present on the occasion.