UP Governor Ram Naik inaugurated the new academic block of ‘College of Management and Economic Studies’ of UPES at Kandoli in Dehradun on Friday. Appreciating the growth of the university in such a short span of time, Naik said that the sheer growth in enrollment numbers from 200 to 11,000 over 13 years could well be a national record. “Right decision at the right time is the key to progress of life,” he said, citing several examples he had come across during his stint as the Union Petroleum Minister. He also expressed his happiness over India conducting the surgical strike at terrorists across the border.
Focusing on the urgent need to improve the quality of human resource being produced in the country, he said, “Our biggest strength is our young human resource and if we are able to improve the abilities and qualities of this resource it will become our biggest asset. But if we fail it could well turn out to be our biggest liability as well.”
Addressing the female students present in the auditorium, he dwelt on women empowerment and said that as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, he is also the chancellor of 26 universities located in that state which enables him to attend numerous convocations every year. “My observation is that on an average, 65 % of medal winners at the convocations are female students which itself is a testimony on the status of women empowerment in our country,” Naik said.
Drawing on his own learning when he himself was a student in Pune University, he shared four mantras of success and happiness of life with the students and the faculty members present. The four mantras he enunciated are ‘Smile always’,‘ Be appreciative of others’, ‘Never criticise’ and ‘Always look for another way of doing a task’.
In his welcome address, Utpal Ghosh, president of UPES, said that Naik’s most spectacular achievement as Union Petroleum Minister was the fact of cooking gas being available for the common men. “ Another beauty associated with him is that while holding various government offices he has always himself written a report of his performances and has requested people to evaluate his report and give him the feedback,” he said.