Speaking at the inauguration of the 5th International Model United Nations Conference of UPES (IMUN) Principal Secretary Radha Raturi said that UPES has proved to be a blessing for Uttarakhand and the State takes pride in the fact that students now have access to world class education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels right in their backyards.
She was the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony of the two day event in UPES, Bidholi campus in which over 200 students from National and International Universities are participating including 60 international students from various geographies which include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Mexico, South Sudan, Angola, Gabon, Kenya, Sudan and Chad. Applauding the initiative of UPES for presenting an Approach Paper titled “Proliferating Migration of Uttarakhand’s Youth - Reasons, Remedies and Recommendations”. She advised the student research team of Satvik Shukla, Tanisha Gupta, Ritika Raj and Aatreyee Dhar to also study the history of initial settlers of Uttarakhand since it will also have a bearing on their area of research.
In her address she brought the focus of the audience on two Uttarakhand specific issues for which sustainable and balanced resolutions are needed on priority. Elaborating on these she shared that since Uttarakhand has 65% of its land under the cover of forests there has been an alarming rise in the “Man–Animal” conflict where lives are lost and crops get damaged on a daily and the other being the conflict between “Progress – Environment”, where infrastructure development which is essential for progress of the state gets hampered due to at times irrelevant existing environmental policies which need to be re-visited and re-framed.
She made an earnest appeal to the MUN organizing committee of UPES to put the young and fresh minds to also deliberate on these two very important issues of Uttarakhand and share the findings along with some recommendations.
Dr Adish C. Aggarwal, Chairman of All India Bar Association was the “Guest of Honor” on this occasion. In his address to the gathering he shared that the kind of impetus ‘Moot Court’ culture has provided to legal students, similar stimulus ‘MUN’ has been giving to the youth to enable them to become well informed global citizens of tomorrow. He said that participating in such ‘MUN’events also teaches the art of diplomacy to the youth very early in their lives.
Sunil Kumar, Bureau Chief of Pioneer, Dehradun was the ‘Special Invitee’ on this occasion. In his address he not only appreciated not the continual growth of UPES but also the attention which the management pays towards all round development of their students by organising events like “MUN”.
The dignitaries were welcomed by Sanjeev Zutshi, Senior Director of Operations in UPES and the vote of thanks was delivered by Dr Kamal Bansal, Dean of College of Engineering Studies in UPES. Arun Dhand, Director - Government Relations and Media Affairs disclosed that two new features have been added to this edition of ‘MUN’ which include ‘Deliberations on some Uttarakhand Issues’ as sub-agendas and participation of cadets from the Indian Military Academy.