While advocating the importance of ideas in nation building at the second convocation of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), held almost 46 years after the first one, Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said “ideas alone are not sufficient” and it is “equally important to exploit those ideas for the good of the society”.
At the 2nd annual convocation held at the Auditorium of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) more than 400 students from 13 Schools and Special Centres of JNU were conferred with the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The graduates were accompanied with their family members and supervisors, who attended the ceremony with a great sense of enthusiasm and pride, particularly because this convocation was held after a gap of more than four decades.
He asserted that discoveries and innovations are indispensible for the development of nation. He said that the varsity is committed to encouraging “critical thinking” and “freedom of thought among its students and faculty”.
“If you want to sustain India as a leading nation in the world, it is important that you become discoverers and innovators and ensure that some of the important creative ideas germinate from our country,” said VC M. Jagadesh Kumar.
He opined that the convocation is not a mere ceremonial gathering but more than that. “It is the meeting of bright minds under one roof with a shared mission towards our society. It is the day we collectively remind ourselves the immense responsibility that lies on our shoulders as vehicles of social change,” said VC.
“Your generation has to engage with society more closely as compared to your predecessors simply because the challenges our human societies face today are enormous -climate change, food security, energy security, clean water scarcity, health risks, degrading bio-diversity, man made and natural disasters, terrorism, illegal immigrants posing a threat to national security and so on,” he said.
“But solutions to such problems cannot emanate only from scientific and technological innovations. The partnership between Social scientists, for which JNU is so well known, and the technologists alone can help us find solutions with a human face,” added Kumar.
Kumar said that “best ideas are born when minds are allowed to roam free and think critically” and JNU is committed to this freedom of thought and critical thinking with an emphasis on our fundamental responsibilities.
VK Saraswat, the Chancellor of JNU and Niti Aayog member, was the chief guest. He said: “JNU is generally perceived as a training ground for intellectual politicians and for meaningful life in the Indian bureaucracy. It has produced some of the finest mindsets, politicians and bureaucrats and researchers like Muzaffar Alam, Alok Bhattacharya, S Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Sitaram Yechury and so on,” said Saraswat.
At the 2nd annual convocation held at the Auditorium of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) more than 400 students from 13 Schools and Special Centres of JNU were conferred with the Degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The graduates were accompanied with their family members and supervisors, who attended the ceremony with a great sense of enthusiasm and pride, particularly because this convocation was held after a gap of more than four decades.
The convocation ceremony of the JNU which was held outside the varsity campus has drawn flak from the disgruntled students and teachers who are on discordant note with the policies and programme of present Vice-Chancellor and have organized a programme named “save JNU Convention” inside the campus on same day.