Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, celebrated the Diamond Jubilee College Day and Awards Ceremony at the KMC Greens here on Tuesday. The program provided an opportunity for every single person present at the venue to applaud the vision of one man, Dr T M A Pai.

National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Bangalore) Vice Chancellor Dr Satish Chandra who was the chief guest of the function told the students, “It is payback time for you. Having received such a good training and good education, you have a responsibility to serve the nation. We all think of US and UK. But why not India? We have all facilities here, the state-of-the-art facilities, so why not look forward to work in our country?” he asked.

R and D

“For any country to develop, research is important. Research and Development is necessary. But we are investing only meagre amount in R and D. There is awareness in that direction now and that is the reason the Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology have started many fellowship schemes. It is the need of the hour for youngsters like you to take up these fellowships and do research. You have to solve our problems, our problems cannot be solved by the western world,” pointed out Dr Satish Chandra.

Manipal University Vice Chancellor Dr K Ramnarayan spoke of the 60 years in the life and growth of the institution. He compared it with an individual. “Today we have reason to rejoice, remember, reflect and rejuvenate. When an institution is 60 years old, we consider that institution for its stability, strength, success and satisfaction. Therefore, we have reason to take pride in the achievements of the last 60 years,” he added.

Recalling the glorious past of the institution, he said: “June 30, 1953 was the day when Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, was formally inaugurated by the then Minister for Public Health (Government of Madras) A B Shetty. Some of us here have been with the Manipal Group and with KMC for  decades but we have only one who is one day older than KMC, Manipal. He is N V Ballal, who joined one day before the inauguration of the College,” he said.  

KMC Dean, Dr Pradeep Kumar presenting the annual report, said that students from every state of the country were present in Manipal, in addition to the students from 29 countries.

“The faculty, facilities and the quality of students makes KMC a different institute”, Dr Pradeep said.

He gave the accomplishments of students and said that Mohammed Shariq and Ramya Krishna were the best outgoing students.