Delivering the 28th annual convocation address of the Mangalore University on the topic “Why foreign policy matters,” at Mangalagangothri near here on Tuesday, he said that due to many aspects, foreigners prefer Karnataka and this is something the State should be proud of.
Referring to the historic speech by Jawaharlal Nehru about India’s “Tryst with destiny,” he said that in the last six decades, the world has become even more closely knit together than Nehruji foresaw.
“Today, whether you are a resident of Mangalore or Madrid, Durban or Darwin, Manipal or Manila, it is simply not realistic to think in terms of your own city, state or country. Global forces press in from every conceivable direction. People, goods and ideas cross borders and cover vast distances with ever greater frequency, speed and ease. We are increasingly connected through travel, trade, the Internet; What we watch, what we eat and even the games we play.”
Stating that the 9/11 made clear the old cliche about the global village, Dr Tharoor said it showed that a fire that starts in a remote thatched hut or dusty tent in one corner of that village can melt the steel girders of the tallest skyscrappers at the other end of global village.
Calling upon the young graduates to be globally active, he quoted Mahathma Gandhiji who famously said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
New projects
In his welcome address, Mangalore University Vice Chancellor Prof T C Shivashankara Murthy said that the university, in addition to the ongoing research projects, has got approval for 24 projects from the sponsoring agencies like UGC, DAE, BRNS, DST, ISRO, MoES and ICSSR among others. The total grants for these projects amounts to Rs 7.62 crores, he added.
Mangalore University has 25 departments offering 36 post-graduate programmes. Its 172 affiliated colleges offer education to 58,000 students, he informed.
7 honourary doctorates
Like last year, this year too, the University conferred seven Honoris Causa degrees. The recipients included: Dr Rakesh Kumar Bhandari, Director, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Bidhan Nagar, Calcutta, (Nuclear Scientist); Dr M Mohan Alva, Chairman, Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri (Educationist, promoter of sports and culture); A S Vishnu Bharat, Chartered Accountant, Vishnu Bharath & Co, Bangalore (Social Service); Madhura M Chatrapathy, Trustee & Director, Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Bangalore (Social Worker); former Union minister Oscar Fernandes (Social Service); Kolyur Ramachandra Rao, Udupi (Artist); and R Chenraj Jain, Chairman, Jain Group of Institutions, Bangalore (Educationist, Social Worker and Philanthropist). While Dr Bhandari was conferred D.Sc (Honoris Causa), the rest were conferred D.Litt (Honoris Causa).
Out of the 12,954 candidates passed, 950 students received their degrees in person during the convocation programme. St Aloysius College Registrar Prof A M Narahari and Sacred Heart College Principal Robert Jose were among the 62 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree recipients.
Higher Education Minister and Pro Chancellor Aravinda Limbavali, Registrars Prof K Chinnappa Gowda and Prof P S Yedapadithaya and deans among others were present on the occasion.
DH News Service
From New York to Thiruvananthapuram
Explaining the concept of globalisation, he referred to news articles a few years ago commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. They read:
“An English Princess with a Welsh title leaves a French hotel with her Egyptian companion; She is driven in a German car with a Dutch engine by a Belgian chauffeur full of Scottish whiskey; they are chased by Italian paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles into a Swiss-built tunnel and crash; a rescue is attempted by an American doctor using Brazilian medicines; and the story is being told to you now in Mangalore by an Indian who has recently moved from New York to Thiruvananthapuram. There’s globalisation.
Further continuing, he said: “Your own stories are really not that different. What does it mean to be a young person in Mangalore today?”
It can mean waking up to an alarm clock made in China, downing a cup of tea from leaves first planted by the British, donning jeans designed in America and taking a Swedish bus, a Japanese scooter or a Korean car to get to your class at the university, where your textbooks might be printed with German-invented technology on paper first pulped in Norway. You might call your friends on a Finnish mobile phone to invite them to an Italian pizza or even what you think of as an Indian meal, featuring naan that came here from Persia, tandoori chicken taught to us by rulers from Uzbekistan and aloo and hari mirch that first came to India only 400 years ago from Latin America.
And the most desi thing of all, of course, is suspicion of anything foreign.
