M A I N   N E W S

Highest PU honour for Manmohan Singh
I will always cherish this, says PM
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 3
It was an emotional homecoming for the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to his alma mater as the Panjab University (PU) today honoured one of its most distinguished alumni with its highest honour — Doctor of Laws (honoris causa).

Even as the university authorities heaped praise on its former student and faculty member, who rose to become the Prime Minister, a modest Dr Manmohan Singh went down memory lane terming his PU days as “some of the best years of my life”. “I have no hesitation in saying that the education I received in PU has played a major part in whatever I have achieved in life,” he told a distinguished gathering at a special convocation here amid thunderous applause.

The citation, read out by the PU Vice-Chancellor, Prof RC Sobti, said the honour had been conferred “in recognition of his personal attainments, outstanding contribution and intellectual and professional accomplishments as a distinguished academician, educationist and social reformer”. A visibly-moved Dr Manmohan Singh received the recognition “with great humility”. “It is an honour I will always cherish,” said the Prime Minister, who has received the most pretigious of degrees including from the much sought-after universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Recalling the “beautiful period” spent as a student and teacher at PU with nostalgia the Prime Minister made it a point to mention the names of former colleagues — Dr RP Bambah and Dr MM Puri, both former PU Vice-Chancellors, DR HS Shergill and HS Shaan, ex-Professors, besides university founding fathers Diwan Anand Kumar and Prof AC Joshi in his address.

The university, which boasts of such illustrious alumni as former Prime Minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, Nobel laureate Prof Hargobind Khorana, astronaut Kalpana Chawla and cricketer Kapil Dev, was one of the most respected institutions in the country, Dr Manmohan Singh, for whom it was a maiden visit to the university after becoming the Prime Minister, said.

In his address, Dr Manmohan Singh lamented the state of higher education where “deficiencies and imbalances” ruled the roost resulting in our standards being far below international standards.

“A major problem, which we face is the quality of higher education that our institutions impart. Unfortunately, most of them produce pass-outs, who are nowhere near international standards,” he added.

“In fact, one dimension of quality deficit is the difficulty being faced in recruiting top class faculty for the new IIMs, IITs, central universities and other such institutions that the Government has decided to establish in the last five years,” he said promising all help to provide better incentives to the PU faculty.

“At present, in any year, only about 12 per cent of students, who complete secondary education enrol for higher education.This does not at all compare well with the figure of about 70 per cent in some developed countries. It is also much lower than the figure of about 20 per cent in some South East Asian countries,” the Prime Minister said adding, “We must increase this proportion.”

Stressing the need to correct existing regional imbalances in the higher education system, he said that today nearly half the institutions of higher learning are in only five states, while nearly 70 per cent of the total intake capacity for professional courses is in another five states.

“There is a large gender gap in enrollments for higher education and there are large intra-state imbalances too. We must address these deficiencies,” he said.

Dr Manmohan Singh said that in the last five years, the Centre had made unprecedented efforts to expand and improve educational facilities at all levels and added, “In fact, I often refer to the 11th five-year plan as an education plan.” He said that to address these problems required structural reforms in higher education system for which the UPA Government was fully committed.Prominent among those present on the occasion were the Prime Minister’s wife, Mrs Gursharan Kaur,Punjab Governor and UT Administrator, Gen SF Rodrigues (Retd), the Haryana Governor, Mr Jagan Nath Pahadia, the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Union Ministers, Mr Pawan Bansal, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kumari Selja, PM’s Principal Secretary, Mr TKA Nair, and the Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune Group of Newspapers, Mr HK Dua.

Young docs must serve poor, needy: PM
Anuja Jaiswal
Tribune News Service

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh hands over a degree to a doctor at the annual convocation of PGIMER in Chandigarh on Tuesday. Also seen in the picture is PGI director KK Talwar. A Tribune photograph

Chandigarh, November 3
Emphasising on the need for providing best healthcare facilities to the poorest of the poor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked young doctors of the PGI to never lose sight of professional ethics, and payback the society what they had achieved.

Addressing the 30th convocation at the PGI here today, Singh advised the upcoming doctors to commit themselves to the cause of humanity. He asked the young medicos to serve the needy and poor and render their service as an obligation and commitment towards the institute.

Sharing his views, he said like in economics, in medicine too, it was easy to get lost in a high-level research and forget the ground realities. But the mission of the PGI like institutes would remain incomplete unless the interest of the common man was addressed effectively and purposely.

“A high-level research might discover the most cost-effective strategies of prevention and treatment of the diseases but the mission will truly be accomplished only when it touched the lives of common people,” stressed Singh, adding that the profession was not an ordinary commercial profession, but one that calls for ethical living. It is in the hands of medical fraternity, especially the younger generation, to deliver on the ground, he added.

Dr Singh emphasised on improving the quality of delivery of services at the grass root level as large sections of our society still do not have adequate access to the health care system.

Lauding the role of former Punjab Chief Minister, Late Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon, and former Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Singh thanked them for having a vision as a result of which the region today had state-of-the-art health facilities.

Saying that he was “privileged” of having known Dr Tulsi Das, Dr Santok Singh Anand and Dr PN Chutani, who had contributed a great deal to the field of medicine Dr Singh said they all had given their best to the institute. As many as 361 students were awarded degrees and several students were awarded medals for meritorious performance.

In his address, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, reiterated his ministry’s commitment to come out with the vaccines for the H1N1virus by March/April 2010 and low-cost testing kits for it.

Former PGI directors, deans and heads of various departments were also present during the convocation. Also present on the occasion were the Punjab Governor Gen SF Rodrigues (Retd), Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Haryana Governor Jagan Nath Paharia, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Bansal and Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Culture Kumari Shelja, and HK Dua, editor-in-chief of The Tribune.

Talwar’s leadership impresses Manmohan

What may come as the disappointment to Dr KK Talwar’s baiters, Prime MinisterDr Manmohan Singh today lauded the services of the PGI director and said that under his leadership the institute had grown stronger and better with facilities and capabilities being augmented each year.

“The institute has an Eye and an Advanced Cardiac Centre providing quality

care to the people,” he said, adding that he was “happy” to know that the tele-medicine initiative which he had inaugurated during his last visit was rendering yeoman service to the region. He said, “I would like to compliment Dr Talwar for his efforts and leadership in the last five years. But I would also urge not to be complacent.”