Food technologist says ‘your degrees must serve the public’ at 37th Convocation of Gulbarga University

Stressing the need for putting knowledge acquired in the institutions of higher education in the service of society, V. Prakash, a food technologist and the former director of the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysuru, has urged young graduates to return to rural India to impart the acquired knowledge among the people, and as well as learn from them.

He was delivering a convocation address at the 37th Convocation of Gulbarga University here on Friday.

“Public money put in universities helped you get graduated. Your degrees must serve the public, in turn. You need to go back to the villages and impart the knowledge you have learnt in the universities among the people and also learn from their experiences to enrich your knowledge,” he said.

Recognising India as one of the fast growing higher education hubs in the world, the Padma Shri award-winning scientist said that the country was comparable to the United States, China, and Europe in the entire academic environment with the quality of education in several subjects.

“Daraskar in his book on World Class Universities asks why India requires 10 times more institutions than the total number of institutions in the U.S., China and entire Europe. Having a 1.3 billion population, we cannot follow the models that the U.S. and other developed world follow. We have our own thrust and focussed areas. We have our own logistics in different States, different cultures and different zones of populations which need to be well understood in reaching out to them. Therefore, in comparing the world statistics of the number of institutions, I am proud that the State is doing well in the higher education sector,” he said.

Attributing global warming to the overuse of nature beyond a point by human beings, Mr. Prakash expressed discontent over trying to talk more about the problem than doing anything to prevent it.

“We have a responsibility retaining Earth which was handed over to us by our forefathers and handing it over to our children and grandchildren in the same fashion. This is a challenge. Perhaps, the solution lies with innovating innovation itself, however, micro or macro it is. Everybody needs to innovate their own lifestyle in their day-to-day schedule to minimise global warming. Unless and until this is acted upon by individuals, group activity has much less meaning,” he said.

Registrars C. Somashekhar (general administration) and D.M. Madari (Evaluation) and heads of different departments were present.

Three distinguished personalities from civil society — Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swamy and Shivakumara Swamy, seers of Nidumamidi Mutt near Bagepalli and Siddaroodha Mutt in Bidar, respectively, and Hindustani musician Pandit Veerabhadrappa Gadagi — were conferred with honorary doctorates.