BHUBANESWAR: Whether a society will develop or lag behind depends on how many people read and the kind of books they pick, said director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Prof Shreepad Karmalkar.
Speaking at the foundation day function of SOA University here on Wednesday, he said knowledge is power and people who read, think differently. “There is a link between reading habits of a country and the Nobel Prize. Israel and Hungary are two countries where people are avid readers. The average person in Israel reads about 64 books a year while Hungary has around 20,000 libraries with one library serving 500 people,” he said, adding that Israel and Hungary had several Nobel Prize winners.
Education, Prof Karmalkar said, is not about learning diverse subjects but developing critical thinking in the student and learning the same subject in diverse ways. The teacher’s goal should not be to cover the whole syllabus but teach the student how to understand things in multiple ways, he said. Vice chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology Prof Amiya Kumar Rath lauded SOA University for emerging as one of finest institutions of higher learning and rendering a huge service to the society at large.
Vice chancellor of Odisha University of Technology and Research (OUTR) Prof Bibhuti Bhushan Biswal said NAAC has re-accredited SOA with the highest grade as the university has maintained its quality while benefiting the community.
Bhubaneswar-Ekamra MLA Babu Singh said SOA has become a milestone in the realm of higher education in Odisha and is counted as one of the best universities in the country.. Dean of IMS and SUM Hospital Prof Sanghamitra Mishra and dean (students’ welfare) Prof Jyoti Ranjan Das also spoke.