South Asian nations should pool their wisdom, talent and creativity and work to remove the mental and other roadblocks that were preventing people from realising their destiny, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here while dedicating the UNESCO Madranjeet Singh Institute of South Asia Regional Cooperation at the Pondicherry Central University.
During the recent South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit meetings, Manmohan Singh said that he found genuine desire among South Asian leaders to write a new chapter in the history of the organisation.
Some important initiatives that symbolise the idea of South Asia are taking shape, one of them being the South Asia University. “It has started and will soon have its own full-fledged campus outside Delhi,” he said.
Singh said that citizens of South Asia have to start communicating and understanding each other through direct contact rather than through Western the academic prism or constructs. Meanwhile Prime minister Manmohan Singh was given a warm welcome upon his arrival here. He was received at the makeshift helipad at Pondicherry University by LG Iqbal Singh, Chief Minister N Rangasamy and Rajya Sabha Member P Kannan.