VELLORE: Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged students to make use of their “genetic advantage”, saying that ancient India had been a centre of excellence for learning. While delivering the 33rd convocation address at the VIT University on Saturday, the minister said, ‘Today youngsters have plenty of options. They should look at them with discretion to make the new technologies useful for society.”
Stating that ancient institutions in India such as Nalanda used to attract experts from many countries to share knowledge and expertise, the defence minister said the spirit of teaching and learning is embedded in Indians and strengthened by many universities such as the VIT. “This country has been entrepreneurial for centuries. Education is not alien to us. Trading and business are not new here. We must make use of these strengths to become a ‘Viswa Guru’ as visualised by Prime Minister Modi. Things changed during the British rule. Efforts are made by the government to address this issue to put things in order. Things are changing now as never before,” she added.
The essence of an educational institution is to produce good individuals, who are able to keep learning and skill themselves to transform the spirit of education for social good, she said. “We have many institutions which are doing this transformation as a silent revolution which even well-established universities in many developed countries were struggling to achieve,” she noted.
Expressing concern that people are probably less socialising now, she said it impacted the way people used to build character. Noting that the way people live is also changing, Nirmala Sitharaman said the way technologies invading people’s lives requires strength, spirit of education and skill to fine tune the benefits of such technologies to facilitate lives.
Students should look to build expertise in cyber and space technologies and be part of building public policy governance since plenty of options are available now to develop expertise and excel, she added.