Mangalore :
“Nations are built on the vision, wisdom and intellectual inputs of exceptional leaders in science as well as in other fields. India has today emerged as a strong nation, a resurgent nation as a consequence of a strong foundation in science and technology guided by our great scientists and visionaries,” said Sekar Basu, director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.
He was addressing the third graduation ceremony of St Aloysius College (autonomous) at Loyala Hall here on Saturday June 1. He conferred graduation certificates to 1,452 postgraduate and undergraduate students from science, arts, commerce, management and other streams.
“Students here have graduated at a time when Indian economy is getting integrated with the global economy through the process of globalization. While we are looking forward to a healthy, fast growing economy, it is equally important that economic growth and industrialization remain sustainable. I come from the department of atomic energy and I may recount here some of the efforts of department of atomic energy in this area. The department of atomic energy has been contributing towards enhancing the energy security, health security, environmental security and food and water security of the nation.
“We have been witnessing an impressive growth in GDP. Our per capita electricity consumption is about 600k Whr/yr, compared to world average of about 2000k Whr/yr. India’s population will rise to 1.5 billion by 2050 and we must plan to have a multifold rise in electricity generation. Indian fossil fuel reserves will be exhausted in the next few decades. Renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, solar) along with nuclear will be the options in the long term for growth and sustainability,” he said.
“Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood for over 60% of India’s population. Nuclear technology has played an important role in facilitating the development of mutants with desirable agronomic traits such as higher yields, better tolerance to disease and stresses like drought, salinity etc. India has a very large population suffering from malnutrition, so BARC has developed as many as 41 new crop varieties in oil seeds and pulses that have been released and Gazette notified by Govt of India for commercial cultivation in different parts of the country , and are very popular among the farmers including in Karnataka. A large amount of groundnuts, mungand urid you all eat comes from the research efforts of scientists at BARC,” he added.
Speaking on the effects of the nuclear energy and its radiation, Basu said, “Radiation technology and nuclear medicine have found increasing application in human healthcare. These include sterilization of medical products using radiation, Blood irradiators Hydro-gel based wound dressings disease diagnosis and therapy using nuclear medicine. We often feel that radiation can cause cancer However, the real fact is that today radiation is serving as a powerful tool to cure cancer and has given a second life to large number of patients and enhanced the quality of their life. Nuclear programme offers excellent career opportunities to young science and engineering graduates. There is also tremendous scope for the young minds to explore career opportunities in societal applications of nuclear technology in industry.
“The society of tomorrow is going to be fully knowledge-based and knowledge has to be accumulated, transmitted and utilized. Hence every youth should aim at betterment – not only betterment of self but also betterment of society,” he asserted.
Fr Denzil Lobo, vice-president of MJES and rector said, “You have an obligation to society and to serve community. You have to work for society with values of education which have been taught here.”
Francis Serrao, president, Mangalore Jesuit Educational Society (MJES) and Provincial, Karnataka Jesuit Province who presided over the ceremony said, “The number of years you spent in college don’t matter but it matters how you spent your valuable years in college. This is not just a college but a temple of knowledge, tower of information, house of formation and it is a place of social and personal transformation. Usually, society concentrates on 3 Ps – power, profit and poise – but our aim should be to achieve concern, commitment, and conscience. Subashchandra Bose said do or die, but now we should do before we die.”
Dr A M Narahari, registrar, Fr Swebert D’ Silva, principal and others were present.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld. com / Home> Top Stories / Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje / Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (DV) / Saturday, June 04th, 2013