Country needs visionaries to transform India into knowledge society

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah said the country needs great visionaries, more scholars and academicians to transform India into a knowledge society.

Speaking after the inauguration of National Conference on ‘Quality of Education: Towards Global Excellence’ at Dr Mu Va auditorium here on Thursday, he said the 12^th plan document of the Union planning commission and the Vision 2023 document of Tamil Nadu have given due importance in the allocation of resources, ensuring education for all and on improvising the standard of education.

He said the rapid expansion of primary, secondary and higher education in the recent decades has made quality education a necessity to build a knowledge based society to equip them to compete globally.

He also presented lifetime achievement awards named after the Arcot twins -- Arcot Ramaswami Mudaliar (1887-1976) and Arcot Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar (1887-1974), whose 125th birth anniversary was marked last week. Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University was honoured with Arcot Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar award while dr Igancy Muthu, former vice chancellor of Bharatidasan University was honoured with Arcot Ramaswami Mudaliar award.

The governor also presented Thiru Vi Ka award to Avvai Natrajan, former vice-chancellor of Thanjai Tamil University and Dr Mu Va Award to educationist and freedom fighter Prof Rajavelu.

Higher education secretary T S Sridhar, who was present on the occasion, highlighted the various schemes of government. Also present was Dr Vedagiri Shanmugasundaram, president of Thiru Vi Ka Dr Mu Va Educational Trust.