Our country is now at the cusp of transformation, and this university has a role to play in its journey, said Governor R N Ravi during the convocation ceremony of Calcutta University (CU) on Monday.
Addressing the students, the Governor who is also the ex-officio chancellor of the state-aided universities, including CU, said “You are entering a new phase of life. For me to be in Bengal is an immensely humbling experience. The land of Bengal has been the centre of transformation and revolution… This land has produced the intellectual and spiritual, cultural and political leaders of Bharat. This university has been the nursery that seeded and nursed those leaders”.
“This university has a great legacy. As a student of Patna University, more than five decades ago, students all over the country used to envy the Calcutta University students…Today when the country is at the cusp of transformation, this university has a role to play in this journey,” said Ravi.
“When the nation was in distress, Bengal produced the great revolutionary, Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who gave us ‘Vande Mataram’… it became the war cry of the national freedom movement. This land has given us the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, who gave expression to the suppressed and oppressed souls of humanity largely colonised by European powers,” he said.
Remembering his time in Tamil Nadu, Ravi said, “This land (Bengal) has produced Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. When I was in Tamil Nadu, I got to know that the people there were fond of Netaji. I had even heard that many people from Tamil Nadu, at that time, had joined the Indian National Army (INA) and fought the British. We did not have a record of how many were there…during a study, we found over 5000 names who had fought with Netaji. We should be proud of this great land, its legacy and be conscious of its weight and responsibility”.
The Governor said Bharat for at least 2000 years of recorded history remained the economic power house of the world. “We were leaders in science, technology, industry, medicine. All through centuries, we were a thriving civilisation. Until the 19th century, Bharat was the biggest economic power of the world, then unfortunately we dropped… This is unacceptable now and today is an epochal time in our national history when the nation is moving forward with a resolve,” he said.
In leadership, traditionally, this university has played a crucial role and it should be conscious of that especially when the nation is marching forward, Ravi added. “We are at the centre stage of world affairs, we have pulled people out of poverty,” he said.
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“In the journey of new Bharat, the students have a role to play, there are infinite frontiers. It is a time of disruptive technologies, there is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence. My advice is to be AI literate, be familiar with it as the world is divided between people who know AI and those who don’t,” said Ravi.
Around 1,100 research scholars who completed their doctoral studies between 2024 and 2026 received their degrees during the convocation ceremony on Monday.
The university conferred honorary degrees on noted scientist Vijay Pandurang Bhatkar (DSc), educationist Ranajit Das (DLitt), and former vice-chancellor of Christ University, Father Thomas Chatamparampil (DLitt).
Bhatkar, an Indian computer scientist, educationist, and best known as the “architect of India’s national initiative in supercomputing”, has also received the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. He is also the founder and executive director of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
