Visakhapatnam may soon have a coastal observatory centre, as the city is one among the important eastern coastal cities, said Secretary to the Ministry of Earth Sciences Madhavan Nair Rajeevan here on Saturday.
He was delivering the convocation address at the 7{+t}{+h}convocation of GITAM University, after being conferred the Doctorate of Science by the university.
According to him, six centres will be coming up along the eastern coast, and the ministry is working on finalising the spots, and Visakhapatnam may figure on that list, he informed The Hindu . Talking about the initiatives being taken by the Ministry, he pointed out that keeping the farmers in mind, the Ministry was generating a block or mandal level weather forecasting system.
“We will be developing high resolution numerical models with data from denser observational network and it is proposed to disseminate these services through 660 district centres. In the process the data collected, will be served to about 6,000 blocks across the country. At present, we give a district forecast and once the system is in place, even a remote mandal or block will have its own mandal-level forecast,” he said.
Initiative
The initiative is being jointly worked out with Ministry of Agriculture and ICAR Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
This apart, he spoke of other initiatives such as development of multi-hazard warning system for disaster risk management, blue economy initiative and deep sea mining, ocean thermal energy conversion, low-cost desalinisation plants and starting a sea-front facility at Nellore.
Ilaiyaraaja steals the show
Along with Dr. Rajeevan, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court S. Rajendra Babu, former director-general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Nirmal Kumar Ganguly and music maestro I. Ilaiyaraaja were conferred Honorary Doctorates.
The music maestro stole the hearts with his witty one-liners and motivated the crowd with a few of his life-time experiences.
He narrated how he was the only music composer in the world to compose a song with just three notes.
Advising the young graduates, the music maestro said, “Education is just not about a certificate. What we learn should go down to our mind, heart and soul, and then only we can become a complete human being.”
Talking about his humble background, he said, “I hail from a small village, but dreamt to be a music composer, worked hard and achieved it. My mother would say that even in my sleep, my fingers would move in rhythm, as if I was playing a harmonium and that is what I call a penance to achieve what we dream.”
Every sentence of his was greeted with thundering applause.
About 35 research scholars from different disciplines such as engineering, science, management, pharmacy and architecture were awarded their Ph.Ds, 13 students were given away the gold medals and 50 first rankers from various disciplines and streams were given the merit certificates.
The degrees, medals and certificates were given away by the Chancellor of the University Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor Prof. M.S. Prasada Rao, Registrar Prof. Potharaju and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sivaramakrishna. President of GITAM Dr. M.V.V.S. Murti was present.
In total 2625 students were awarded degrees, and of them 1147 were in absentia.
