A two-day National conference on “India and International Security, Peace and Media”, organised by Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in association with Indian Council of World Affairs, advocated the need for consistent efforts to make the world peaceful and sustainable.
“We need to strive for a better world”, said the speakers at the conference co-organised by the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences, and Manipal Institute of Communication, MAHE on December 11 and 12 at Manipal, to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the founder of Manipal, Dr. T.M.A. Pai.
Presiding over the inauguration, MAHE Vice-Chancellor Lt. Gen. M.D. Venkatesh envisioned a new world order based on peace, equity, and sustainability. There is a need for many reforms in the existing UN system to achieve a better world.
“Dr. T.M.A. Pai was a Gandhian. Kasturba Medical College carries his legacy being named after Gandhi’s wife. The three departments of MAHE – Geopolitics, Gandhian Centre, and MIC – are putting forward the agenda of peaceful world order with responsible media,” he lauded.
National Security Advisory Board chairman P.S. Raghavan, in his keynote address at the inauguration, stressed the need for keeping national interest at the Centre in International Relations. M.D. Nalapat, UNESCO Peace Chair, advocated the need for the world order based on the Gandhian world-view. At the valedictory, NatStrat convener Pankaj Saran felt that Indian foreign policy needs to be based on hard-headed realism.
Scholars - ICWA representative Stuti Banerjee, B.P. Sanjay, Rajaram Tolpadi, Seshadri Chari, Prabha Rao, Ajey Lele, Raghotham, Stanly Johny, K.P. Vijayalakshmi, Varadesh Hiregange, Padma Rani, Gurbaz Aktas, P. Ravindranathan, Shreeraj Gudi, Vignesh Ram, Dhanasree Jayaram, Sankalp Gurjar, and Amrita Jash, presented papers and participated in the conference. MAHE Pro-Vice-Chancellor Madhu Veeraghavan and Registrar Giridhar Kini also spoke.
