Graduands should know their responsibility and step into the world with confidence and faith. As trained graduates, they should value ethics and think through problems critically, said Virander Singh Chauhan, executive chairman of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.
Mr. Chauhan, who delivered the 10th convocation address at Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies (VISTAS) on Monday, said access to higher education brought with it a moral responsibility to improve society.
“Nobody is forced to produce a fraud, plagiarised paper. Education is training the mind to ask questions; a tool to think through problems. Systems can nudge people but not force them to do their job,” he said.
COVID-19 would go away but it was time to be humble and live with nature in harmony. Since the 1960s, the world had been subjected to bouts of epidemics regularly, he said.
The HIV scare shook the world for several decades. “Then you had H1N1, H5N7, SARS1, Ebola, Zika, MERS, all from animal sources jumping to humans. This ties up with environmental degradation, eating of animal space; human greed and accentuation of power,” Mr. Chauhan said.
India was indispensable for vaccine production. The country was involved in every discussion in the world bodies or international funding agencies involving vaccines, he said.
India was the largest producer of vaccines in the world. It was a major supplier to African countries, he pointed out.
Ishari K. Ganesh, Chancellor of VISTAS, presided over the convocation in which nearly 2,800 students were awarded degrees virtually. Senior university officials and former vice- chairman of University Grants Commission H. Devraj participated.
