Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, the man behind India’s first supercomputer, the Param series, is to be the new Chancellor of Nalanda University. He will replace George Yeo, former Foreign Minister of Singapore, who quit after the Board of the University was reconstituted, saying he had not been consulted before it took place.
Speaking to The Hindu , Dr. Bhatkar confirmed that he had received an email from the Ministry of External Affairs, the nodal ministry for the university.
Dr. Bhatkar said his main vision for his new appointment would be “to bring forward the universalisation of the mind, that universities are for.”
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“Nalanda was the centre of knowledge in ancient India and we need to revive that,” he added.
Dr. Bhatkar studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University. He was the driving force behind the the Indian supercomputer, the Param series, and made it available to the Garuda grid on the National Knowledge Network.He received the Padma Bhushan in 2015 in the field of science and technology.