Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley are to be honoured by the University of Wolverhampton, one of Britain’s leading universities with strong links to India, for their contribution to public life.
They will be awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters in New Delhi on May 26.
N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , will be awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Social Sciences at a ceremony in Chennai on May 30 in recognition "of his prolific and distinguished journalistic career".
The award to Mr. Mukherjee is in recognition of his "outstanding service to Indian society and contribution to international affairs".
The university described him as "a respected statesman, an intellectual, a parliamentarian and a visionary".
Mr. Jaitley is being recognised for his "contribution to Indian politics and service to the people of India". He was singled out for his "impressive powers as a strategic thinker".
Mr. Ram, the university said in a statement, was "one of India’s most highly regarded journalists who has tirelessly served the Indian media industry since 1966". It referred to the "courage and diligence shown by him and his newspaper in reporting the Bofors case".
Labour peer Swraj Paul, who is Chancellor of Wolverhampton University, and Vice-Chancellor Professor Caroline Gipps will attend both events.
