Amrita has A Major role to
play in transforming our society
President of India launches
Amrita ISRO satellite network of village resource
centers
6 July 2005, Ettimadai, Coimbatore.
In a packed colourful function attended by over 4000
people plus hundreds of people at 9 centers, the President
of India, His Excellency, Bharat Ratna, Dr. APJ Abdul
Kalam launched the Amrita ISRO (Indian Space Research
Organization) joint initiative in 'Village Resource
Centers' on 6 July, 2005 at the Ettimadai campus of
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Governor of Tamil Nadu,
Shri Surjit Singh Barnala, Tamil Nadu Education Minister,
Shri Shanmugham, Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of
ISRO, Brahmachari Abhayamrita Chaitanya, Chief Operating
Officer of AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Dr. P. Venkat
Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita University were also
present on the dais. More than 25 CEOs and senior executives
from leading IT and Financial Services Companies also
attended the launch.
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"Science needs direction from spirituality.
While we accomplish immense growth in computer
education and Internet experimentation, we should
not forget the truth that that it is spirituality
that teaches us how to use knowledge with discrimination",
said Amma. |
In his speech for students, Dr. Kalam said, "Amrita
University has a major role to play in transforming
our society into a knowledge society through it’s unique
value-added education system". He also added that he
was happy that the Amrita ISRO VRC's had a mission
of taking space technology and knowledge products from
the University directly for communities at the grass
root level like fisheries and agriculture. He also
emphasized on the need to establish Village Panchayat
Knowledge Centers to empower villagers. He also
asked the students to repeat with him, learning gives
creativity & creativity leads to thinking, thinking
provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great.
Earlier, Vice Chancellor Dr. P. Venkat Rangan welcomed
the gathering. Shri Barnala released the brochure of
the new venture. Dr. Madhavan Nair gave a brief overview
on the latest initiatives of ISRO. He also commended
the support provided by Amrita in implanting tele-medicine
and tele-education services across India. Incidentally,
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences hosts one of
the largest tele-medicine networks in India connecting
to over 36 remote rural hospitals as far flung as
Leh-Ladakh. In two years it has already done over 800
tele consultations and 250 CME programmes seminars
and conferences including a heart surgery and kidney
conference.
Tele-education partners, Balu Doraiasamy, (Hewlett
Packard), N. Lakshmi Narayanan (Cognizant), Sudev Muthyah
(Microsoft) and Ranajoy Punja (CISCO) announced their
support and participation in this Amrita ISRO rural
development project. Likewise Tele-Medicine project
partners Krishna Dhawan (Oracle) and Ketan Sampath
(Intel); Tele-agriculture partner, Tele-fisheries partner
Harishankar (IL & FS)
announced their intent to participate. Shri K.
Dinesh, Co-founder and Director –Infosys and MD of
Ashraya Hasta announced support for the Disaster Management
service of the VRC. 10 Amrita VRCs spread across 2
states were live and their interactions created quite
a flutter. The Tele-education demo by Kozhikode Amrita
Vidyalayam principal, Shobha Gopala Krishnan was superb.
—tulasi
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