Vice President's Secretariat
Philanthropic endeavour should not be driven by philosophy of commodification and commercialisation, emphasises the Vice-President
Education is the concurrent responsibility of the government and the private sector-VP
Destruction of Nalanda by Khilji wasn't merely architectural, but represented the systemic erasure of centuries of knowledge-VP
VP addresses 75th Anniversary Celebration of KPB Hinduja College in Mumbai
Posted On:
01 MAR 2025 8:02PM by PIB Delhi
The Vice-President, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar today stated that, “ Philanthropic endeavour should not be driven by philosophy of commodification and commercialisation. Our health and education sectors are being plagued by these……..Corporate leaders should view investment in education beyond philanthropy. It is investment in our present, investment in our future and to put it straightway, it is investment for development of industry, business and trade”.
Delivering his address as Chief guest at the ceremony marking 75 years of K.P.B Hinduja College of Commerce in Mumbai, Maharashtra today , Shri Dhankhar stated, “ Education is the most impactful, transformative mechanism because it brings about equality. It cuts into inequities, it affords level playing field. It creates genius by discovering the genius through the path of education. Our framers of the Constitution were very wise men. They put education in the concurrent list. Those of you who are not lawyers, by concurrent list means it is a joint concern of the state and the union”.
Urging the industry and corporate leaders to contribute to education, Shri Dhankhar stated, “ I would appeal from this platform, a platform where I have witnessed that by way of philanthropy, it is giving back to the society. It is concurrent responsibility of the government and the private sector. Those in industry, trade, business and commerce must come forward and take initiative. I appeal the country's private sector to rise to this occasion and accord the highest priority to education”.
“Many in the audience will bear me out that endowments of some of the universities in the US are in billions of dollars. What is there in this country that we do not have this culture? In the West, anyone walking out of an institute stands committed to make some fiscal contribution. Quantum is never important”, he added.
Reflecting on the legacy of institutions like Nalanda, Shri Dhankhar underlined, “We had glorified institutions, Odantapuri, Takshila, Vikramshila, Somapura, Nalanda, Vallabhi…..scholars came from every nook and corner of the globe to get knowledge, give knowledge and share knowledge. Thirst of knowledge was satisfied. But then what happened about twelve hundred years ago! Nalanda, ancient India's intellectual jewel. It housed ten thousand students and two thousand teachers, nine-storey building and what happened, 1193? Bakhtiyar Khilji, reckless destroyer of our culture, our academic institution, the premises were set to fire. For months, fire consumed vast libraries, turning hundreds and thousands of irreplaceable manuscripts on mathematics, medicine, and philosophy to ash. This vandalized devastation wasn't merely architectural, but represented the systemic erasure of centuries of knowledge”.
Dr. Sudesh Dhankhar, spouse of the Vice-President, Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan, Governor of Maharashtra, Shri Ashok P. Hinduja, Chairman of Hinduja Group and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
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JK/RC/SM
(Release ID: 2107404)
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