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January 2012
India asks world to target terror sanctuaries
President Pratibha Patil on
November 29 said challenges
like injustice and
repression could be met
with Nobel Laureate Rabindranath
Tagore’s message of fortitude, openness
of mind and optimism of spirit without
getting entrapped in prejudices.
Addressing students and faculty members
of Visva-Bharati University,
Santiniketan, West Bengal, President
Patil said the greatest service to the
poet’s memory in the 150th year of his
birth would be to live by the ideals he
espoused.
Excerpts from the President’s speech:
“I am very happy to be here at the
Visva-Bharati University, in a year when
we are celebrating the 150th Birth
Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath
Tagore. I begin by paying my highest
homage to one of the noblest sons of
India. He was, undoubtedly, a poet of
excellence and became the first Asian
to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1913. The poignancy of his poetry was
matched by his writings as a novelist,
essayist and as a story teller. In his
works, the depth of human feelings, the
aspirations of a nation, and the oneness
of the human race were all expressed
through a deep understanding of the
wisdom of the past and expectations of
the future. Besides, his multi-faceted
personality saw him in a role as an educator,
and a social reformer, a musician
and a composer, an actor and a painter.
He has left an indelible mark in the
annals of history.
Today, I will be inaugurating an exhibition
of the original paintings of Gurudev
Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan,
which has the biggest treasure of his best
works. It is for the first time, after many
decades, that Visva-Bharati has made it
possible for many to have a glimpse of
these paintings, to see how great a painter
Tagore was, and how he was a harbinger
of an art movement in India.
Gurudev Tagore was a great intellectual
who strongly believed that a human
being must seek truth and must
contribute to human welfare. He
emphasised the importance of building
educational institutions, where high
standards of learning would be maintained.
He believed that education
should aim to make individuals understand
the world in which they live, and
to be conscious of their moral and social
responsibilities. While coining the basic
principle of education, he also remembered
the argument in favour of freedom
— based on the ancient Sanskrit
sayings such as ‘sa vidya ya vimuktaye’,
which means “that is education which
liberates”.
Tagore decided to introduce the
indigenous system of teaching and learning.
He began translating his ideas into
action first by setting up
Brahmavidyalaaya in 1901 and later in
1921 by establishing Visva-Bharati. He
sought to build a space where students
lived close to nature, and studied in an
atmosphere of trust and freedom.
Speaking about Visva-Bharati in New
York in 1930, he said, ‘I established my
institution in a beautiful spot where the
children had the greatest freedom under
the shade of ancient trees... We are building
up our institution upon the ideal of
the spiritual unity of all races.’ In the
150th year of his birth, as we celebrate
the triumph of these innovative ideas,
the greatest service that we can render to
Gurudev’s memory, is to live by the
ideals he espoused.
Gurudev Tagore always kept human
beings at the centre of the universe. It
was his belief that if every person strove
hard to achieve perfection, there would
be great changes in the world. He felt
that disappointments and setbacks in life
were not something that we need to be
worried about, but rather take these as
opportunities for growth, and for breaking
barriers that limit our thinking.
Continued on page 4
Continued on Page 4
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Telecommunications, a success story of India: PM
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
Singh inaugurated the sixth edition
of the India Telecom series,
‘India Telecom 2011’, with the theme
“m-Powering India” on December 7, in
New Delhi. Inaugurating the event, the
Prime Minister said, a strong telecommunications
sector facilitated economic
development and promoted at the same
time social well-being.
Text of the Prime Minister’s speech:
“Let me begin by complimenting the
Department of Telecommunications and
the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for
organising the India Telecom series of
conferences. All the previous India
Telecom events have proved extremely useful and productive, bringing together
stakeholders from all over the world to
share their experiences and deliberate on
issues that are of critical importance to
the healthy growth of the telecom sector
in our country. I am sure that this
conference will be even more productive
than the ones that have preceded it.
useful and productive, bringing together
stakeholders from all over the world to
share their experiences and deliberate on
issues that are of critical importance to
the healthy growth of the telecom sector
in our country. I am sure that this
conference will be even more productive
than the ones that have preceded it.
Continued on Page 2
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