Overview
- President Droupadi Murmu spoke at Rani Durgavati University’s 36th convocation on Sunday, June 21, and urged universities to teach Indian culture and tradition alongside contemporary skills and knowledge.
- She told graduates to use their education for nation-building and to help bring tribal and underprivileged communities into the mainstream by integrating tribal skills, traditional knowledge and crafts with modern research.
- Murmu said higher-education institutions should stop being only degree-awarding centres and instead become hubs of creative thinking, scientific temper, entrepreneurship and targeted research on environment and social development.
- At the ceremony the President awarded 240 gold medals to 141 students, noted that most medal winners were women, and paid tribute to Rani Durgavati as a symbol of courage and women’s empowerment.
- State leaders including Governor Mangubhai Patel and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav attended and made practical proposals such as university engagement with backward villages, a move that could push campuses to expand outreach, new curricula and local development projects.