Pranab praises JNU, bestows two visitor's award on university

New Delhi

The President's remarked on JNU came as he addressed a gathering of vice-chancellors, professors and students at Rashtrapati Bhawan during 2016 Visitor's Awards presentation ceremony at which Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani also spoke.

While Prof Rakesh Bhatnagar, School of Biotechnology of JNU, was decorated with the Visitor's Award for Innovation 2016 for developing genetically engineered vaccine against anthrax, the Molecular Parasitology Group of the varsity bagged the Visitor's Award for Research for their work in the Molecular Parasitology.

Describing the JNU as a prestigious University, the President said the two awards going into the varsity's basket was an indicator that it was playing a pivotal role in research and innovation.

Tezpur University was also conferred with Visitor's Award Best University, 2016 by him.

Congratulating awardees, Mr Mukherjee said the awards were recognition of their sheer hard work and efforts, which they poured in excelling in their fields.
         
He said he felt sad that in global ranking of top 200 universities, not a single Indian university could find a place but now the efforts had starting bearing fruits as for the first time two Indian universities had come up in top 200 institutions, according to a reputed ranking agency.

Pointing out that IIT Guwahati was also placed at slot 12 in a recent list, the President said this was very inspiring.