Visakhapatnam: Former Chancellor of GITAM passes away

Visakhapatnam: Former Chancellor of GITAM Koneru Ramakrishna Rao passed away in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. He was 89-year-old.

An internationally renowned psychologist, Ramakrishna Rao served as Chancellor of GITAM for close to a decade and Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University as well.

Also, Prof Rao served as advisor of Higher Education and Chairman of State Council of Higher Education in the erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh and was instrumental in bringing out several curricular reforms. He was Vice-Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Planning Board.

Prof Rao received many honours, including honorary doctoral degrees from Nagarjuna, Kakatiya and Andhra Universities.

A recipient of Padma Shri, he was elected as president of Parapsychological Association, a US-based international society of scientists from Government of India, three times and worked as president of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology.

With over 20 books and 300 research publications to his credit, Prof Rao contributed towards building intellectual and cultural bridges between East and West, helped place the discipline of Indian psychology on the international academic map, carried out scholarly studies of yoga, established the Institute for Yoga and Consciousness at Andhra University three decades ago.

Recognising his potential, former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao invited Prof Rao to contribute to India, the combined Andhra Pradesh in particular, when the latter was a scholar abroad.

Prof Rao's recent work 'Psychology in the Indian Tradition' co-authored by Anand Paranjpe, is widely acclaimed as an outstanding contribution to psychology and human science.

After authoring 'Bhagavad Gita: A Treatise on Psychological and Spiritual Counselling', his last book was an autobiography 'Child of Destiny'.

Academicians, professors and the staff of Andhra University and GITAM expressed condolences over the demise of Prof Rao.