Guv urges youth to take lead in building ‘Viksit Bharat’

Gold medal awardees

• R Varalakshmi received three gold medals for securing the highest OGPA in BSc Honors Horticulture.
• PCCF Gold Medal in BSc Honors Forestry is given to K Ravali
• K Pratyusha received the dean’s gold medal
• SKLTSH Gold medal for scoring the highest OGPA in all departments in MSc Horticulture, scoring the highest OGPA among girl students and for being the topper in vegetable science – M Malavika
• GS Divya receives gold in the fruit science department
• P Vidya Sree got gold in the floriculture and landscaping department
• P Maheshwari received a gold medal in the plantation, spices, medicinal and aromatic crops department

Hyderabad: Governor of Telangana and Jharkhand and chancellor of State universities, CP Radhakrishnan exhorted youth to play a leading role in the Viksit Bharat mission.

The chancellor, while addressing the third convocation of Sri Konda Laxman Telangana Horticultural University (SKLTHU), at Mulugu, Siddipet district on Tuesday, said that India has ample opportunities to grow to a GDP of 30 trillion US dollars by 2047, and this will be possible through Viksit Bharat, in which the youth should play a leading role.

Expressing hope that the importance of horticulture and forestry sectors will increase along with agriculture, he said, “Agriculture is the main source of income for over 70 per cent of the rural population in the country and over 82 per cent are small and marginal farmers.” The Governor called upon the students to move forward with the goal of success, and if they face difficulties, they can take a break but not turn back on their goal.

Dr Geeta Lakshmi, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said that there is a need to focus on technology-based agriculture to achieve sustainable food and nutritional security in the face of diminishing cultivated land, natural resources, crop productivity and climate change, and for India to grow as a super economy. Attending the convocation ceremony as the chief guest, she said,

“Precision farming, big data, artificial intelligence, robots, drones, and remote sensing should be introduced to farmers so that the productivity of the crops will increase.”

SKLTHU vice-chancellor Dr B Neeraja Prabhakar, presenting the progress report of the university, said the Horticultural university will provide the necessary training to the students to develop them as good horticultural human resources and also provide technical advice to the farmers at the field level.

During the convocation, 156 students got a horticulture degree, 50 forest degree, 45 horticulture PG, 30 forest PG, and another six got PhD doctorates.