Tomorrow’s world will belong to those who can truly connect with others: Bertrand De Hartingh

Hartingh was addressing at the 115th convocation ceremony of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Friday at the main SPPU building auditorium

Across the globe everybody doesn’t know the English language, which allows me to stress upon the importance of going global with the help of languages. Do not fall in to the ‘everybody knows English’ trap. First of all, at your level, everybody does indeed speak English, so you do not make a difference with it anymore. And more importantly, a language is a key to other concepts and ways of thinking which is crucial for any innovation to happen. So do learn Vietnamese, or Spanish, or Russian and of course French. Tomorrow’s world will belong to those who can truly connect with others,” said Dr Bertrand De Hartingh, counsellor for Education, Science and Culture, Embassy of France in India and country director of French Institute in India.

Kuchankar Vasundhara Purushottam (Dept of Technology) receives gold medal from chief guest Bertrand de Hartingh at the 115th convocation ceremony of SPPU on Friday. Also seen is Nitin Karmalkar, SPPU vice-chancellor (second from right); Praful Pawar (right) and Ashok Chavan (extreme left). (Milind Saurkar/HT Photo)

Hartingh was addressing at the 115th convocation ceremony of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Friday at the main SPPU building auditorium.

“Nations might still be the key, knowledge and technology still be the key, if they do work together. Technological progress and social innovation go hand in hand. France and India indeed have an ‘all weather’ partnership since many years. So I appeal to the Indian students to come to France. We need you, your skills, your culture and your thoughts if only for our youth to understand how much India matters. The world will not make it without India,” added Dr Hartingh.

Students celebrate at the 115th convocation ceremony of the Savitribai Phule Pune University on Friday. (Milind Saurkar/HT Photo)

On the occasion SPPU vice-chancellor, Nitin Karmalkar, gave a brief introduction about the University’s journey and latest achievements. According to the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, a total of 6,212 students passing out in the 2017-18 academic year, or earlier, were given degrees.

A total of 127 PhDs, 64 M Phils, 1,995 postgraduate degrees, 29 postgraduate diplomas, 3,965 graduate degrees and 32 diploma certificates will be awarded.

Six students from SPPU’s department of technology got gold medals – Vasundhara Purushottam Kuchankar, Rahul Ramdas Chande, Nilesh Laxman Patil, Rebello Agnetta Lilian, Mohan Ganpat Kashid and Mayurika Chatterjee.