Bengaluru: His Excellency Ramu Damodaran, Chief, United Nations Academic Impact, New York while addressing the participants of the two-day international conference on “translating sustainable development goals (SDGs) into action: The power of higher education institutions”, organized by Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru spoke about the importance of academic institutions in creating political change and eradicating poverty. “Seek the truth, and the truth will liberate. The purpose of education is scholarship and liberation,” said Ramu Damodaran.
“When we deal with poverty, we need to work to our scholarship, research and imagination. Change means imagination. Our research and our imagination can change the world. If you are going to change one student or one village at a time, your imagination is highly significant. Your calling, your profession and your wisdom command the change and the phase in our chapter is the dignity and the worth of the human person,” added His Excellency.
While concluding the inaugural address, he appreciated Kristu Jayanti College for its community-level and person to person works carried out as part of SDG 1 (No Poverty). “Our aim through this SDGs conference is to bring forth and share the examples of different institutions across the globe and highlight their contributions to different SDG’s at their home country so that such noble initiatives can be contextualized in India,” stated Rev Dr Augustine George, Principal, Kristu Jayanti College in his presidential address.
The two-day virtual conference includes seven technical sessions covering all the four dimensions of sustainable development goals (SGD’s) delivered by subject experts from different continents. The seven sessions would be covered by experts from Canada, Norway, Greece, Argentina, UK, Bangladesh, and Japan. The two-day international conference witnessed the participation of 350 academicians and scholars from across the globe, where around 90 scholars presenting their case studies. Representatives from the 17 SDG hubs of UNAI presented their unique initiatives. Kristu Jayanti College has the unique privilege of being the only institution in the country serving as UNAI SDG Hub
