Mukherjee lays foundation stone of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University in Bhopal

President Pranab Mukherjee, who laid the foundation stone of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University here on Thursday, said, Hindi has always played an important role in the national integration and added that it is a symbol of India's social and cultural unity.

Speaking on the occasion, Mukherjee said that language has an important role between the Government and people. Success of social welfare and development programme depends on language.

"Therefore, we should encourage Hindi and other regional languages," he added.

Asserting that education has an important role to play in the development of the society and the nation, Mukherjee said that the recent rise in crimes against women and children is a cause for deep concern.

"It not only calls for effective measures for their safety and security, but also requires us to urgently introspect and find ways to arrest the erosion of values in our society," he added.

He called on universities to take the lead in starting a sustained programme for meeting the contemporary moral challenges and ensuring that our civilizational values of love for motherland; performance of duty; compassion for all; tolerance for pluralism; respect for women and elderly; truth and honesty in life; discipline and self-restraint in conduct, and responsibility in action are inculcated fully in the young minds.

The President further said that decade of 2010-20 has been declared as the decade of innovation. He said that recently, he had opened Innovation Clubs in two Central Universities in Uttar Pradesh and Assam and attended innovation exhibitions organized in these universities. He called upon the University to take the initiative to build a strong innovation culture.

A newsletter 'Atal Samvad' was released on the occasion and its first copy was presented to the President.