Visva Bharati to honour Suu Kyi with Desikottama

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the luminaries who will be honoured with the Desikottama - Visva Bharati University's highest honour - Dec 7, a varsity official said Monday.

Others selected for the top award are Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, the former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Bhutan's former king Jigme Singye Wangchuk and Chinese scholar Tang Chung.

Legendary singer Manna Dey will be given the honour posthumously.

The varsity, founded by poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, in the sylvan surroundings of Santiniketan in West Bengal, will confer the awards during its annual convocation Dec 7, Sabuj Kali Sen, the university's media interface committee chairperson, told IANS.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the visitor of the university, will attend the ceremony.

Earlier recipients of the Desikottama include former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, physicist Satyendranath Bose, filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Mother Teresa and Argentinian author and feminist Victoria Ocampo.