Isro chief designate urges students to adopt value, intellectual education

Students should cultivate the habit of not only studying hard to score more marks, but also should focus on overall personality development, ISRO Chairman designate V Narayanan said here on Sunday.

Narayanan, who is currently the Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, was here to offer prayers at a temple in his hometown. He extended his gratitude to his well-wishers and relatives who had been greeting him on his appointment as the Secretary, Department of Space by the Centre last week.

"Students should first learn how to study. At a young age, a student may hail from different kinds of backgrounds. They may study whatever they want. But what is important is how they study their subjects. At the time of learning, they should also focus on overall personality development," he told reporters.

Elaborating, he said, students should adopt two education systems - 'value based' and 'intellectual based'.

"Intellectual-based education is what they study in school and getting marks and all. But, value-based education is a study on how to serve this society and how to help others. Both these two education (value based and intellectual based education) should be followed together (by a student). This is my view," he said.

Narayanan recalled that though he hailed from a humble background, his parents provided him the opportunity to study whatever he aspired to become and they extended all their support to him. "After my marriage, I got immense support from my family and kids. They have been making huge sacrifices and adjusting to me based on my work at the office," he said and extended his gratitude to them on the occasion.

On working at ISRO, he said the space agency was led by ace scientists like Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, the first satellite director UR Rao and other eminent scientists like Kasturi Rangan, Madhavan Nair, K Radha Krishnan and the current Chairman S Somanath.

"I must thank God and the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) for selecting me to lead this great organisation," he said.

Narayanan said his colleagues always work with an attitude to ensure that they work for the welfare of the country and its people. "We all consider that the organisation (ISRO) and country are above individuals. Everyone here is working very hard," he remarked.

The rocket scientist referred to PM's Narendra Modi's vision of 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047. "The PM's vision has been to transform the country into a developed nation by 2047," Narayanan said, and appealed to students to study hard and work for the development of the country and its people.

Narayanan was recently appointed as the Secretary, Department of Space, succeeding Somanath, whose tenure is expected to end by January 13. He also holds the charge of chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation.