Media Release
Mangaluru, Mar 29: The 34th Annual Convocation of Mangalore University will be held on March 30 at 10 am in the Mangala Auditorium at Mangalore University campus.
V K Saraswat, member, NITI Aayog, government of India and former director general of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) will deliver the convocation address. Minister for higher education, government of Karnataka and pro-chancellor of the University T B Jayachandra will confer the degrees to all the candidates.
During this convocation Mangalore University will be conferring Honoris Causa to three eminent personalities, namely Dr S L Bhyrappa, Dr C N Manjunath and A J Shetty.
A J Shetty, Dr M L Bhyrappa, Dr C Manjunath
A J Shetty, chairman, AJ Group of Institutions and President, Laxmi Memorial Education Trust, Mangaluru is a well-known entrepreneur who has established small scale industries to manufacture automobile spare parts, cashew products to cater to the local needs. These industries have helped in creating jobs to large number of poor and needy persons of this area. Under the education trust, A J Shetty is running many institutions especially in the field of medical sciences and allied fields. The hospitals established by him are providing medical treatment and medicines freely to large number of poor patients every day. He has taken a lead in providing free health care services to the rural population in the neighbourhood. He is managing a few charitable organizations like orphanages and old age homes. A J Shetty is also responsible for establishing cancer centre that treats about 100 patients per day at affordable cost. He is also promoting the local cultural heritage by encouraging Yakshagana as president of Dakshina Kannada Yakshagana Association.
A J Shetty, is a recipient of many awards including the National Corporate Excellence Award, New Delhi.
Dr S L Bhyrappa is a renowned novelist in Kannada having written more than 25 novels which have been translated to several languages such as English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Telugu, Bengali and Tamil. Some of his novels have the unique distinction of seeing as high as 48 reprints within a short span of time after publication. A few of his novels are also adopted for film making. Another distinctive feature of Dr Bhyrappa is undertaking a thorough research of the topic before writing a novel. His adventurous experiences through Artic and Antarctic expeditions have been used in bringing out a recent novel projecting scientific fantacies.
Dr Bhyarappa has been decorated with a large number of awards and recognitions from several Universities as well as the Padmashri by the President of India. He is one of the eight National Professor in the country appointed by the government of India.
Dr C N Manjunath, director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research at Bengaluru is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who has developed the institute into one of the largest heart care destinations in the world. He has expanded this heart care services to remote areas of Karnataka. Dr Manjunath, has the distinction of training American, British, Chinese and French Cardiologists on balloon valvuloplasties at his Institute.
Dr Manjunath has been instrumental in mobilizing an amount of Rs 25 crores from charitable and philanthropic organizations to establish a Poor Patients Corpus Fund. He is also instrumental in conducting about 1000 open heart surgeries for needy patients with the support of charitable and philanthropic organizations.
In recognition of the outstanding medical/public services, Dr Manjunath has been conferred with a large number of awards including Padmashree by the President of India. He is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology. Recently Dr Manjunath has received the prestigious Millenium Plaque of Honour by the Prime Minister of India.