The Prime Minister underlined that there is an increasing need for interdisciplinary studies and for unified knowledge and Philosophy can play a pivotal role in ensuring this outcome. He said, “As the mother of all sciences, philosophy is necessarily inter-disciplinary. Therefore, it should be pursued not merely as a separate discipline, like economics or political science, but as a trans-disciplinary subject taught along with other subjects. Ethics should be an important element in the curriculum of professional schools. Again philosophies of law, education, history, politics, and science need to be studied for consummate and all-round preparation of our students enrolled in those respective fields.”

In his address, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal said that the government is moving towards compatibility between equivalent fellowships awarded by the ICPR and by the UGC. He said, “Young brilliant students opt for more lucrative professional streams leading to societal distortion reflected in our societal values. I believe the time is ripe to bring about a balance between the professional and applied disciplines on the one hand and basic ones on the other, that is between the ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ disciplines. This hiatus between professional and liberal programmes is evident even in the amount of fellowships that are accorded to ICPR fellows, which is far lower than UGC fellowships. Sir, as a first step we are making the two compatible.”

Complimenting Professors Chattopadhyaya and Balasubramanian, he said that ICPR has been fortunate in having these two at its helm, as they have set an impeccable commitment to excellence and original thought. He said, “I salute the two architects of the ICPR and their successors for their contribution to nation building. “