It is important for the student community to have a sense of liberalism of respect and tolerance for other opinions and beliefs in a world that is becoming more challenging, uncertain and grim, said former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

“True liberalism is not to shout others down but to listen to them and understand their perspective. If you are still convinced that you are right, try and persuade them through argument,” Rajan said. 

He made a surprise appearance at Krea University’s convocation 2022 held here on Saturday. The convocation covered the MBA batches of 2020, 2021 and 2022, PhD 2022 and the first batch of UG 2022. 

‘No space for hatred’

Addressing the graduating students, Rajan said, “In a world, where the space for discussion and debate is shrinking, I hope you will work on expanding the space again. I encourage you all to treat one another with decency and love rather than with abuse and hatred.” He is a member of executive committee and governing council of Krea University.

Rajan, who is now a professor of Finance at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said although people approach him for career advice, he strongly believes that it is the students who must decide a career path that suits them rather than following someone else’s advice. However, he added that if he were to be pushed for one, his career advice to students would be to know yourself, challenge yourself and take others with you. 

Delivering the chief guest address, Noushad Forbes, Co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, said the students are graduating at an unprecedented time prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Europe and potential global recession.

The former CII President urged students to take the leadership mantle in making India the greatest economy in the world. “In the last 30 years, India has been one of the world’s top 10 best performing economies. Our collective task should be to ensure that we will be among the world’s top 10 best performing economies in the next 30 years also,”  Forbes said. 

Comparison with China

Forbes said in 1980, both China and India roughly had the same wealth but today China is five-times richer than India as the latter grew at 5-6 per cent a year while China grew at 9 per cent a year in these forty years. “We have to grow 9 per cent each year and if we do that, we will be as rich as China is today in 20 years time,” he added. 

However, Forbes noted that unlike in China, India has diversity of opinion that makes Indian industrialists resilient, entrepreneurial and independent. 

He also said the tourism and hospitality sector is one of the biggest employers, which has been hammered by the pandemic. He urged the graduates to seek a career in the industry, which has a huge untapped opportunity. “China’s growth has been driven by the manufacturing sector. If China’s economy is five times that of India, its manufacturing sector is eight times and investment in R&D is 25 times that of ours,”  Forbes said, adding, “We have a lot to do here and our biggest opportunity lies in the abundance of our engineering and management talent availability.”

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