DRDO Chief Vijay Kumar Saraswat Likely to Become New Chancellor of JNU
- The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD Ministry) has named Mr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat as the new Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University of JNU.
- He is a member of NITI Aayog and the chief of DRDO at present.
The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD Ministry) has named Mr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat as the new Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University of JNU. Currently, Mr. Saraswat is the Chief of DRDO. He is also a full-time member of NITI Aayog. The term of existing Chancellor Mr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, Chief of ISRO ended on March 30, 2017. It took around one and a half month to finalise the new Chancellor.
According to sources, the HRD Ministry has finalised the name. However, Mr. Saraswat did not receive any official confirmation so far. The Government of India conferred him a Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 1987 and 2013. Mr. Saraswat also worked as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence.
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Mr. Saraswat was also a project director of Prithivi, and he played a significant role in the production, developing and induction of fist surface-to-surface missile system into the armed forces.
Mr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former Chancellor of JNU, showed his passion towards cultural studies, language and literature. The appointment of Mr. Saraswat as the new Chancellor will give more impetus to the development of scientific research in the varsity.
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However, Chancellor has a little role to play in the regular activities of administration. Most of the responsibilities of the varsity are vested with Vice Chancellor.
In the NIRF Rankings 2017, Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU bagged the second rank due to its exceptional research activities. However, lack of funds to disburse fellowships to the research scholars is one of the main concerns of the varsity.