Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is going to be attending the 54th convocation at IIT Kanpur on December 28 has taken to Twitter to ask people for suggestions on his address.
“I look forward to being at @IITKanpur on the 28th of this month to address the convocation ceremony. This is a vibrant institution, which has made pioneering contributions towards science and innovation. I invite everyone to share suggestions,” he posted.
Modi has asked IIT students, alumni and even the general public to share their ideas on his official website - narendramodi.in - and comments would be open till December 27, 2021. Some of these suggestions might actually be incorporated into his speech.
A few of the ideas posted on the website so far include outreach programmes for the IITs, better education for the poor, promoting Indian languages, etc.
The institute has also inaugurated a health centre, which was led by Abhay Karandikar, director of the institute and R.K Dhiman, director of SGPGI, Lucknow.
The institute issued a statement, which stated that the benefit of telemedicine in giving access to healthcare services across geographical barriers or circumstances causing lack of physical contact with care providers has been realised by one and all during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. One such telemedicine platform is a Health ATM or Telemedicine Kiosk which is an integrated Computer, Biomedical diagnostics, Point of Care laboratory tests and videoconferencing system connected to an Internet-based network connecting Telehealth clinics with doctors at a distance.
The School of Telemedicine and Biomedical Informatics at SGPGI, Lucknow has been involved with research and development in the field of telemedicine for over two decades. Many such kinds of portable telemedicine systems were designed and tested in rural areas and the technology is now being commercialised. IIT Kanpur signed a memorandum of understanding with SGPGI in June 2021 for collaboration in the field of Telemedicine as part of its association for the upcoming Center of Excellence (CoE) in Telemedicine & Healthcare Robotics.
This centre is going to be one of the six COEs to be developed along with the School of Medical Science and Research Technology (SMRT) whose foundation stone will be laid down by the PM during the convocation of the institute.