(From left) Central University of Bihar registrar M Nehal and vice-chancellor Janak Pandey at the institute’s fourth foundation day in Patna on Saturday. The delegates addressed students and faculty members of the varsity. Noted critic and Hindi litterateur Namvar Singh termed Central University of Bihar as a “virgin soil” where it could be developed as a centre of excellence on the basis of experiments. “The university is like a virgin soil, which can flourish in future because it does not have the pressure of the past. It can be developed as a model,” he said. The university, being run from the Birla Institute of Technology campus, started functioning on this day in 2009. Singh drew a comparison with Jawaharlal Nehru University and said when the premier institute was set up in 1974, it faced similar problems as Central University of Bihar is facing now. “JNU did not have its own building and classes were held from residential and administration buildings provided by the central government,” he said. Singh, who is now a vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya at Wardha, said he was happy that the varsity started its Hindi department. Text by Anand Raj, picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey