Udupi: State, a model in professional education

Bantakal (Udupi District) Jan 23: Home Minister V.S. Acharya has said that Karnataka is a model for the entire country in providing professional education. He was speaking at the foundation-laying ceremony of the Sri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management here on Friday.

Dr. Acharya said that there was not a single engineering college in the State prior to 1940. Even Sir M. Visvesvaraya had to go to Pune in Maharashtra to pursue engineering. But now there were 161 engineering colleges in the State. Civil engineering was the mother of all engineering courses. The country was on a fast expansion mode and a lot of infrastructure, including buildings and roads were being constructed. This required good civil engineers.

But after Vivesvaraya, the State had not produced an engineer of that calibre. It was necessary to appoint good teachers in engineering colleges, Dr. Acharya said.

Visvesha Tirtha Swamiji of Pejawar Math, who laid the foundation stone, said that Sode Vadiraj Math was the first among the Ashta Maths of Udupi to start schools. Now the math had become the first among the Ashta Maths to start an engineering college, he said.

Hindu/ Pic: Janardan Kodavoor