US envoy floored by gitam students enthusiasm

Visakhapatnam: United States Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma was highly impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the students of GITAM University at an interactive session here on Friday.

This was the Ambassador’s first ever visit to an Indian University. Instead of conventional address to the students and teachers, Verma encouraged the students to speak more about general topics and the Smart City concept to which the US is contributing substantially.

Sharing his views on importance of education, Verma told the audience about his family and how it went through difficult times and how education had changed the family’s journey to this day.

“Despite all odds, I am standing in front of you as the US Ambassador to India all because of education. Universities play a key role in one’s development and a nation’s progress,” Verma said.

Time crunch and prefixed engagements made the ambassador to take a few questions from the audience. When a student asked what the Smart City meant for business, he said besides the development goal, there were also a lot of works to be done on revenue perspective as lot of investments are pumped into the projects by the private players too.

Appreciating another question by a girl student, who sought to know what role is assigned to women and children in a smart city, he said the role of women was indispensible for the development of any city or anything.

“I cannot forget the ability of my mother and grandmother in helping my family stand in difficult times. Women and children should be looked at corrective perspective. And I think there should be equal pay for equal work irrespective of gender,” the ambassador said.

Verma answered many questions on policy paralysis, transparent governance and consequences of Smart City on the practice of pharmacy and affordability of drugs, other than basic facilities that come along the Smart City tag.