Speech at the Bengal Club, Calcutta
Bengal Club, Calcutta, India
20.00, Thursday, 29 November 2012
Honorary Consul of Ireland in Calcutta, Mr M.K. Jalan; Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University, Professor Malabika Sarkar; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
It’s great to be here on my first visit to India as Provost, and my first ever visit to Calcutta. I thank Mr Jalan for hosting us in this famous club this evening.
I am delighted to see so many school principals here and other academics that we are engaging with all over Calcutta. I also have the pleasure of recognizing the presence of our own Dr Siddartha Sen, Emeritus Professor in Mathematics who has kept alive the connections between Trinity and Calcutta over so many years.
Earlier today Trinity signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Presidency University, and announced the funding of scholarships to the amount of 250 thousand euro by Keventer group for postgraduate study by Presidency University students at Trinity College Dublin. We thank Mr Jalan for his generosity in funding these scholarships; they are a tangible manifestation of the developing ties between our two universities.
These scholarships are the culmination of a series of events, signings and relationship developments over the past week between Trinity College Dublin and our partners in India.
Beginning in Bangalore, one event was the signing of an agreement with the Karnataka State Government to carry out a feasibility study about opening a Science Gallery in the city. Another was the launch of the Biocon scholarships for postgraduate study in genetics.
In Delhi, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lady Sri Ram College.
In Mumbai, we further developed our relationship with the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), and with St Xavier’s College of the University of Mumbai.
But most exciting of all has been to launch the new relationship between Trinity College Dublin and Presidency University here in Calcutta. Of course the connections between Trinity College Dublin and Calcutta go back a long way. As you know, in earlier times, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Trinity College Dublin educated the majority of those who came to work in the Indian Civil Service. Among these were two Trinity men who later became famous for their scholarly work in India: George Grierson for his linguistic survey and Thomas Oldham for his geological survey. Their busts are currently displayed in the Asiatic Society here in Calcutta and I hope to see them before I leave tomorrow. Links are about a commitment and a desire to learn from each other, and I am very pleased that the deep and historic ties between us are now being enlivened again. Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Vice-President for Global Relations, and her global relations team have brought great energy to this task for which they are to be congratulated.
I conclude by expressing again our appreciation to our host Mr Jalan, and thanking you all for coming here this evening.
* * *