Atmanirbhar Bharat 48th Memorial Lecture
Every year on 28th January the college
celebrates the birth anniversary of Shri Lala Lajpatrai Ji. Lala Lajpatrai College celebrates the occasion
by conducting memorial lectures this day. This year due to obvious conditions
the lecture was conducted online on Zoom and live streamed on YouTube with
around more than 1000 hits. The special guest for the memorial lecture this
year was Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He gave a
very insightful lecture on ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT. The Memorial lecture was
held on Thursday, 28th January from 7:00pm onwards with more than
750 registrations. The lecture was a success with team efforts headed by Dr.
Arun Poojari – Vice Principal – Self Financed Courses. The compering of the
online lecture was taken care by Dr. Sangeeta Makkad – Coordinator – BMM
Department. The memorial lecture was attended by our Chairman Dr. Kamalji
Gupta, Trustee – Dr. Sunilji Gupta, Principal of Lala Lajpatrai College of
Commerce & Economics – Dr. Neelam Arora, Vice Principal of aided section
& self-financed courses, teaching staff of aided and unaided section of
college, principals and teachers of
various colleges across Mumbai University and members across India. We received
nearly 750 registrations for the program.
The memorial lecture on ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT began with
National Anthem and welcome address by the Chairman Dr. Kamalji Gupta.
Dr. S. Swamy started the lecture informally talking about
how he admired the college building every time he passed by the area. He then
spoke about India being Atmanirbhar, meaning self-reliant and self-dependent.
In the session, he even spoke about the policies, namely, clear statement of
objectives, clear statement of priorities within the objectives, strategies
used for objectives and resource mobilization for objectives. According to Dr.
Swamy, the growth rate should not be less than 10%. He shared the example of
1636, when King of Kanchipuram sold ice to India for species and other things,
making clear that India was self-reliant back then, but in the recent past
decade the growth rate has not crossed 8%. The incremental capital output ratio
of India is 5%, and main objective is to increase the growth rate. Dr. Subramanian
Swamy threw light on the biggest sector of India, which is Agriculture. He
spoke about Agricultural reforms not being up to the mark and has the potential
to increase the development in the sector. He also showed the presence of tax
policies, criminal directorate and corruption corrodes the system and brings
down the efficiency. Dr. Swamy, made it clear that Agriculture is the key to
secure employment, and India needs innovation. Desalination of the seawater,
60% of World’s thorium deposits, import of crude oil and such other topics were
touched upon by him in the memorial lecture. Towards the end of the session, he
spoke about the law of diminishing to worry of and move curve to curve and how
today, the demand is more than supply in India, which needs to be worked upon
by enhancing the research and development.
The session was very interactive too as there were few
questions asked to Dr. Subramanian
Swamy, one of them were “would Indian brand be able to face the competition
with international brands?” He answered it beautifully saying that Indians have
the ability to compete and innovate but we Indians just need the right
direction and push. One of the other good questions raised in the lecture was “are
entrepreneurial skills needed for India to be self-reliant?” to which Dr. Swamy
added that entrepreneurship is the key, and India needs to teach and motivate
the new generation to take risks as that comes with huge rewards. In the end he
emphasized on having a never give up attitude in life.
The session was ended with a formal vote of thanks given
by Dr. Mohana Bandkar – Convener of the program.