Over 590 medical students, including 554 graduands were presented degrees and medals at the annual convocation of Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth.
Mathuram Santosham, professor, Department of International Health and Paediatrics, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, U.S. and senior advisor International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC), who was the chief guest, presented 49 medals of academic excellence including Sri Managovinda Parija endowment medal (overall MBBS), Dr. Surendiran Adithan endowment (IInd year MBBS), Dr. Vany Adithan endowment medal for excellence in MD Radiodiagnosis, Dr. Carounanidy endowment medal for excellence in MD general medicine and prof. Mohan Kameswaran endowment medal for excellence in MS Otorhinolaryngology.
The founder Chancellor of SBV, M.K. Rajagopalan, conferred degrees on 554 graduands, drawn from the faculties of medicine, dentistry, nursing and allied health sciences from the constituent colleges, Mahatma Gandhi medical college & research institute, Shri Sathya Sai medical college & research institute, Indira Gandhi institute of dental sciences, Kasturba Gandhi nursing college and faculty of allied health sciences, including eight doctoral scholars. The SBV vice-chancellor, Subhash Chandra Parija, presented a comprehensive annual report, which touched upon various facets of health science education at SBV.
Pledge administered
The dean of faculty, N Ananthakrishnan, administered the pledge to the graduates while the Registrar A.R. Srinivasan proposed the vote of thanks.
The trustees Gowri Rajagopalan and Prashanth Rajagopalan, director of MGM Health Care, Chennai, luminaries including S.R. Rao from department of biotechnology, Government of India, Krishna Seshadri, consultant endocrinologist, and Vijayachari Paluru, director, Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), Port Blair, participated.