Ex-PM Manmohan Singh to deliver lecture at PU

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh will deliver the first Prof SB Rangnekar Memorial Lecture on April 11 at Panjab University (PU) here.

Dr Singh is not only a former student but a former faculty member of the PU. He holds the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair in the university. But despite accepting it for over one-and-half-year, he is yet to deliver any lecture on the campus. On April 11, he would return for a lecture after 52 years.

Prof SB Rangnekar was a renowned economist and head of the Economics Department at the PU. He had taught Dr Singh too. Hence, the PU approached him for the lecture to which he agreed.

After the Partition of the country, the teaching of economics in this university was centered at Government College, Hoshiarpur. Professor Rangnekar had joined in 1951. The location of the department was shifted to the Chandigarh campus in 1958 where Prof Rangnekar also joined.

Earlier, the PU approached Dr Singh for the Dr Ajit Singh Memorial Lecture but he was reluctant.

Dr Ajit Singh had held Dr Manmohan Singh Chair at the PU in the past. His wife had donated 5,000 UK pounds as endowment for the lecture.

“The topic of Dr Singh’s lecture is yet to be decided. We are yet to be intimated about his office,” said Prof Upinder Sawhney, chairperson of the Economics Department.

Dr Singh did his BA in 1952 from Hindu College, Amritsar, under the PU and MA in 1954 from Panjab University College in Hoshiarpur.

He joined the PU in 1957 as a senior lecturer. He became a reader in 1959 and professor in 1963 and left the PU in 1966 when he joined the UN.

When he was offered the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair at the PU, he sought advice from the parliamentary panel on whether it would be an office of profit. After clearance from the panel, he had accepted the offer of the Chair.