Staff Reporter CHENNAI

Staff Reporter  CHENNAI

11.12.2021

The Hindu

The traditional systems of medicine practised in India had merit and they need not be dismissed as pseudoscience, Governor R.N. Ravi said here on Friday.

Delivering the convocation address at the 33rd convocation of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER), he said that there was a tendency among a section of doctors and people from other disciplines as well to reject anything that was not scientifically established.

He laid stress on the need to be open minded and acknowledged that there were serious illnesses and problems such as high infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternal mortality rates (MMR) that required the intervention of modern medicine.

The Governor acknowledged the need for validating traditional systems of medicine.

Mr. Ravi pointed out that the National Education Policy (NEP) tried to integrate modern and traditional medicines and added that one should be cognisant of the other and not be dismissive.

Appealing to the graduating doctors to be ethical, he said ethics was an area that did not get adequate attention.

The Governor stressed on the need for doctors to guard against commercialisation. He urged the doctors to listen to the patients more.

Lauding SRIHER for its vision towards 2040, he said that it was in line with the Prime Minister’s long-term vision.

While the Governor awarded the medals to top performers, Chancellor of SRIHER, V.R. Venkatachalam, conferred degrees to the students. Vice-Chancellor P.V. Vijayaraghavan presented the annual report.