New Delhi : Rishihood – the “social impact” university founded in 2020 in Sonepat, Haryana, inaugurated a cell dedicated to nation building and thought-production through academic research. Established along Swami Vivekananda’s conception of rishittwa or Rishihood, the university strives to restore India’s place in the world as a supreme knowledge-society.
At the inauguration of the Research Cell on 2nd August, 2022, Honourable Vice Chancellor, Shri Shobhit Mathur stressed upon the great responsibility every university is mandated with, that of producing unbiased and unadulterated standpoints on wide ranging issues – from the political and social to the ecological and subjective, and how academicians must work in tandem with industry, civil society, policymakers, and government to produce knowledge for humanistic and spiritual development and benefit.
“As an academic institute, we must work in the spirit of truth-seeking of the highest order and strive to keep our research output free from biases, propaganda, and egoism – this is a moral responsibility that we must carry throughout.”, said Shri Shobhit Mathur, Vice Chancellor, Rishihood University in the inaugural address of the event. He inspired the attending academicians to not just increase the volume of their academic output and publications but also effectively establish channels for making real-world impact through knowledge production.
“Rishihood University Research Cell’s vision is to build a nation where social impact is guided by academic research and vice-versa. It aims to expand the frontiers of knowledge to guide social impact. Creating universities as Centres of Excellence requires promotion of research as the two complement each other. The aim of the Research Cell is this and beyond as we want to weave the research results into the social fabric of the nation, leading to nation building. To achieve this we have planned to adopt a three-pronged strategy in alignment with the Rishihood mission – of building the Vyakti or the People, the Vichar or the Ethical Compass, and Vyavastha or the Systems for sustenance. Such a framework will allow us to graduate talented individuals, thereby substantially welcoming further development of society and the world at large.” said Dr. Kirti Dutta, Founding Dean-Research, Rishihood University.
Prof. Bart F. Norré, Professor – School of Management Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland delivered the keynote address on “Contribution of Methodologies to Achieving Research Excellence Related to Nation Building”. Prof. Norré presented perspectives on how research should be focused towards nation building, design of the research is very decisive as it may give completely diverse results; and that research should be future oriented – addressing the global grand challenges. He introduced response time testing to the participants and explained how Neuroscience and Behavioural Psychology on “knowing” and “doing” works and the ubiquitous gap between the two found in practical fields of work. He insisted that knowledge production through academic research should not be an end in itself, but to find its true utility, must also catalyse positive action.
Rishihood offers extensive higher learning opportunities in the field of Education, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Healthcare & Public Leadership, through fully residential programmes based on the ‘Learning and Living’ model. The university is keen on fostering an approach to learning that has its roots in theoretical aspects while exploring the applicability of what is learnt and industry-experience of the same. The formation of the Research Cell at the university is a step towards imbibing the spirit of creating impact through higher learning, thus “rebuilding Takshashila”.
