Chandigarh: The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, recently celebrated its 30th convocation ceremony with Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh as its chief guest.

In his speech, he addressed the students to live up to the motto of this institute "Aart Seva Sarva Bhadr a Shodhashch" which means "service to the poorest and research for the good of all".

The institute owes its origin to the vision and zeal of two great leaders, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Partap Singh Kairon.

The institute in its early years, was steered by three best minds in the fields of medicine and surgery - Dr. Tulsi Das, Dr. Santokh Singh Anand and Dr. P.N. Chutani.

Emulating various developments that took place in the institute, he expressed his satisfaction with the scheme of things.

There is now an Eye Centre and an Advanced Cardiac Centre, which provide quality care to the poor. The PET Scan Centre and the Gamma Knife Centre make available innovative technology to the patients. A Bone Marrow Transplant Centre along with a chemotherapy ward has also been established at the institute.

The institute is soon planning to provide technology enabled education to medical schools throughout India.

The PM urged them to be the frontiers of higher education specifically in the field of medical science.

Stressing on the need to pay attention to the health sector of the country, he emphasized upon the functioning of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which seeks to strengthen and improve the public health system in the rural areas of our country. The Mission highlights the decentralized planning and implementation accompanied by community based monitoring.

Further, addressing the institute's mission he said, "It will remain incomplete unless the interest of the common man is addressed effectively and purposefully... Through your research, you must attempt to discover the most cost effective strategies of prevention and treatment of diseases. Only when the lives of the common people, be they in Tripura or the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, are touched by your research and the most under privileged child in your ward goes back home satisfied with your care, will your mission be truly accomplished."