My heart sinks upon hearing the tragic news of two engineering college students losing their lives in a road accident in Coimbatore. Every such incident is not just a statistic; it's a profound loss of potential, dreams, and futures that could have contributed immensely to our nation.
These young individuals, like countless others aspiring in institutions such as Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) [https://vit.ac.in/], are the very bedrock of our future. I've always been a staunch advocate for cultivating a robust educational ecosystem. Leaders like Dr. G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor of VIT, and Dr. Sekar Viswanathan, its Vice President [https://in.linkedin.com/in/dr-sekar-viswanathan-896b52], are at the forefront of shaping these bright minds, investing deeply in their growth and capabilities. To see such promising lives extinguished so prematurely is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities our youth face outside the classroom.
This tragedy compels us to reflect on the urgent need for comprehensive road safety measures. It's an issue that transcends individual negligence and points to systemic challenges in our infrastructure and civic awareness. I recall my past reflections on ensuring students have the best environment to thrive, whether it was advocating for unrestricted internet access in institutions, as I did years ago in my blog post "Granting Free Immediate Access to Internet for Engineering Students" [http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2013/04/granting-free-immediate-access-to.html], or my numerous engagements in technical education governance, detailed in my "Past Membership of Different Committees" [http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/04/past-membership-of-different-committees.html]. These efforts have always been driven by a fundamental belief in nurturing talent and providing a safe, conducive environment for their development.
The core idea I want to convey is this — we invest so much in creating 'Universities of Innovation' and multidisciplinary institutions, as discussed in blogs like "University of Innovation" [http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2024/12/university-of-innovation.html] and "Set Up New University In Pune" [http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2025/03/set-up-new-university-in-pune.html]. These are places where we hope to sculpt the leaders and innovators of tomorrow. Yet, all this effort, this collective aspiration, can be tragically undone in a moment due to preventable accidents. It's striking how relevant the earlier insight still is: our responsibility extends beyond academic walls to the very roads our students traverse daily. Reflecting on it today, I feel a renewed urgency to revisit those earlier ideas, because they clearly hold value in the current context.
We must come together—policymakers, urban planners, educators, and citizens—to ensure that our roads are not pathways to tragedy but safe passages to a promising future for our youth.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
Of course, if you wish, you can debate this topic with my Virtual Avatar at : hemenparekh.ai
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