October 30th is the birthday of Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar. His life journey, from being the son of a farming family in a rural area to becoming the Vice-Chancellor of a university, is astounding. On the occasion of his birthday, we are publishing this article highlighting the work of the Vice-Chancellor.
Dr. Manohar Chaskar assumed the reins of the Vice-Chancellorship of Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded, Maharashtra, India, on February 19, 2024, the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, as the university was celebrating the completion of three decades since its establishment. Under the leadership of Dr. Chaskar, the university has made its journey so far more dignified, dynamic, and glorious within this short span of a year and a half.
Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University is an institution linked to the identity of Marathwada and the memories of the Hyderabad Liberation Struggle. Swami Ramanand Teerth was a leader of the freedom movement, a social reformer, and also an educationist. Preserving the legacy of Swamiji’s ideology, Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar has, over the past year and a half, made the university more student-centric and more conducive to learning and research.
Dr. Manohar Chaskar was born on October 30, 1966, in the land sanctified by the footsteps of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Mahalunge Padwal in Ambegaon taluka District Pune is his native village. He grew up with a rich family heritage of agriculture and listening to tales of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Hutatma Babu Genu since childhood. His parents instilled in him the values of hard work and labor from a very young age. This fostered in Manohar Chaskar a respect for labor, perseverance in studies, a readiness for relentless hard work, a research-oriented attitude, a critical perspective, action-orientedness, curiosity, and the ability to make decisions with foresight.
After completing his college education, he began his career as a lecturer at a college under the Pune Jilha Shikhan Mandal. In a short time, he made his mark in the field of education and research. He received the Young Scientist Fellowship from the Government of Japan and conducted post-doctoral research for two years at Nagoya University in Japan.
At a very young age in 2004, Dr. Chaskar became the Principal of Annasaheb Waghere College in Otur. Through his work, he transformed the face of the college. While working at Ramkrishna More College in Akurdi, he secured an ‘A+’ grade from NAAC for the college. Later, he got the opportunity to work as the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. Dr. Manohar Chaskar turned this opportunity into gold. He worked tirelessly day and night to enhance the prestige of Pune University. As Dean, he took steps regarding technology-based strategies and the implementation of quality education, leaving an indelible mark with his work. He held the Dean’s position for nearly five years, from 2019 to 2024, and accelerated science-related research at Savitribai Phule Pune University.
In February 2024, Dr. Manohar Chaskar was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded India. With twenty years of experience as a Principal, five years of experience as a Dean, and experience working on various educational and research committees of the Maharashtra Government, Dr. Chaskar took revolutionary and fundamental decisions in a short time, and their impact has started to become visible in SRTMU from this academic year. Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University is making its mark more prominent in various fields at the state, national, and international levels.
The university has taken a giant leap on all fronts: teaching-learning, research, evaluation, and extension services. The university campus is bustling with students. The number of student admissions across various academic faculties on the main campus has increased. The sub-centers have also transformed their appearance. As student-centric activities are continuously held on the campus, many degree students from affiliated colleges across four districts are visiting the main campus on the occasion of various competitions.
In line with the National Education Policy, courses that provide scope for student skills, are industry-centric, and employment-oriented, conceived by Dr. Manohar Chaskar, have been started on the campus. Due to partnership and collaboration agreements with various national and international educational and research institutions, SRTMU has been directly connected with various institutions across the country and the world. Consequently, Nanded is emerging as an important center on the educational map of the country.
Dr. Manohar Chaskar’s efforts to build a bridge between industry and education are significant. Due to the job fair organized by the university, over 5000 students received employment in various sectors in the past year. The established dialogue and meetings with entrepreneurs have helped in creating skill-based courses. New courses required by the industrial sector and marketing have been created. Care is taken while designing these courses to ensure that not a single student passing out from the university remains unemployed.
The UDRF Software, PM Usha Dashboard, UIMS Portal, and the university’s updated website have helped make the university’s educational quality available worldwide at the click of a button. Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University is the first university to develop the PM Usha Dashboard. In this context, the Nanded university has become a guide for other universities in the state.
In the research field, the university has organized various workshops, seminars, and symposiums. Furthermore, the number of university professors included among the world’s top 2% of researchers has increased. Prestigious fellowships from India and abroad are being announced for research students. The number of entries in the ‘Avishkar’ Research Festival, which is important for fostering a research attitude among students, increased significantly this academic year. Where only four or five entries used to go from the university campus for the festival, this year 185 entries were received. This was possible because Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar maintained planned communication with students throughout the year and encouraged them. For the first time in the thirty-year history of the university, the university campus team won the overall trophy by bagging 23 prizes at the Gyanateerth Youth Festival. This change occurred because the Vice-Chancellor consciously paid attention to the arts along with science. In the sports arena too, many athletes from the university have achieved victory at the international level in various sports.
Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar has paid personal attention to increasing student enrollment, improving actual classroom attendance, and ensuring students receive all physical facilities. For the convenience of students commuting from the city to the university, the university recently purchased two buses, which will solve the transportation issues. Separate hostels for students are being constructed on the campus. Long-stalled, incomplete constructions are nearing completion. New arrangements are being made for the safety of students. This will certainly ensure that the university remains at the forefront in the field of quality in the future.
In the near future, the university will face the NAAC assessment. The rising graph of Dr. Manohar Chaskar’s strong academic leadership and work will undoubtedly be visible then. There is no doubt that the university will receive an ‘A+’ grade. And the entire credit for this will have to be given to the foresight and leadership of Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar. October 30th is the birthday of Vice-Chancellor Dr. Manohar Chaskar. Heartiest birthday wishes to Sir.
(An Article Written by Prof Dr Prithviraj Taur, a well known poet and translator from INDIA)
