THE Singapore Indian Association yesterday commended former NTUC FairPrice chairman S. Chandra Das on his appointment as pro-chancellor of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

In a ceremony held at the RELC International Hotel, Mr Das was presented and draped with an orange shawl as a tribute to him by Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi, the guest of honour at the event.

Mr Das was appointed NTU's pro-chancellor last month. A pro-chancellor stands in for the chancellor, President S R Nathan, at the university's official functions - mainly its annual graduation ceremonies.

NTU has three other pro-chancellors - banker Wee Cho Yaw, retired civil servant Herman R. Hochstadt and former Housing Board chairman Hsuan Owyang.

The ceremony was followed by a talk on Bridging The Gulf That Never Was: Rediscovery Of Singapore And India by Mr Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 23, 2008