Udham Singh Nagar

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was awarded Honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) on Thursday by the GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology in Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. 

Governor of Uttarakhand, Lt Gen Gurmeet Singh (Retd) conferred the degree on the NSA at the 34th convocation of the University. Amidst thunderous applause, Vice-Chancellor Manmohan S. Chauhan said that the presence of NSA at the convocation has inspired our students to work harder.

Addressing the convocation, Doval said that after the partition of India, people used to think that India would not be able to feed its people, because the cultivable land had gone to Pakistan. 

He said, “After partition, 22 million hectares of cultivable land went to Pakistan and many thought that India would not be able to feed its 35 crore population. Our population is now 135 crores, food grain production has increased to 315 million tonnes. We not only feed ourselves, but also export food grains.”

 Doval, India's fifth NSA, was instrumental in ensuring the safe return of 46 Indian nurses trapped in a hospital in Iraq in 2014. 

Doval has been widely credited with resolving the Doklam standoff through diplomatic channels and talks with then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Keshav Gokhale.

In October 2018, he was appointed as the chairman of the Strategic Policy Group (SPG), which is the first level of the three-tier structure in the National Security Council and forms the core of its decision-making mechanism. It is being said that Doval also played an important role during the Balakot air strike and the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was in Pakistani custody.