Mangaluru : Nagaland Governor P B Acharya on Monday termed the exercise of demonetisation as an atom bomb hurled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has eradicated black money in no time.

Addressing the gathering of North-eastern students, Acharya, said it started with the opening of Jan Dhan bank accounts with zero balance two years ago. Seven crore people opened the accounts.

Giving a clarion call to the students to take lead in using the benefits by the government, Acharya said that the gardeners at Raj Bhavan in Nagaland, opened bank accounts under Jan Dhan scheme. Now, the next of kin of a gardener who died in the later years, could avail insurance amount of Rs 30,000.

Taking a dig at universities for failing to reap the benefits of research in helping the needy, Acharya said hardly 5% of research papers are applicable to social life.

Acharya asked the students to support the prime minister to make India better. With youth being the majority of its population, the country is poised for a big leap apart from China, he added.

Earlier, carol troupe from Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri, rendered a song for Christmas.

Rajkumar, an alumnus of Alva’s and the student welfare officer, enthralled the gathering by rendering the Kannada song ‘Paramapada’ from the film ‘Parva’, originally sung by singing doyen S P Balasubrahmanyam. Managing trustee of Alva’s Education Foundation Vivek Alva also spoke.

Acharya coined a new word NAMASTE for North-eastern states – N for Nagaland, A for Assam, M for Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram, A for Arunachal pradesh, S for Sikkim, T for Tripura and E for eastern (north-eastern).

Interacting with students from North-eastern states in Dakshina Kannada, organised jointly by Indian National Fellowship Centre (INFC) and North-east People’s Association Mangaluru (NEPAM) at the auditorium of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Law College, Acharya, a native of Udupi, called upon the students to be the ambassadors of ‘NAMASTE’.

Acharya enquired the students about the hospitality practised by locals and wanted them to invite their friends to the North-eastern states that are replete with natural resources.

He also rued that the legacy of British imperialism has stymied the growth of local dialects. While every university in the country boasts of dedicated departments for foreign language studies, it is vice versa in the case of tribals, who have 200 dialects in North-eastern states alone.

Acharya said an egalitarian system can be guaranteed only when there is people are empowered through education, provision of electricity to aid industries and employment.