Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday said he was trying to establish that breathing exercises could treat diseases like cancer and thyroid-related disorders.

"Breathing exercises have the power to cure cancer and thyroid problems and clean up clogged arteries," Ramdev, who has been teaching such exercises to a large number of people in different places and whose claims have triggered controversies, said after receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the KIIT Deemed University in Bhubaneswar.

The saffron-clad bearded guru received the degree from the university's chancellor, Achyut Samanta, wearing a green robe in the presence of 1991 Nobel prize winner in Chemistry Dr Richard R Ernst and secretary in the Union government's Department of Science and Technology, T Ramasami.

Ramdev said he was hopeful of India emerging as a world economic and political power in another 10 to 15 years. "The future belongs to India," he asserted.

He, however, had a dig at the present education system, saying the school education being imparted to children now could not make a person a great man. Pointing out that this was the first doctorate he had received, Ramdev joked, "This varsity has turned a baba into a doctor. Henceforth, call me doctor Ramdev."

Addressing the gathering, Ernst said people from all backgrounds should get equal opportunity in a democracy.

"There should be no advantages by birth as democracy implies equal opportunity for all, for both sexes," the scientist, who won the Nobel for his path-breaking work on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and subsequent contribution to two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, said.

Reflecting on his views on education, Ernst said children did not need any teachers but motivators. Ernst had earlier laid the foundation of the university's school of biotechnology.