Prime Minister Modi Addresses 51st Annual Convocation of IIT Delhi
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the fresh IIT graduates to recognize the needs of the country and connect with the changes on the ground. He also asked them to identify with the aspirations of the common people in the context of Atamnirbanar Bharat.
Prime Minister was addressing the 51st Annual Convocation Ceremony of IIT Delhi as chief guest via video conferencing in Delhi today.
Congratulating more than 2000 IITians on their convocation, the Prime Minister said AtmaNirbhar Campaign is a mission that gives opportunities to youth, technocrats and tech-enterprise leaders of the country. He said a favorable environment has been created for implementation of the ideas and innovation of the technocrats freely and to scale them and market them easily. He said that India is committed to provide ‘ease of doing business’ to its youth so that they can bring changes in the life of crores of their countrymen through their innovation.
The Prime Minister said Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines have been simplified and restrictions have been removed recently, which would reduce the Burden of Compliance for BPO Industries. He said BPO Industry has also been exempted from various requirements including bank guarantee. He added that provisions that prevented the Tech Industry from facilities such as Work From Home or Work From Anywhere, have also been removed. This will make the country’s IT sector globally competitive and will give more opportunities to young talent.
The Prime Minister said today India is among the countries where corporate tax is the lowest. More than 50 thousand startups have started in India since the launch of Start-up India campaign. He listed the outcome of the Government’s efforts with respect to promoting startups like the 4-fold increase in the number of patents in the country in the last five years, a 5-fold increase in trademark registrations. He said over 20 Indian unicorns have been established over the years and this number would increase further in the next one or two years.
On the ocassion, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched eVIDYA@IITD (ई-विद्या@IITD)- Enabling Virtual & Interactive-learning for Driving Youth Advancement. Under this initiative, online certificate programmes will be offered by IIT Delhi in different domains of Engineering, Technology, Science, Humanities and Management for the Indian as well as international participants. eVIDYA@IITD will cater to the needs of the Industry, Society and Individual Participants.
The Union Minister of Education said that the online programme eVIDYA@IITD will prove a milestone in many areas like Cyber Physical System, Machine Learning, Consturction Project Management, Electric Vehicle, and Communication Technology. He praised the Institute for developing the diagnostic assay, which has made COVID-19 RT-PCR test cheaper. He said that with the help of the institutions like IIT Delhi the country will not only become a world leader, but the target of becoming a five trillion dollar economy will also be achieved. (eVidya details)
On the occasion Minister of State for Education, Sanjay Dhotre said, “This is an interesting time to be in the field of technology. The new Technologies like Deep learning, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, drones, robotics, block chain technology are opening the new vistas for the youth. The work started by our earlier generations has not yet finished. Few problems of humanity have been solved, but many have remained. Use the technology to resolve these unfinished problems. Use the technology, to make our farmers life happier, our agriculture sustainable. Use the technology to address the issues in the field of education and health. Use the technology to address the problems of water and energy security, to get back cleaner air, water and soil, and to preserve and protect the environment. Go and grab this opportunity. Dream big. Aim high. Follow your heart and never afraid of failure.”
Addressing the 51st Convocation, Dr. R. Chidambaram, Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIT Delhi said, “We have leading research workers in various advanced and diverse research areas ranging from Pure Mathematics, Photonics and Theoretical technologies, taking into account the threat of climate change/global warming; advanced manufacturing; Artificial Intelligence; technologies for MSMEs and for sustainable rural development. In all this, we need to develop self-reliance, with the objective of achieving Atmanirbhar Bharat I am sure IIT Delhi will play a major role in achieving this goal.”
Presenting the Director’s report on this occasion, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao said, “In the last 5 years, IIT Delhi faculty and students have written over 10000 high quality papers, filed over 500 patents, executed roughly 150 industry projects and obtained over Rs 1300 Crores of research funding from competitive grants from all over the world. We have also created 18 new Centers of Excellence with funding from alumni, industries and government agencies in the last 5 years. These numbers are anywhere from 2X to 4X higher compared to any previous 5-year periods since the inception of the institute. Also, our alumni commitments for fund donations to the institute in the last one year exceeded the last 55 year total value of donations received in the institute. We thank all our alumni, industries and other funding agencies for the trust reposed in us.”
The Convocation was conducted in a hybrid mode with a physical in-person ceremony with limited attendance in the Institute’s Dogra Hall, and an online webcast, which reached out to all graduating students, their parents, distinguished alumni, invited guests, and everyone else.
At the 51st Convocation, degrees were conferred on 2019 graduating students.