Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K.P. Anbalagan on Tuesday said that the letter of commitment from the State government on the Institute of Eminence status for Anna University will be provided only after assurance from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) that the existing reservation policy in the State can continue.
In a brief interaction with the media after the 40th convocation of the university here, the Minister said the State would have no hesitation in issuing the letter of commitment the moment MHRD provided confirmation on the reservation policy.
He insisted that IoE status to Anna University should not affect the 69% reservation followed for Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims in student admissions and faculty recruitment.
Earlier, delivering the welcome address and presenting the annual report at the convocation, V-C M. K. Surappa appealed to the State government to issue the letter of commitment. Though the Union government has granted the IoE status to Anna University, it needed a letter of commitment and financial assistance from the State government to attain the status. Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, Transnational Health Science and Technology Institute, who delivered the convocation address, urged the graduands to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. “Engineering can play a major role in meeting this critical need by enabling technologies that allow early detection, precise diagnostics, mobile health and data-sharing,” she added.
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit presided over the convocation and distributed the degrees.
A total of 1,180 Ph. D holders and 71 first rank holders of full-time undergraduate programmes received their degrees in person, while another 1,34,418 candidates received their degrees in absentia.
