Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, held its annual convocation on Saturday, with over 2,000 students getting their degrees.
In his address, Vijay Kumar Saraswat, member, NITI Aayog, focused largely on science and technology and the country’s relationship with this field. He mentioned 10 problems that India, at 75, had overcome, such as hunger, defence and vaccination. “As the youth of today, you all have an important role to play in the country’s progress as entrepreneurs, sportspersons, politicians or civil servants,” he said.
VIT founder and chancellor G. Viswanathan spoke at length on inequality in education, and urged the State and Union governments to allocate more funds for higher education. He expressed his desire for India to compete with China and South Korea and reach their standard of education. “We are spending only a fraction of our GDP on education, and this needs to change in order to provide education to the poor,” he said.
Mahesh Babu, CEO, Switch Mobility, India, who was the guest of honour, gave the graduands a perspective of the industry sector. He pointed to three things that would help them create the future - passion, innovation and aspiration - and stressed the importance of practical experience and theoretical knowledge.
VIT vice-presidents Sankar Viswanathan and Sekar Viswanathan, executive director Sandhya Pentareddy and assistant vice-president Kadhambari S. Viswanathan participated in the event. The graduating students took an oath and received their degrees. The gold medallists and rank-holders from various schools were awarded their certificates on the stage.
