Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan has said that stand-alone institutions should expand and become multidisciplinary as some of the best research emerges from a cross-disciplinary environment.
He was addressing the 18th Convocation at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C) on Saturday evening through an online platform.
Shri Pradhan said that innovative research outputs should be effectively utilized to meet the needs of the local community in marine fishing, production of coir from coconut etc.
She highlighted the contribution of women in research, saying that they constitute more than two-thirds of doctoral degree graduates at NIT-C. “The objective of building India as a global knowledge hub of the 21st century will be fueled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic call for hi-tech research and innovation with an entrepreneurial vision, Jai Anusandhan,” he said.
Former Chairman of University Grants Commission Virendra Singh Chouhan said that a major role of higher education is in creating new knowledge, finding innovative solutions and preparing the youth to solve the problems of the society.
He said that despite advances in healthcare, there are many other unresolved entanglements that are more dangerous than the pandemic, such as climate change, droughts and floods, and wildfires, that require urgent attention from young people.
NIT-C director Prasad Krishna in his annual report said the placement figures at the institute crossed the 1,000 mark for the first time during the year. In the 2021-22 placement drive, outgoing students got a record number of 1,140 placements compared to 714 job offers last year.
A total of 1,687 graduates received degrees on Saturday. This includes 948 B.Tech., 42 B.Arch., 433 M.Tech., 12 M.Plan., 53 MCA, 47 MBA, 61 MSc, and 91 PhD degrees.
Sandeep S. of Electronics and Communication Engineering Branch. Zakaria secured the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (9.75/10) among all outgoing B.Tech students. He was awarded Bapna Gold Medal and Prof. Allesu Kanjirathingal Memorial Award.
Among the postgraduate students, Anjali S. of M.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering). Menon bagged the Bapna Gold Medal with a CGPA of 9.87 out of 10. Toppers of 10 B.Tech, 25 M.Tech, 3M. The SC, MCA and MBA programs of the institute were also awarded gold medals for their outstanding performance. Gajjala Yogananda, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT-C, were present.