Stand-alone institutes must expand and become multi-disciplinary ones as some of the best research emerges from a cross-disciplinary environment, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has said.
He was addressing the 18th convocation event at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C), through an online platform on Saturday evening.
Mr. Pradhan said innovative research outputs should be effectively utilised to address the needs of the local community in marine fishing, production of coir from coconut etc.
He highlighted the contributions of women in research, saying that they constituted more than two-thirds of the doctoral degree graduands at the NIT-C. “The aim of making India as a global knowledge hub of the 21st century will be boosted by Jai Anusandhan, the strategic call for hi-tech research and innovation with entrepreneurial approach, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
Virander Singh Chauhan, former Chairman, University Grants Commission, who was the guest of honour, said a major role of higher education was in creating new knowledge, finding innovative solutions and preparing the youth to address the problems in society.
He said despite marching ahead in healthcare, there were many other unsolved muddles more alarming than the pandemic, such as climate change, drought and floods, and forest fires, which needed immediate attention of the youngsters.
Prasad Krishna, Director, NIT-C, said in his annual report that the placement figures at the institution crossed the 1,000-mark for the first time during the year. In the 2021-22 placement drive, the outgoing students received a record number of 1,140 placements, as compared to 714 job offers last year.
A total of 1,687 graduates received their degrees on Saturday. This included 948 B.Tech., 42 B.Arch., 433 M.Tech., 12 M. Plan., 53 MCA, 47 MBA, 61 M.Sc., and 91 Ph.D degrees.
Sandeep S. Zachariah of the Electronics and Communication Engineering branch secured the highest Cumulated Grade Point Average (9.75/10) among all the outgoing B.Tech students. He was awarded the Bapana Gold Medal and Prof. Allesu Kanjirathingal memorial award.
Among the postgraduate students, Anjaly S. Menon from the M.Tech (Computer Science and Engineering) bagged the Bapana Gold Medal with a CGPA of 9.87 out of 10. Toppers of the 10 B.Tech, 25 M.Tech, 3 M.Sc., MCA and MBA programmes of the institute were also awarded gold medals for their outstanding performance. Gajjala Yoganand, chairperson, Board of Governors of NIT-C, was present.
