394 students graduate at 8th Convocation of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar
Palaj: Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) hosted its 8th Convocation yesterday on July 27, 2019. The Institute conferred degrees to a total of 394 students, including 145 B.Tech students, 2 B.Tech-M.Tech Dual Degree students, 1 B.Tech-M.Sc Dual Degree student, 105 M.Tech students, 86 M.Sc students, 21 MA students, 27 PhD students, and 7 PGDIIT students. In addition, 53 students were awarded medals and awards, including 25 gold medals, 13 silver medals, and 15 medallion for excellence in various categories such as academics, outstanding research, overall performance, innovation, leadership, social service, sports and so on.
Dr Swati Piramal, Vice-Chairperson, Piramal Group, and Director of Piramal Enterprises, was the Chief Guest on the occasion. She is also the Director of the Piramal Foundation, which helps promote health in rural India with mobile health services, women’s empowerment projects and supporting community education to create young leaders. Dr Piramal has touched thousands of lives with her involvement in innovation and public health services.
Delivering the convocation speech Dr Swati Piramal referred to ancient stories of Indian culture and the 3000 year old Vedic texts that gives three paths to success in life – Gyana, Karma and Bhakti – Knowledge, Action and Care, to overcome doubts and defeatist ideas. Encouraging students to pursue excellence in life, she said, “It is important to have a dream and a higher purpose – the higher purpose drives one towards excellence. We must always have an impossible dream. A dream which seems impossible but with great effort and a noble cause it comes within your grasp.”
She also emphasised that, “Public policy, science, and innovation can change lives and can create a huge impact. Science and innovation must be used to tackle national challenges of poverty and health.” She advised students to be an outward looking person and never cease learning new things in life. She concluded her speech by reciting a poem by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
Beginning his speech, Prof Amit Prashant, Officiating Director, IITGN, specially thanked Prof Sudhir K Jain, who completed his decade long tenure as IIT Gandhinagar’s Founding Director on June 30, 2019, for his lofty vision and exceptional leadership for the Institute. Prof Amit Prashant congratulated the graduating students and medal winners and highlighted key initiatives and programs by IITGN during the academic year 2018-19 such as establishment of Maker Bhavan, second edition of Invent@IITGN, Dual Major BTech Program, scaling up of Institute’s non-degree programs, steps to expand the R&D infrastructure, interdisciplinary Centres of IITGN, the ongoing construction projects, IIEC’s Start-up Mentor Clinics as well as achievements by the faculty and students.
He also said that, “The Institute has received generous financial support in the form of philanthropic funds from numerous well-wishers of IITGN in India and abroad. This year the Institute received over Rs. 14 crores in donations. IIT Gandhinagar’s alumni are stepping up to take leadership in supporting the Institute. Six new 1 lakh rupees each per year scholarships have been recently instituted by the alumni. In addition, 80% of the 394 graduating students this year have pledged donations in the form of batch gift.”
Congratulating the students and their parents for all the hard work, patience and sacrifices, he also advised students that, “No matter where you are and whatever you do, continue to dream and dream big! But never forget the two ‘mantras’: Life’s battles are not necessarily won by the person who is the stronger or faster or cleverer, but by the person who thinks and has the will to win. Each failure has a new lesson in it that you need to learn – keep your mind open and be willing to be taught.”
“Know your true strengths and capabilities so that you can focus on them to get the best. Believe in Yourself and Take Charge of your Life”, he concluded.
43% of the B.Tech. students graduating this year have received international exposure in the form of study abroad programmes, summer internships or participation in international conferences.
45 students from this year’s graduating batch have opted to pursue higher studies. They will be pursuing MS, MTech, Dual Degree Masters Program, MBA or PhD studies in universities or institutes such as University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Purdue University, University of Washington, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Technische Universität Vienna, IIM Bangalore, IITs, and on.
A total 103 companies have shown interest to participate in IITGN campus recruitment this year. Out of total no. of B.Tech students who had sought placements, 75% have been recruited. Tata Consultancy Services recruited ten students. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and L&T Construction recruited eight students each. Goldman Sachs offered the maximum package to BTech students while Nutanix offered the maximum package to MTech students.