Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has asked the fresh IIT graduates to recognize the needs of the country and connect with the changes on the ground. He also asked them to identify with the aspirations of the common people in the context of Atamnirbanar Bharat. Prime Minister was addressing the 51st Annual Convocation Ceremony of IIT Delhi as Chief Guest via video conferencing, here today.Union Education Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and MoS for Education, Shri Sanjay Dhotre were present on the occasion. Secretary, Higher Education, Shri Amit Khare, Director, IIT Delhi, Shri V. Ramgopal Rao, and senior officials of the Ministry also participated on the occasion.                     

Congratulating more than 2000 IITians on their convocation,  Prime Minister said AtmaNirbhar Campaign is a mission that gives opportunities to youth, technocrats and tech-enterprise leaders of the country. He said today a favorable environment has been created for implementation of the ideas and innovation of the technocrats freely and to scale them and market them easily. He said that today's India is committed to provide 'ease of doing business' to its youth so that they can bring changes in the life of crores of their countrymen through their innovation. "The country will give you 'ease of business' you just work for 'ease of living' of the people of this country," Shri Modi said. He explained that this has been the thought process behind the major reforms that have been done in almost every sector in the recent past. He listed the sectors where opportunities have been created for innovation and new start-ups for the first time due to the reforms.

 Prime Minister said Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines have been simplified and restrictions have been removed recently, which would reduce the Burden of Compliance for BPO Industries. He said BPO Industry has also been exempted from various requirements including bank guarantee. He added that provisions that prevented the Tech Industry from facilities such as Work From Home or Work From Anywhere, have also been removed. This will make the country's IT sector globally competitive and will give more opportunities to young talent.

 Prime Minister said today India is among the countries where corporate tax is the lowest. More than 50 thousand startups have started in India since the Start-up India campaign. He listed the outcome of the Government’s efforts with respect to promoting startups like the 4 fold increase in the number of patents in the country in the last five years, a 5-fold increase in trademark registrations. He said over 20 Indian unicorns have been established over the years and this number would increase further in the next one or two years. Prime Minister pointed out that today from incubation to funding, Startups are being helped. He said for funding of startups, Fund of Funds has been created with a corpus of Rs 10 thousand crores. In addition for a period of 3 years, startups are offered many facilities like Tax Exemption, Self-Certification and Easy exit.

 Prime Minister said today under the National Infrastructure Pipeline, investment of more than Rs 1 lakh crore has been planned. This will create a state-of-the-art infrastructure across the country that will meet the needs of both present and future. He said today the country is working in new ways to achieve maximum potential in every field.

 Prime Minister gave four mantras to the students for their workplace,

Focus on quality; never compromise.

Ensure scalability; make your innovations work at a mass scale.

Assure reliability; build long-term trust in the market.

Bring in adaptability; be open to change and expect un-certainty as a way of life.

He said working on these basic mantras will bring shine on one’s identity as well as on brand India, since students are India's biggest brand ambassadors. He remarked the work of the students will give global recognition to the country's product and will accelerate the efforts of the country.

Prime Minister said post-Covid world is going to be very different and technology will play the biggest role in it. He said Virtual Reality was never thought of but now Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality has become the Working Reality. He said the present batch of students has a first mover advantage to learn and adapt to the new norms emerging in the workplace and he urged them to make most use of this. He said Covid -19 has taught Globalization is important but Self-Reliance is equally important.

 Prime Minister said the country has shown in the recent past, how technology can be the most powerful means for the governance to reach the poorest of the poor. He listed the schemes of the government which have reached the poorest of the poor with the help of technology like construction of toilets, gas connections etc.  He said the country is making rapid strides in digital delivery of services and making the lives of ordinary citizens easier. He remarked technology has made last mile delivery efficient and reduced the scope of corruption. In the case of Digital Transactions also, India is far ahead of many countries of the world and even the developed countries want to adopt Indian platforms like UPI.

 Prime Minister said technology is playing a big role in Svamitva yojana which was launched recently. Under this, for the first time, residential and land property are being mapped. He said earlier this work was done manually and thus doubts and apprehensions were also natural. Today, using drone technology, this mapping is being done and the villagers are also fully satisfied with it. This shows how much normal citizens of India have faith in technology. He listed the challenges for which technology can give solutions like Post Disaster Management, maintaining Ground water level, technology of telemedicine and remote surgery, Big data analysis, etc.

He praised the students’ exceptional abilities since they passed one of the toughest exams at a young age, at the same time he advised them to be flexible and humble to further enhance their ability. By flexibility he meant not to shed one’s identity at any point while never hesitating from fitting into a team. By humility, he meant to be down to earth while being proud of one’s success and achievements.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi wished the students their parents, guides and faculty for the convocation. He also wished IIT Delhi on its Diamond jubilee celebration and wished them success in achieving the goals envisioned by the institute for this decade.

While addressing the participants Shri Pokhriyal said that IITs are not only the institutes of national importance, but also, the institutes that represent our nation on a global platform. Along with fellow IITs, IIT Delhi had performed exceptionally well in the past, be it in research or, the academic excellence, he added. In the QS rakings, IIT Delhi has achieved 47th rank in the world in the subject area “Engineering and Technology” and In the overall rankings, IIT Delhi is among the top 200 in the world, he further added. This shows that while IITs are doing very well in the Engineering and Technology disciplines, for them to improve their overall ranking, they need to become more comprehensive in their educational offerings. This is also what the National Education Policy recommends for the institutions.

 The Minister said that in the times of COVID-19 pandemic, the institute has risen to the service of the nation and brought out the technology and innovations to help the society as large. The Minister expressed his happiness  to launch the most affordable COVID-19 virus testing kit developed by IIT Delhi earlier this year. This low cost RT-PCR test kit has helped bring down the prices  of  RT-PCR tests in the country, he informed. He further informed that, startups incubated by IIT Delhi have already supplied over 4.5 Million export quality PPEs. IIT Delhi research has also scientifically shown, through research publications in international journals, the effectiveness of Indian traditional medicines such as Ashwagandha in arresting the spread of virus and there are numerous other COVID-19 related research activities that are undertaken by the institute’s researchers both in collaboration with industry, international partners and the government agencies, he added. Shri Pokhriyal highlighted that the institute has taken initiatives to engage with the industry for research collaborations. As a result, institute has opened as many as 13 sponsored Centers of Excellence in the last 5 years. These Centers of Excellence aim on a specific domain with highly focused research outcome, he added.

The Minister highlighted that the world has acclaimed the new National Education Policy released by this government. He expressed his happiness that IIT Delhi has already started discussions on the implementation part at the institute level through various initiatives on education and research fronts. The institute shall focus on bringing more diversity both in the specializations offered and also among students, he added.

Shri Pokhriyal congratulated 2000 graduating students for their hard work, commitment and academic & research excellence that was indeed required to complete your respective degree programs. A new chapter begins today that has to pass the test of the time and in future students should come back to your alma mater one day to offer your ‘Guru-Dakshina’. The Minister appealed to all the students to contribute in the nation building initiatives as we are the world’s biggest nation in terms of human capital, and we must all work towards fulfilling the vision of our Prime Minister in creating a 5 Trillion Dollar economy by 2024. This is possible only when we focus on converting our knowledge into wealth.  Country has  huge expectations from it's youths, he added.

 On the ocassion of the Convocation, Shri Pokhriyal launched eVIDYA@IITD - Enabling Virtual & Interactive-learning for Driving Youth Advancement. Under this initiative, online certificate programmes will be offered by IIT Delhi in different domains of Engineering, Technology, Science, Humanities and Management for the Indian as well as international participants. eVIDYA@IITD will cater to the needs of the Industry, Society and Individual Participants.

Addressing the gathering Shri Dhotre said that this is an interesting time to be in the field of technology as the  new technologies like Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Robotics, Block Chain Technology are opening the new vistas for the youth. He said that the work started by our earlier generation has not yet finished and few problems of the humanity have been solved but many have remained. We must use technology to resolve these unfinished problems and to make our farmer's life happier by making agriculture sustainable, he added. Use the technology to address the issues of education and health, to address the problems of water and energy security to get back cleaner air, water and soil and protect the environment, he further added.

Shri Dhotre highlighted that the Digital India programme started under the stewardship of our  Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has ushered in a wave of innovations. Young technologists having come out from the IIT system have brought up revolution through Start-ups, and many of these have them developed into Unicorns, he added.

Presenting the Director’s report on this occasion, Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao said, “In the last 5 years, IIT Delhi faculty and students have written over 10000 high quality papers, filed over 500 patents, executed roughly 150  industry projects and obtained over Rs 1300 Crores of research funding from competitive grants from all over the world. We have also created 18 new Centers of Excellence with funding from  alumni, industries and government agencies in the last 5 years. These numbers are anywhere from 2X to 4X higher compared to any previous 5-year periods since the inception of the institute. Also, our alumni commitments for fund donations to the institute in the last one year exceeded the last 55 year total value of  donations received in the institute. We thank all our alumni, industries and other funding agencies for the trust reposed in us.”

The Convocation was conducted in a hybrid mode with a physical in-person ceremony with limited attendance in the Institute’s Dogra Hall, and an online webcast, which reached out to all graduating students, their parents, distinguished alumni, invited guests, and everyone else.

The Institute awarded President’s Gold Medal, Director’s Gold Medal, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma (former President of India) Gold Medal, Perfect Ten Gold Medals and Institute Silver Medals to the graduating students at the Convocation. The President’s Gold Medal was awarded to Mr Deepanshu Jindal, B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering; Director’s Gold Medal to Ms Aashi Agarwal, B. Tech in Textile Technology, and Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma (former President of India) Gold Medal was to Ms Muskan Kularia, M. Tech in Applied Optics. The President’s Gold Medal is awarded to a student who is topper amongst all graduating UG students for highest academic achievement/ CGPA. Director’s Gold Medal is awarded to a graduating UG student for his/her achievements in Academics as well as Extra-Curricular Activities. 

Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma (former President of India) Gold Medal is awarded to a graduating PG student who is adjudged as best among all M.Tech graduating students for general proficiency including character & conduct, excellence in academic performance, extra-curricular activities and social service.

Perfect 10 Gold Medal is awarded to a graduating PG student who secures CGPA of 10 out of 10. The Institute Silver Medal is awarded to a graduating UG student securing highest CGPA in respective programme.

At the 51st Convocation, IIT Delhi also felicitated its esteemed alumni with Alumni Awards 2020. Five IIT Delhi alums received the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award’ and one alumnus received the ‘Distinguished Alumni Service Award’ and two alumnus received the maiden Graduates of Last Decade (GOLD) Award.

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