SILCHAR, May 18 - Students in the present-day world, faced with a set of unprecedented challenges, must prepare themselves with an unbiased, innovative and independent mind, said Prof Ajoy Kumar Ray, Director of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, IIEST, Shibpur, West Bengal.
In his convocation address at the 14th convocation of the National Institute of Technology, Silchar, held at the newly-built sports complex of the institute recently, Prof Ray said, � Students must acquire skills on the techniques of acquisition, retrieval and analysis of data and knowledge in all sectors of human endeavour, which is possible when different spheres of Science and Technology are married to humanities and most importantly, entrepreneurship which can liberate Indians from the menace of hunger and poverty.�
Ray added that in order to overcome the hurdles, technological advancements must synthesise humanistic sciences with the advanced technology.
�Since the world is moving from a more protective and cosy employee-oriented society towards a more challenging and demanding entrepreneurial society, there is a great need to act with an entrepreneurial spirit and the graduating students of the reputed institute must be able to shoulder the responsibility of themselves and also of others around them, he maintained.
Expressing concern over the vulnerability of Assam which is geographically located on the eastern foothills of the Himalayas and runs the risk of being an earthquake-prone zone, Prof Ray proposed the institute to join hands with the IIEST or IIT-Kharagpur for mapping, identifying and harnessing natural resources together with the areas of renewable energy, water resource management and disaster mitigation, etc.
He lauded the efforts of NIT, Silchar, for its path-breaking initiatives in the areas of research innovation and development in the recent years. �I am elated to be a part of the convocation of the institute, especially on the eve of the golden jubilee of the institute which started its journey as the Regional Engineering College, Silchar, in 1967,� the chief guest added.
Dr Rashed Ghulam Sayed, Director, Ghalib University and Hospital, Afghanistan, who was the guest of honour at the convocation, said that both India and Afghanistan share a rich bond of cultural relations. More than 100 students from Afghanistan are given scholarships every year in the Masters and PhD courses and the students get an excellent opportunity to visit India and learn. �We look forward to strengthening this relation between both the nations,� Dr Sayed said.
A total of 773 students were conferred degrees in BTech, MTech, MSc, MBA and PhD in various disciplines. Also, there were eight medal and endowment prize winners for their exceptional academic performance. Aman Harlalka from the Civil Engineering Department, who secured 9.87 CPI, was adjudged the Institute Gold Medal winner. He was also the recipient of the Manish Roy Memorial Endowment Special Award. Krishanu Dey from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering was declared the Best Engineering Graduate of the institute and awarded with the prestigious Kalikrishna-Mrinalini Krori Gold Medal. Mohammad Faisal Karim from the Civil Engineering department was the winner of the Saswata Purakaystha Memorial Medal.
In his address, Prof NV Deshpande, Director of the Institute, expressed his happiness saying that it was a proud moment for the Institute to have produced a fresh bunch of talented graduates who can contribute to the nation a great deal. He added that the Institute received the E-Assam Challenge Award 2015 for being the best ICT practitioners in the State. He also said that NIT, Silchar, has been awarded as the Best Engineering College in East India 2015 by ASSOCHAM and in a recent development, the institute bagged a startup centre from the Government of India under the Startup India Stand Up India Scheme and has already organised the National Innovation Summit earlier this year in which innovators from across the country showcased their creative potential. He urged the stakeholders of the Institute to work as a cohesive unit to overcome the challenges in the coming days.
