President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday attended the first convocation of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion, the President congratulated all the graduating students.
He said that its maiden convocation is an important milestone for NIT Delhi.
"Despite operating from a transit campus, it has made best efforts to maintain the standard of education and offer state-of-the-art infrastructure for academic activity. This institute has carved a niche for itself in a short span of time," he said.
He complimented the management for its foresight, the faculty members for their sincerity and dedication, and the staff and other employees for their hard work and commitment. He urged them to move ahead with pride and determination.
The President said that our centres of higher learning have the onerous responsibility to mould the nation-builders of tomorrow.
"They must support the scholastic pursuit and capacity development of students in an efficient manner. They must promote continuous growth and learning. Special capacities must be infused through the education system for nurturing students for a life-time," he added.
President Mukherjee segregated these capacities into three important elements i.e. (i) Becoming adept at using technology:-Institutes must be equipped with knowledge networks and world-class laboratory equipments.
This would facilitate students to work and experiment with the best-in-line tools and instruments. The faculty must keep themselves updated with the latest know-how.
Only then dissemination of frontier level knowledge to their students would be possible; (ii) Having the urge for cutting-edge research and innovation:- A strong research orientation can lead to immense value addition to what our engineering students learn in manufacturing and design.
The amount of information available in this era of internet and multimedia is simply huge.
Students must learn to gather the vast knowledge from outside and apply to their own learning framework to develop innovative designs and models.
As budding engineers and scientists, they must keep track of the fast changing needs of society and attempt at solving problems keeping the human aspect in view and (iii) Laying emphasis on holistic development of personality: - An aptitude for entrepreneurship for societal development must be fostered. For that, a vision of human betterment must be instilled in students.
The President said that our future direction of technical education in India will be guided by our frontline engineering institutions like IITs and NITs.
They have been set up to impart quality education in the field of science and technology.
An excellent research and teaching infrastructure and a pool of committed faculty will be the pillars to build them into top-notch institutions.
To train students for a globalized world, there is need for competent faculty to render world-class teaching.
Refresher courses, participation in international seminars and workshops, and publishing of papers in peer-reviewed journals need to be accorded top priority.
He said that our higher academic institutions can play a catalyzing role in initiatives like Skill India, Start-up India, etc by deploying their expertise and also involving their students to identify and solve problems at the grassroots level.
The President said that India is an old land but a young nation.
"It has developed remarkably after independence, growing in all sectors from industry to agriculture and services. Given our potential, we can soon count ourselves amongst the advanced nations of the world. Our aspirations are big but certainly achievable," he added.
He said that what gives him the confidence is the capability, skill and talent available in our pool of engineers, technologists, scientists, managers, administrators, policy-makers, doctors, lawyers, scholars and researchers.
"They are the ones on whom the onus of meeting our development challenge rests," he added.
He wished the students all the best for their future careers and said that society looks upon them to become harbingers of change.
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