President Pranab Mukherjee will be the chief guest at the convocation ceremony of Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering here scheduled to be held on December 19.
He would deliver the convocation address at the function which would be attended by a host of top government officials, both civil and military, an official release said here today.
The college, established in 1946, has emerged as a premier training institution of the Indian Army over the years, and is a five-time recipient of the Golden Peacock Award for training, it said.
It has also received the ISO-9001 certification and Prime Minister's Excellence Awards for student projects. The institute is affiliated to Hyderabad-based Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) and Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for its M Tech, B Tech and Engineering Diploma programmes.
The present Commandant of MCEME, Lt General Gurmukh Singh, is also the Colonel Commandant of the Corps of EME (Electronics and Mechanical Engineers).
The release said 22 officers of Degree Engineering (DE-96) and 40 Officers of the Technical Entry Scheme (TES-24) will receive their degrees from the President.
The EME officers joining the Army from the Dehradun- Indian Military Academy or the Officers Training Academy undergo the Degree Engineering Programme of three years.
Cadets Training Wing (CTW) of MCEME conducts Graduate Engineering Programme for the TES Course. The TES cadets join CTW after class 12 and undergo military training concurrently with the engineering programme.
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Mukherjee also asked the educational institutions to
synergise with the government initiatives of startups, Digital India and Skill India to ensure a wider field for the budding entrepreneurs.
The President recalled that he had attended the convocation of the Vinoba Bhave University in 1995 as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and again in 2006 as the Defence Minister.
The University, carved out of Ranchi University in 1990, caters to the tertiary educational needs of the North Chhota Nagpur region of Jharkhand and has now 24 post graduate departments, 22 constituent colleges and 91 affiliated colleges, offering courses and research programmes in several fields including law, engineering and medicine.
Reflecting on the glorious past of the country when universities in Taxila, Nalanda and Vikram Sila flourished, Mukherjee said this evolved cross-fertilisation of Indian, Persian, Greek and Chinese cultures.
The President awarded PhD degrees and gold medals to students.
Mukherjee was received at Bhave University by Governor Droupadi Murmu, Union Minister Jayant Sinha, Jharkhand Ministers Neera Yadav and Amar Bauari, Vice Chancellor Prof Gurudeep Singh and Pro-Vice Chancellor M P Sinha and Proctor Prof Ram Jatan Prasad.
Sinha said the government's focus was on eliminating poverty, which was its Raj Dharma which went beyond politics and public debate.
"We have moved away from 'mai-baap sarkar' to an empowered 'sarkar'. Earlier it was a feudal dynastic rule not serving the citizens and the state properly, now the role of the state is in enforcing the rules and the citizens are the real players," Sinha said.
Later, the President flew by a helicopter to Ranchi and laid the foundation stone on-line of Jharkhand Technical University (JUT) Audrey House. He also inaugurated an Art Gallery at the same place.
Neera Yadav said JUT will come up at cost of Rs 81 crore and will have jurisdiction over the whole of Jharkhand and all educational institutions of the state would be affiliated to it.
It is expected to be completed within 24 months, she added.
The Governor and Chief Minister Raghubar Das also attended the function.
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Mukherjee said the role of educational institutions goes beyond mere pedagogy and classrooms.
"It is incumbent on them to mould students into responsible human beings. They have to instill in the students the civilisational values of love for motherland; performance of duty; compassion for all; tolerance for pluralism; respect for women; honesty in life; self-restraint in conduct; responsibility in action; and discipline," he said.
Talking about higher education system in the country, the President said none of our universities earlier found a place amongst the top two hundred positions in world university rankings. "I have been repeating like parrots in my interactions with institutions of higher learning that the rankings process must be accorded due importance," he said.
Mukherjee said world-class institutions have world-class governance structures. "In India, we need to create a governance mechanism for our institutes of higher learning that supports growth, collaboration and innovation," the President said.
