Union Minister VK Singh giving away certificates to students at the 38th annual convocation of VIT on August 18.
Chennai, August 22 (MExN): Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) conducted its 38th annual convocation with Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Civil Aviation General, Dr VK Singh as chief guest on August 18. A total of 8,619 undergraduates and postgraduates, besides 278 research scholars, from the class of 2023 were awarded degrees during the convocation.
In his convocation address, General Dr VK Singh said, “There is no shortcut to success, though it is written in books. It all depends on how committed, hardworking and knowledgeable you are.” He advised the graduates not to stick to one solution for all problems but seek solutions in a pragmatic way.
“Education is what you gather as part of the environment in the institution. This adds to your personality. Education is what you have learnt and how you will apply it, how you develop an open mind and analyse things,” Dr Singh added.
The minister also pointed out that with the Centre’s focus on development and infrastructure, the country has gained the trust of many countries, which have come forward to invest in India. The kind of environment being created in India has made the country an ideal global investment destination, he said and appealed to youngsters to utilise the opportunity and come up in life.
Earlier, VIT Founder-Chancellor Dr G Viswanathan in his address urged Dr VK Singh to use his good offices to influence the Centre and State Governments to spend more on higher education and compete with advanced countries.
“The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which is 27 per cent in India needs to enhanced further and government spending on research activities should be increased,” he said, adding that the GER in the US was 88 per cent, Germany 70, China 64 and South Korea and Australia 100 per cent each.
“Lack of funding by the central and state governments and too many controls on educational institutions are posing hurdles,” Dr Viswanathan said.
Wipro's Global Head of Business Operations Sanjeev Jain, VIT Vice-Presidents Sankar Viswanathan, Dr GV Selvam and Assistant Vice-President, Kadhambari S Viswanathan also took part in the convocation.
