Union minister Salman Khursheed addresses the convocation at BIT, Mesra, in Ranchi on Tuesday. (Hardeep Singh)

Ranchi, March 23: Union minister for corporate and minority affairs Salman Khursheed today urged private corporate houses and government bodies to take “affirmative action” to provide jobs to the poor and the members of backward castes.

“After Independence, a reservation policy was formed to bring the poor and the backward groups to the mainstream. But now, it is time to go beyond reservation and take affirmative action to ensure inclusive growth,” said Khursheed while addressing teachers, students and academics at the 20th convocation of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra.

Khursheed stressed that the corporate houses, which are not bound by any rule to employ youths from the poor section of the society under the reservation law, should take affirmative action.

The Union minister was the chief guest at the convocation, where around 3,000 students were awarded graduate and postgraduate degrees. Eighteen toppers from various disciplines received gold medals too.

The function was also attended by Governor-cum-chancellor of universities of Jharkhand M.O.H. Farook and vice-chancellor of Ranchi University A.A. Khan.

Exhorting the students to keep in mind the poor while pursuing their career as engineers, he said: “Jharkhand has a large number of poor people. You should never forget them.”

He also spoke about the need to have more premier institutes like BIT, Mesra, so that the youth can get better opportunities to pursue higher studies.

The governor called upon the young graduates to “live up to the high expectations” of the society.

Vice-chancellor of BIT, Mesra, P.K. Barhai said the institute’s main aim was to offer quality higher education coupled with achieving a good placements record.

“In the current academic session, the institute has published 341 international journals, 79 national journals, 109 R&D projects (going on) and another 27 projects (completed),” he informed.