National Institute of Technology (NIT) has decided to approach the state government for clearly demarcating its campus so that it can construct a boundary wall and thus, keep encroachers away.
The go-ahead was given by none other than chairman of the board of governors of the Adityapur-based tech cradle, Virander S. Chauhan, on the sidelines of its fifth convocation at Tata Auditorium in XLRI, Jamshedpur, on Friday. This will be the first time that NIT’s top management will be taking up the matter with the state government to save its 329-acre compound, which is being encroached on all sides by slum dwellers.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Chauhan said: “I don’t think complaining to the state government will help. Rather, we will seek its help for fresh demarcation of NIT land after which, we will transfer funds to the department concerned for construction of the wall,” said Chauhan, director of International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Bio-technology (ICGEB), New Delhi.
The chairman, who convened a meeting with the deans, teaching, non-teaching staff and students before the ceremony, was not happy with the existing infrastructure at the institute.
“Considering the status of NIT, infrastructure available here is much below expectation. I have suggested collaborative approach with the state government to better the infrastructure network. Funds will not be a constraint,” Chouhan said.
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| Students throw their headgears into the air to celebrate after their convocation in Jamshedpur on Friday. (Bhola Prasad) |
During his address at the ceremony, Chauhan pointed out that landing jobs might depend on technical competence, institute ranking and ingenuity at interviews. But to sustain and excel in a particular field, one requires soft skills.
He also called upon the students to find technical and scientific solutions to the myriad problems plaguing the society like rapid urbanisation, climate change or energy security.
The occasion was also graced by vice-chairman of Tata Steel Limited B. Muthuraman, who had earlier served as chairman of NIT, as the chief guest.
He said that functional knowledge constituted only 25-30 per cent of knowledge input required to be s uccessful in the professional world.
“The other essential attributes are passion for work, ability to handle failures and success, decision making, courage and conviction and managing time. It is unfortunate that institutes have not included study of these attributes in a formal manner,” he rued.
Muthuraman also reminded the students that there was no short cuts and suggested them to practise yoga.
Around 700 BTech, MTech and MCA students of the 2010 and 2011 batches got their convocation degrees on Friday.
The gold alumni award for the 2010 batch went to Prashant Kumar Singh (electronics) and Monica, also from electronics, for the 2011 batch. The convocation was coordinated by a faculty member, Rajiv Bhushan.
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