Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit (centre), state finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai (left), director general of DRDO V. K. Saraswat (behind Dikshit in red tie) and emeritus professor from Nottingham Trent University Prof. J Martin Hunter (behind Saraswat in white tie ) at the sixth annual convocation of KIIT University. Governor M.C. Bhandare conferred the honorary doctorate on them. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 5: The sixth annual convocation of the Kalinga Institute of Information Technology (KIIT) was held here today. Degrees were conferred on 1,555 graduates.

Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare conferred the honorary doctorate degree on Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, finance and excise minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, minister and social activist Sruti Mohapatra

The D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) was conferred on two renowned scientists of the country — K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Isro and V.K. Saraswat, director general of DRDO — while the degree of D. Law (Honoris Causa) was conferred on Prof. J. Martin Hunter, an emeritus professor from Nottingham Trent University.

Speaking to the graduating students, the governor said that the society was waiting to see them join the task of nation building and secure for India its place of pride among the leaders of the global community.

Accepting the honorary D. Litt degree, Dikshit said that KIIT University had an atmosphere of passionate pursuit of excellence and, above all, a humane touch.

“The university has emerged as an epicentre of professional education in the state,” said Ghadai.

Saraswat termed the award as recognition for his team that has worked towards making the country self-reliant in missile technology.

Social activist Shruti Mohapatra advised graduating students to keep their homes and hearts open for persons with disability. During the ceremony, students were awarded gold and silver medals.

Mahmudul Hasan (M.Tech in electronics engineering) and Namrata Kar (B.Tech in electronics engineering) bagged the Founder’s Gold Medal for securing highest cumulative grade point average in the post-graduate and undergraduate courses, respectively.