Rourkela: The Prime Minister's additional principal secretary P.K. Mishra stressed on the use of technology for the betterment of humanity at the 15th convocation of National Institute of Technology (NIT) here on Saturday.
"I urge you to direct your skills and training towards solving the problems of our times, as our nation is confronting a wide range of problems," Mishra said at the meet.
"The technological transformation is heralding in a new paradigm and the best example is 'connected, sharing economy', which has transformed the idea of business today," he said, citing examples of Uber, Alibaba, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
"Give wings to your imagination. Who knows tomorrow's Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Uber or Tesla may just originate from Rourkela."
Advising students to not to forget their alma mater. Mishra said: "Stay in touch, contribute back and do whatever you can to boost its glory. What you are today and what you will become will be possible due to combined efforts of your parents, teachers, technical assistants, even the gardener who kept this campus clean and green and the cook who fed you in the hostel."
The chairman of the board of governors, Santrupta Misra, said: "Follow no advice, rather follow your heart."
He said: "The board has embarked on brainstorming to prepare a new vision for the institute and this vision is not just a statement but a desired future and a form of self-expression."
Institute director Animesh Biswas spoke about the NIT's achievements. "Our institute has been ranked among the top institutions nationally and globally."
This year, Anamay Sarkar got the best graduate gold medal, and Kapoorva Tejaswi got the best all-rounder of the undergraduate outgoing batch. Abhishek Chakraborty got the institute gold medal for the best MTech graduate. B. Sneha got the institute gold medal for best graduate in dual degree and Sachidananda Prasad got institute gold medal for the best postgraduate with integrated MSc degree. Pungantisai Akanksha got the gold medal for the best under-graduate project.
