Bhubaneswar, Sept. 12: Human resource development minister Smriti Irani today called upon IIT graduates to "stand up for start-up".
Addressing students at the fourth annual convocation of IIT Bhubaneswar, she encouraged them to start working on start-ups and learn along the way.
Stating that the small and fast-growing start-ups offered students more significant roles and fulfilment in their jobs, she said: "Those having innovative ideas and interested in start-ups must avail themselves of the facilities under the Pradhanmantri Mudra Yojana that aims to support young entrepreneurs of India to grow and prosper."
Smriti also asked the IIT authorities to adopt at least five nearby villages and ensure that the students and the faculty members productively devote their time and energy to change the lives of these villagers.
"The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is inspired by the vision of transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an Inclusive India. Their mission is conceptualised as a movement to enable processes that connect institutes of higher education with local communities to address the development challenges of rural India through participatory processes and appropriate technologies for accelerating sustainable growth," she said, adding that the IIT Bhubaneswar must work in this direction.
The institute has already adopted two villages under the programme. One is Jorkul in the Banki block, where activities related to rural development is going on through a multi-institutional project. The other village is Argul, adjacent to the permanent campus of the institute.
The issues addressed at the convocation are education, health, sanitation, drinking water, solid waste management, affordable housing technology, renewable energy and so on. "Participation of the villagers are encouraged in the abhiyan programme, and a good number of faculty members across the disciplines are members of its cell and involved in this venture," said director of the institute R.V. Raja Kumar.
As many as 215 students of IIT Bhubaneswar received their degrees at the institutes' fourth annual convocation. The recipients included 12 doctorates, 44 MTech, 50 MSc and 109 BTech students.
For the first time, the convocation was organised on the institute's permanent campus at Jatni. The President of India Gold Medal was awarded to Susant Sachan of the school of mechanical science. The director's gold medal was awarded to Pratik Nayak of the School of Infrastructure and Anudeep Nain of the School of Basic Sciences (mathematics).
