Bhubaneswar, March 23: Utkal University is gearing up to welcome the “father of India’s communication revolution”, Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, or Sam Pitroda as he is better known, for its 43rd convocation this Saturday.

University sources said Pitroda, who is advisor to the Prime Minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, and former chairman of the national knowledge commission, has accepted the invitation and will grace the annual meeting as chief guest. The chancellor of universities, governor M. C. Bhandare, will also attend the function.

The list of the meritorious students to be awarded university gold medals, endowment gold medals and prizes for the academic session of 2009-10 has also been finalised. As per this list, over 90 students will be felicitated.

Around 42 students from various departments from arts, science and commerce streams will be awarded. The highest number of gold medal winners are from English and physics departments (four each), followed by mathematics, political science, commerce (each three) and economics, ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology, public administration, MBA, and Oriya and Sanskrit departments (two each).

Prizes will also be handed to meritorious students from other institutes including S.C.B Medical College and S.B. Women’s College in Cuttack, K.B. College, Barang, Nimapada College, Nimapada, S.A. Mahavidyalaya, Balipatna, capital based colleges such as Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Hi-Tech Medical College, VISWASS, Kalinga Law College, Regional College of Management and Institute of Media Studies.

On this occasion, winners of the Chancellor’s debate competition in English, Oriya and Hindi would also be felicitated. Honorary degrees would be conferred on Justices D.P. Mohapatra, Sujata Manohar and Ruma Pal, amongst others including Vaidya Bhagwan Das, J.P. Das, Gokulananada Mohapatra, Ratan Dash and Chaturbhuj Meher.

This convocation will be the last one for vice-chancellor Binayak Rath, whose term ends next month.