The Honorable Union Minister urged the necessity of a multi-disciplinary research environment to lead the world in serving the community.

India’s Techade will be glorified through ‘Jai Anusandhan’, a strategic call for Hi-Tech Research and Innovation with Entrepreneurial approach, said Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon. Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. He was addressing the graduands as the chief guest who delivered the Convocation Address online, at the 18 th Convocation of NIT Calicut conducted on Saturday, September 03, 2022 at the Open-Air Theater. He highlighted the remarkable contribution of women in research, by comparing the doctoral degree graduands of NITC in which more than two-thirds are women. “The aim of making India as a global knowledge hub of the 21st century will be boosted up by the strategic call ‘Jai Anusandhan’ of Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi by moving forward with resolutions towards a developed India as outlined in National Education Policy 2020”, he said. He added that the innovative research outputs should be effectively utilized to address the needs of the local community such as marine fishing, production of coir from coconut, etc.

Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan further emphasized, “As proposed in NEP 2020, stand-alone institutes must look to expand and become multi-disciplinary as some of the best research emerges from a cross-disciplinary environment”. The Honorable Union Minister concluded his convocation address by calling upon the young graduates to use their knowledge, culture, science and technology for serving the global community.

Sri. Gajjala Yoganand, Chairperson, Board of Governors of NITC, addressing the fresh graduands, reminded them that one should pursue their passion by fixing feasible goals. He insisted on the need of a self-sustaining, self-resilient and self-reliant country which creates enormous opportunities towards the development of India as the 3rd most largest economy of the world by 2030.

Dr. Virander Singh Chauhan, Padma Shri Awardee, Former Chairman UGC, Ex- Director, International Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi addressed the gathering as the Guest of honor. “A major role of higher education is in creation of new knowledge, finding innovative solutions and preparing the youth to address the problems prevailing in the society”, the Padma Shri Awardee emphasized. He also mentioned that the country has emerged as the 2 nd largest education system in the world.

The former chairman UGC recalled a few remarkable contributions of the country towards health care. Dr. Chauhan insisted that in spite of marching fiercely on one side (health care), there are many other unsolved muddles which are more alarming than pandemic. He further added that the most challenging problems prevailing which are more serious are climate change, drought and floods, forest fires, etc., which need immediate attention of the youngsters to explore and find sustainable solutions. The Ex- Director of ICGEB concluded his guest of honor address by urging the young minds to aspire more without compromising the honesty, integrity and utmost responsibility in bringing an order in the system towards the protection of common lives.

Prof. Prasad Krishna, Director, presenting the annual report, highlighted the achievements of the Institute in the academic year 2021-22. NITC has retained its position as one of the top technological institutes of national importance in the country, through its glorious existence spanning more than 60 years. NITC secured the 9 th rank at the national level in the ARIIA-2021 ranking on the basis of excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, making it the highest ranked NIT in the list. In the national level NIRF ranking of this year, the Architecture programme of NITC retained its rank as the second best in the country, while in the Engineering stream, NITC could improve its overall score compared to last year and was ranked 31 st at the All-India level. For the first time, NITC participated in the NIRF ranking for management stream and secured 84 th position. During the past year, NITC faculty members and students have filed 14 patents. Five previously filed patents were granted as well based on the research works carried out within the Institute.

11 new multidisciplinary centers were established recently on campus to assimilate the intellectual, aesthetic, social, physical, emotional, and moral values in an integrated manner in consensus with the spirit of NEP 2020.

During this year, the placement figures at NITC crossed the 1000-mark for the first time. In the 2021-22 placement drive, the outgoing students of NIT Calicut received a record number of 1140 placements, as compared to 714 job offers last year. Close to 200 companies visited the campus. The highest offer of this year was Rs. 67.6 lakhs per annum, offered by Traceable AI to four students of B.Tech. (Computer Science and Engineering), while the average annual salary was Rs. 12 lakhs per annum.

The institute has received nearly 49 external funded projects with a sanctioned amount of about 15 Crores and received nearly 1.2 Crores towards the consultancy and test charges from different agencies. The institute is also involved in collaborations with several foreign universities for various student and faculty exchange programs, projects,master courses, etc. In the Technology Business Incubator of the Institute, 22 companies are getting incubated with the addition of 11 startups during the last year.

The 18 th convocation of NIT Calicut conducted at Institute’s Open Air Theater saw a total of 1687 graduates receiving their degrees. This included 948 B.Tech., 42 B.Arch., 433 M.Tech., 12 M. Plan., 53 MCA, 47 MBA, 61 M.Sc., and 91 Ph.D degrees.

Mr. Sandeep S Zachariah of the Electronics and Communication Engineering branch secured the highest CGPA (9.75/10) among all the outgoing B.Tech students of the Institute. He was awarded the ‘Bapana Gold Medal’ and ‘Prof. Allesu Kanjirathingal memorial award’.

Among the PG students, Anjaly S Menon from the M.Tech - Computer Science and Engineering bagged the Bapana Gold Medal with CGPA of 9.87 out of 10.

Toppers of the 10 B.Tech, 25 M.Tech, 3 M.Sc., MCA and MBA programmes of the Institute were also awarded Gold Medals for their outstanding performance in the respective specializations by the Guest of Honor, Dr. Virander Singh Chauhan.

Deputy Director Prof. Sathidevi P S, Registrar Cdr (Dr.) M S Shamasundara, Dean (Academic) Prof. Sameer S M and the Heads of various departments administered the convocation ceremony.

Media Reports

• Pradhan calls for hi-tech research: 1687 Graduates recieved their degree at NIT-Convocation  - The Hindu

• Convocation on CTV - CTV

• NIT Calicut Convocation Ceremony 2022  - Youtube

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