VISAKHAPATNAM: Enthusiastic participation and passionate involvement in tackling problems of India in the modern contexts will define the country in the 21st century, Scientific Secretary at the Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, SV Raghavan has opined. He was addressing the 82nd Convocation of Andhra University here Monday.
Raghavan was awarded the honorary doctorate of science by the AU officials on the occasion. In his convocation address, he felt that India was on the threshold of major changes, providing with only opportunities and challenges and not problems or difficulties. The 21st century would be a defining century for the country as well as for its students, he added.
He appealed to the students to come up with innovative scientific ideas, whose implementations can bring a change in the society. Though students come up with millions of ideas, only a few can be implemented. These innovative ideas could also be related to initial standards to the recent Mars mission, he said. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) could be a game changer for the country in the coming days, for around 1,300 educational institutions in the country were part of the NKN today.
The network resulted in a seamless connectivity between institutions and individuals through which students could acquire knowledge, irrespective of their location and geographical conditions, he opined.
Earlier, AU vice-chancellor GSN Raju congratulated the students and ministers for extending financial support to the varsity. He spoke about some of the major activities, and events and MoUs signed by the AU with foreign universities. The chief guest and other officials took the oath from the graduates and congratulated them.
A total of 225 PhDs and 20 MPhil degrees were awarded during the convocation. In the category of degree and PG courses, 155 students were presented with gold medals and 426 were given various prizes by the vice-chancellor. This apart, 16 gold medals and 13 prizes were awarded to merit students in PhD. Prominent graduate holders among them were former Minister Vatti Vasanth Kumar, former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi and GVMC chief engineer B Jayarami Reddy.
Former minsters N Raghuveera Reddy, Kanna Lakshminarayana, Undavalli Arun Kumar and KVP Ramachandra Rao attended the convocation, as some of their party members were awarded doctorates. AU rector EA Narayana, registrar K Rama Mohana Rao and other senate members were present.