LUCKNOW: Claiming that getting admitted to as prestigious an institution as IIT-Kanpur might have given them the confidence to explore the world, beating the fear of the unknown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the students to opt for challenges whenever they were faced with making a choice between the challenges and the comfort.
“IIT-Kanpur has given you a massive canvas to explore your dreams and the world out there. Now there is no ‘Fear of Unknown’. There is no longer the ‘Query of Unknown’, but ‘Quest for the Best’ and a dream to conquer the whole world,” PM Modi said.
“Challenges are always there in life. Whenever you are made to choose between the challenges and the comfort, opt for challenges as you are the hunter and the challenges are the hunted,” said the PM.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the observations while addressing the 54th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on Tuesday.
Suggesting the students to make their life a judicious blend of technology and emotions, the PM cautioned the budding technologist against being driven by technology alone.
Calling the students the finest tech minds of IIT who “eat, drink and breathe technology”, he said technology had its own positives. “But never become the robot version of yourself. Keep the emotions and human sensitivities always alive in life,” advised the PM.
He added that artificial intelligence was very good and that it should be there but not at the cost of human intelligence. “When it comes to show the emotion, the message : http/404/ … should not be there telling that the page doesnot exist,” added the PM on a lighter note.
The Prime Minister also told the students that the training that they had received, skills and knowledge they had acquired would help them in making a mark of their own in the world.
Modi asked the students to become impatient for a self-reliant India, follow their passion for technology. He claimed that they had the responsibility to give a direction and pace to the nation till the next 25 years.
“When you are stepping out with IIT’s legacy at the time of the Amrit Mahotsav, you should move out with the dream of how India would be in 2047. You have to hold the responsibility of India’s journey of development in the next 25 years.
You’ll have to work for an India when you will have completed 50 years of your life and for that, you need to work from now.”
The Prime Minister traced the history saying: “Today, the thinking and attitude of the country is the same as yours. Earlier, if the thinking was that of perfunctory work, then today thinking is result-oriented. Earlier, if there was an attempt to get away from the problems, then today resolutions are taken to solve the problems.”
The PM remarked that in this 75th year of independence, India has more than 75 unicorns and more than 50,000 start-ups. Of these, 10,000 have come only in the last six months, the PM highlighted. “Today, India has emerged as the second-largest start-up hub in the world and the third largest country in Unicorns,” PM said.