HANAMKONDA : Character is the “hardware” of an individual, while technical skills, degrees and resumes are the “software”, Texas Instruments India managing director Santosh Kumar told NIT Warangal graduates on Saturday, urging them to build their careers on integrity and purpose.
Addressing the 24th convocation ceremony of NIT Warangal as chief guest, Santosh said graduates were entering a rapidly changing professional world and needed to measure themselves not only through visible markers such as job titles and compensation but also through “invisible metrics” such as honesty, reliability and how they treated others.
Using the semiconductor industry as an analogy, he said character formed the foundation on which professional skills could be built. He urged graduates to take responsibility for failures, keep learning and develop resilience to deal with professional and personal challenges.
Santosh also stressed the larger purpose of engineering, asking graduates to apply their knowledge to societal problems, particularly those affecting people at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. The TI India MD urged the Class of 2026 to build “structures that stand, systems that serve, and careers that make this university proud”.
On the first day of the two-day convocation, degrees were conferred on 930 undergraduate students and 22 exit-degree recipients. Postgraduate and PhD degrees will be awarded on Sunday.
NIT Warangal director Prof Bidyadhar Subudhi urged graduates to “think boldly, learn continuously, innovate fearlessly, lead ethically, and serve humanity”. He said although graduates would build careers across India and the world, they would remain part of the NIT Warangal family. “Today, NIT Warangal gives you a degree. Tomorrow, the world will ask you what you will do with it,” he added.
The institute also conferred honorary degrees on Dr PK Menon and Anand Ramamoorthy, managing director of Micron India, for their contributions to technology and engineering.