BHUBANESWAR: Entrepreneurship is the solution to eliminate poverty in India, said Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy on Wednesday. "The only way to solve poverty in the country is to create more jobs with better income. This requires entrepreneurship and we need to have more engineers, scientists, bureaucrats and politicians that have a mindset to promote entrepreneurship," Murthy said in his virtual address as the chief guest during the 10th convocation ceremony of IIT Bhubaneswar (IIT-BBS) organised in hybrid mode due to COVID-19 pandemic.
He advised the students to look for opportunities beyond government establishments. "We must seek the opportunities that are outside government control. That is where big opportunities lie and corruption is minimum. That is where merit will be recognised and quality jobs can be created to solve the problem of poverty in our country," he said.
Stating that India has too much under-employment in the agriculture sector, he stressed on the need for creation of more employment opportunities in the manufacturing and service sectors. He underlined that English is the only window to the modern world for the Indians to access knowledge and achieve progress in science and technology, economy and other fields.
The Infosys founder encouraged students to find solutions to the problems that they see around them instead of trying to run away from it. "The best way to escape a problem is to solve it," he said. Chairman of Board of Governors at IIT-BBS Rajendra Prashad Singh also urged students to use technology as a tool to eliminate poverty and ensure basic needs for all.
IIT-BBS Director Prof RV Raja Kumar said that over the years the students strength of the institute has increased to 2,419 of which 10 per cent are being reserved for candidates belonging to economically weaker sections.
He informed that the institute had received around Rs 850 crore for its phase II expansion in 2016-17. "Sixty-five per cent work has already been completed and the remaining is in progress," the Director said and added that efforts are on to make IIT-BBS a green campus.
During the convocation, the institute conferred degrees on 559 students including 35 PhDs, 153 MTech degrees, 256 BTech degrees and 36 dual degrees. The President of India Gold Medal was awarded to Dinesh Mohanty, a student of Computer Science, for the best academic performance among the outgoing BTech students.