BHUBANESWAR: THE National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 will be a cornerstone in achieving the vision of a new India and the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, said Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Friday.
Addressing the IIT-Bhubaneswar’s 9th convocation ceremony virtually, the Union minister said the NEP has been introduced as one of the world’s biggest educational reforms. It has been brought at a time when our country is facing all the adversities and turning them into opportunities, he said, adding that the new reforms have made degree programmes flexible to allow candidates to pursue certificate, diploma and degree courses as per their convenience.
“We have created a digital bank under the policy in which the credit points of students as per their academic performance will be stored and help them to continue their higher studies after a certain gap,” he said.
The provision of National Technology Forum and other such reforms within the policy will encourage research work in technical institutes. With India having more than 1,000 universities, 45,000 colleges and 15 lakh schools, the NEP will certainly go a long way in improving the future of the students which would pave the way for holistic and multidisciplinary education, he said.
On the occasion, the Minister inaugurated a student activity centre, play courts and the new buildings of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management (SHSSM) in the campus. For the first time, the institute organised its convocation in a hybrid mode where students were allowed to receive their degree personally or online, as per their convenience, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As many as 446 degrees were conferred which include 35 PhD, 141 MTech, 70 MSc and 200 BTech. The President of India Gold Medal was awarded to Aditya Pal of the Computer Science and Engineering discipline for best academic performance in BTech.
Similarly, the Director’s Gold Medal was awarded to Sanket Dey Chowdhury of the School of Infrastructure and Souvick Chakraborty of Physics for their best academic performance in MTech and MSC respectively.
Union Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, who also joined the event online, congratulated the students, faculty and researchers for the innovations developed and studies undertaken by institute during the ongoing pandemic.
Director RV Raja Kumar informed that the institute on behalf of its students and faculties has applied for 43 patents. IIT-Bhubaneswar governing body chairman Rajendra Prasad Singh expressed confidence that the students will be the torch bearers for nation building.
IIT-BBS ACHIEVERS
President of India Gold Medal - Aditya Pal
Director’s Gold Medal - Sanket Dey Chowdhury and Souvick Chakraborty
A total of 446 degrees conferred during the convocation