ROURKELA: The 19th convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Technology- Rourkela (NIT-R) on Saturday was marked by digital distribution of degrees to over 1,500 students using blockchain technology. NIT-R was the first among NITs and second after IIT-Kanpur in the country to adopt the technology for awarding degrees.
Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan awarded the digital degrees to 1,555 students at the ceremony held on hybrid mode here.“I want to see the NIT-R become a hub of technology. The institute must plan proactively on how the entire district can be linked to blockchain, households mapped, people get benefits provided by government and help in increasing skill and employment possibility among the youth,” Pradhan stated in his address.
He also lauded the institute’s adoption of the convocation dress in Sambalpuri cloth material doing away with the practice of wearing caps and gowns. Elaborating on the National Education Policy (NEP) Pradhan said, “It’s just not a document. It’s a philosophy to decolonize our mind-set. Let’s take a pledge for the next 25 years to make this institute a multi-disciplinary and multi-visionary institute.”
As NEP recommends learning in local languages, research and basic studies should be done in local languages also and NIT Rourkela must come up with new ideas and innovation to improve the translator technology, exhorted Pradhan.
The institute awarded the digital degrees in assistance with the IIT-Kanpur’s C3i Innovation Hub, under the aegis of National Blockchain Project mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The digital degrees are stored in a digital wallet in a secure and tamper-proof environment for sharing by students with their prospective employers for instant verification and do away with the older laborious manual verification by third parties practice consuming weeks together.
The institute’s Board of Governors (BOG) Chairman and Director Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao elaborated on the institute’s emergence as a premier technical institute and its growing leadership position in sponsored research and industrial consultancy programmes.
Sundargarh MP and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Chairman Jual Oram expressed hope that more foreign students join the NIT-R using various schemes of the Central government. Sundargarh District Planning Committee Chairman Sarada Prasad Nayak was also present.
The shining stars
1,555 degrees awarded
859 Undergraduates
608 Post-graduates
88 PhDs
Awards presented
Six Institute Gold Medals
Pratyusha Padhi - Best Graduate in BTech and BArch
Nurul Hasan - Best Postgraduate in MTech
Anurag Mishra - Best Postgraduate in Dual Degree in BTech and MTech
Raj Sekhar - Best Postgraduate with Integrated MSc Degree
Liza Samal -Best Postgraduate in MSc and MA
Anupama Sahoo - Best Postgraduate in MBA
11 distinguished alumni awards