India to play pivotal role in world in next 2 decades: President of CII

While delivering the 17th convocation address at NIT, Tiruchy, TV Narendran, emphasized that process of education is never over; one keeps learning at every stage of their life. He asked students to persevere and persist with their dreams. He urged students to build relationships, nurture them and learn from them. 

He walked down the memory lane and credited the then REC Trichy, which, according to him, shaped his life. He underlined that the diverse demography and experiences of the campus resulted in his evolution as a person and professional. He advised students to be aware of the macro-level changes occurring in the world that will impact their lives. Deliberating on the rise of Asia and Africa as one of those significant changes in the recent past, he contended that India would play a pivotal role in the world in the next two decades. 

He also emphasised the importance of climate change and the rising inequality as decisive factors in the future. Moreover, he highlighted the need to develop knowledge and skill sets as those would be the differentiating factors from now on. While delivering the presidential address, Bhaskar Bhat, Chairperson Board of Governors, NIT, Tiruchy, lauded the passing out batch for their tenacity in continuing their education with minimum physical interaction during the pandemic. 

He reiterated the institute’s progress in continuing the teaching, learning and research activities and by increasing the faculty and staff strength by 50 per cent and congratulated the institute for holding the top rank among the NITs in India. While speaking, the Director Dr Mini Shaji Thomas outlined implementation of strategic plan 2019-24, which has resulted in the overall growth of the institute reflected in recent NIRF rankings. NIT Tiruchy retained op spot among NITs for sixth year in a row and improved its overall ranking to 23. 

She listed out some of the outstanding achievements of the institute last year. Implementing the goals of NEP, increasing student strength to over 7000 with introduction of new post-graduate courses, recruitment of world-class faculty with close to one-third of the newly recruited faculty being women, international and national collaborations, industry partnerships with SMEs in Thanjavur, Madurai, Tiruchy and Puducherry, topping in TEQIP III phase with high audit score of 1.03, were some of them, she said. 

Deputy director Dr Umapathy, Dr Ramakalyan Ayyagari, Dean (Academic),Dr Arivazhagan, Registrar in charge, Deans, faculty, staff and student members attended the proceedings. Earlier, TV Narendran laid foundation stone for annexe building of Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgical and Materials Engineering.