Convocation 2014 held at Pilani campus
22 July 2014
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) held its convocation ceremony for the Class of 2014 for graduating students of the Pilani campus on Sunday, 20th July 2014. Padma Bhushan Sri S. Ramadorai, Chairman, National Skill Development Agency and Vice Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and he was joined by BITS Vice-Chancellor B.N. Jain, Director of Pilani campus, Prof. G Raghurama, Member of Board of Governors, Mr. Kris Ramachandran and BITS Pilani faculty, students and their families.
827 graduating students of first degree, 242 higher degree students, 43 Ph.D. research scholars and 218 dual degree holders were awarded degrees on the occasion. In addition, five illustrious alumni of BITS were conferred Distinguished Alumnus Awards on this occasion. They were: Prof. Anil Pahwa (Professor at Kansas State University) for Academic Teaching and Research, Prof. Gurindar S. Sohi (Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison) for Academic Teaching and Research, Dr. Chandra Shekhar (Director, CEERI, Pilani) for Professional Management of Businesses, Mr. Pradeep Kashyap (Founder and CEO, MART) for Social Entrepreneurship and Mr. Raju Reddy (Chairman, BITSAA International) for Entrepreneurship.
Encouraging the new graduates to become entrepreneurs, the Chief Guest for the occasion, Padma Bhushan Sri S. Ramadorai, said, “For a nation to grow, it needs new initiatives, new beginnings and new ‘entrepreneurs’. This is where each one of you come in and more and more young people are choosing entrepreneurship over a paid job. There have been a lot of budding VC firms which have shot up in the recent past and who are looking at investing in start-ups. Online sites like Kickstarter.com wherein you could put your idea and anyone in the world can fund your idea are completely redefining how funding is done for new companies. Finally the Government of India is also interested in investing in start-ups. It recently announced a 10,000 Cr. Allocation to creation of a ‘Start-up fund’ for new companies to help them in their initial start-up phase”.
Expressing his views on the occasion, Sri Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chancellor, BITS Pilani said,
“We live today in times of unprecedented opportunities. You have the leeway to choose what you wish to do, the kind of job you would like to do, the kind of life you would like to lead. You have to believe in the power of your dreams. Believe in yourselves. Be perseverant and passionate and imagine your future”.
Speaking on pursuing an agenda for research at BITS, Prof. B.N Jain, Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani said, “While today students in the undergraduate programmes account for nearly 88% of the student body, we expect the share of post-graduate and PhD students to grow from the current 12% to 22% by the year 2020. This change reflects our growing emphasis on pursuing an agenda for research that aims to grow the number of PhD students from the current figure of 732 to over 1600 by year 2020”.
The Director of Pilani campus, Prof. G. Raghurama in his address to the audience, appreciated the efforts of both faculty and students of the Institute. He shared the details to bring to the fore the fact that faculty and students have worked hard to bring laurels to the Institute during the year through their academic achievements. He also noted that Pilani Campus has been undergoing major modernization and physical infrastructural changes with the recent construction of New Academic Building and in the near future, the construction of a new student hostel, a new Workshop building and a new Faculty Housing Complex will be complete.