Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

`India needs great entrepreneurs'

By Our Special Correspondent

Karumuttu T. Kannan, correspondent, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, honouring S. Raj Mohan, Placement Officer, in the city on Friday. Also seen are Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company, and Radha Thiagarajan, former Vice-Chancellor, Ala gappa University. — Photo: K. Ganesan.

MADURAI, MARCH 18. The country required great entrepreneurs to become great, instead of service-oriented working graduates, said the Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Motor Company, Venu Srinivasan, here today.

Addressing the students of Thiagarajar College of Engineering on the occasion of the 47th College Day celebrations, Mr. Srinivasan pointed out that the new generation had entered into an era of opportunities unlike the earlier one which had to contend itself with a stifling licence raj and poor quality in any manufactured product. Prior to the 90s, there was low self-esteem in the country, low income levels, poverty and low levels of opportunities. The only opening available for the educated was to migrate to other countries. While NRIs were looked upon as demigods, others were treated as children of a lesser god.

Mr. Srinivasan said the younger generation had entered a new world order in which Asia was bound to dominate the world. Currently, the Asia-Pacific region manufactured as many cars as Europe, and few years from now, it would be the incubator of technologies and capabilities. Today, he claimed, India was respected the world over because of its strengths in information technology and biotechnology. There were opportunities to tap the energy of Indian people, to allow it to freely grow and expand. However, he felt that there could be no opportunity without engineering, which was a "science in the service of man." Engineering, over the ages, had always transformed itself by providing solutions to problems of the society, he said.

Indian companies today, Mr. Srinivasan said, had become hallmarks of quality and with the entry of multinational companies, it was becoming a global hub for infrastructure. Two foreign car companies were going to make India "the hub of small car manufacturing for the world."

Make the most of opportunities

He called upon the students to make the most of opportunities available to them. "Opportunities can be limited only by your imagination," he said. The best way to make use of opportunities would be to become entrepreneurs. Institutions like the TCE, he said, could no longer remain a factory, producing graduates, but should go into industrial alliance and research. Capital deficiency in the field of research could be overcome by being original, innovative and desisting from replicating what was done elsewhere.

He described the founder of the college, Karumuttu Thiagarajar Chettiar, as "an institution" and an inspiration for many generations. The Principal, V. Abhaikumar, said the college had the highest number of IBM-certified engineers and had achieved an all-time high of 427 placements during the year. Radha Thiagarajan, chairman, governing council, and former Vice-Chancellor, Alagappa University, recounted the achievements of Mr. Srinivasan in his chosen field.

Karumuttu T. Kannan, correspondent, honoured the retired staff and the Placement Officer, S. Raj Mohan, on the occasion.

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