WINNERS TAKE ALL: (From left): B. Gayathri of Sai Ram Engineering College, who won the gold medal for B.Tech (IT), with S.Seetharaman, principal, and Leo Muthu, chairman of the college and Kotha Sushma, gold medal winner for M.B.A and Kapil Sibal, Un ion Minister for Science and Technology, at the convocation on Saturday. — Photo: R.Shivaji Rao

CHENNAI: Students should equip themselves to become agents of change for a `New India' as the goal of knowledge and technology leadership in an era of creativity was now realisable within their lifetime, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development, said here on Saturday.

Economy `growing'

India was poised to become an economic and military superpower and the Indian economy was growing at an unprecedented rate, with a 10 percent target rate for GDP growth. Over 300 leading multinational companies had established research and development centres in India — with many more on the way — and together these companies employed 80,000 scientists and technologists, he said while delivering the convocation address during the seventh graduation day of the Sri Sai Ram Engineering College near here.

There were opportunities galore in fields such as information and communication technologies, bitoechnology, robotics, bioinformatics, precision farming and telemedicine. Students could become leaders in a knowledge-driven new India if they do not compromise on excellence, do not give up easily and converted adversity into opportunity.

Indian science had already set new trends in converting adversity into opportunity by designing the PARAM super-computer that kick-started parallel processing computing technology and by setting up indigenously designed Fast Breeder Reactors to give a fillip to nuclear technology, Mr.Sibal added.

A total of 453 students were awarded degrees, of which 12 had bagged university ranks. While B. Gayathri and Kotha Sushma won gold medals for B.Tech (IT) and M.B.A respectively, A. Deepa and S. Subha secured university second ranks in CSE and ICE respectively.

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