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Young engineers should stay back to serve the nation, says Ratan Tata

Special Correspondent

Exhorts captains of industry to make investment for retaining bright students

ACADEMIC RECOGNITION: Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Industries, receiving the Doctor of Science ( Honoris Causa) degree from S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras, at the convocation in Chennai on Friday. -- PHOTO: R. RAGU

CHENNAI: Young engineers should focus on providing their mental prowess to engineering and scientific institutions and industries of the country instead of going abroad or seeking employment in multi-national companies, Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Industries, has said.

India too must make the effort, and industry must make the investment to retain the bright students within the country, Mr. Tata said, delivering the convocation address at the 43rd convocation of IIT-Madras on Friday. The country needed young engineers to streamline their fertile minds to research and creation of products.

In an inspiring speech addressed to the graduates, whom he called the "inheritors of a new India," Mr. Tata said the mine of opportunities came with a certain special responsibility: students should give back to the country what it deserved. Integrity, social responsibility, fairness and justice should be the guiding factors of the youth. He hoped that in seeking jobs, they would be driven by technical challenge rather than by money.

He also pronounced the new mantra for the India that is surging ahead — Think Big, Act Boldly. "Over all except the last 10 years since independence, we have been looking at small increases and improvements, thinking small," Mr.Tata said. On the other hand, China, because it had been thinking big, had stood out. "Think big, feel pride in our country and do not be complacent," he told students.

Later, Mr. Tata received the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) degree from M.S. Ananth, Director, IIT-Madras.

A total of 1,267 degrees were awarded. These included 101 Ph.D., 118 M.S., 459 M.Tech, 44 M.B.A., 78 M.Sc, 90 dual degrees and 377 B.Tech degrees.

The prestigious President of India Prize went to Sundeep B. of B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) and the Governor's Prize to P. Rohit Bhat of the same discipline. Nirmal Jayaram, who took home a dual degree in Civil Engineering, won the Institute Merit Prize, and Mudit Garg, who also took a dual degree (B.Tech and M.Tech) in Mechanical Engineering bagged the Shankar Dayal Sharma Prize.

A.E. Muthunayagam, chairman, Board of Governors of IIT-Madras, said the IITM Research Park, which will facilitate academia-industry partnership and which will be set up in the vicinity of the campus, would be ready for occupation by 2009.

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